LudumData

The Next Generation (Conway's Game of Life Puzzles) by kevinworkman

[raw]
made by kevinworkman for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

Inspired by the recent passing of John Conway, I made a Game of Life puzzle game.

Each level gives you a goal pattern. Click the cells to create a start pattern, and then click the play button to apply the Game of Life rules. You win when the generated pattern matches the goal.

tng.PNG

Play here!

If you get stuck and don't mind spoilers, then here are the solutions to all of the levels!

Here is the retrospective that talks about the process of creating this game, brainstorming, barking up the wrong tree for 24 hours, almost dropping out, everything I googled, and a timelapse of what the game looked like from start to finish.

Youtube https://editor.p5js.org/KevinWorkman/sketches/tGBooEKUu
Youtube https://happycoding.io/gallery/the-next-generation-ld-46/index
Youtube https://happycoding.io/gallery/the-next-generation-ld-46/index
Youtube https://happycoding.io/gallery/the-next-generation-ld-46/index
Youtube https://happycoding.io/gallery/the-next-generation-ld-46/index
Youtube https://happycoding.io/gallery/the-next-generation-ld-46/index
Youtube https://happycoding.io/gallery/the-next-generation-ld-46/index
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/the-next-generation-conways-game-of-life-puzzles

Ratings

Overall 508th 3.448⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 503th 3.31⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 221th 3.69⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 604th 3.586⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 943th 2.638⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 797th 2.079⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 844th 2.761⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

FussenKuh
20. Apr 2020 · 03:54 UTC
Game of Life. Keep it Alive. Could there be a better idea for the theme?!? I really love this kind of puzzle game. I could see myself playing something like this on my phone to pass the time. Great work!
ZwodahS
20. Apr 2020 · 04:03 UTC
Got to say... without the hint, I will never win lol .... Nice twist of the game of life
Evolving
20. Apr 2020 · 04:04 UTC
Realy good puzzle game concept! I hope you'll continue creating something like this
Owl_Skip
20. Apr 2020 · 06:33 UTC
Nice work, enjoyed playing it. Game of Life is an excellent choice.
jonah
20. Apr 2020 · 06:53 UTC
very challenging puzzles! Thanks to your game I learned some new things about game of life, thanks!

It would have been cool to be able to use my keyboard/ OR buttons on the screen, to move all the cells in one direction.
and I really would like to know the solution to level 10 haha!

👍
MartianSteve
24. Apr 2020 · 09:43 UTC
Nice, I was considering doing something inspired by the game of life myself. The hints were definitely needed in my case, I found it very hard to visualise past one generation, but it was fun.
Guille
24. Apr 2020 · 13:09 UTC
Nice difficult puzzle! One of the better puzzle game. The game would be a fun mobile game if it were easier(I think the game should start out easier). Good job! Keep it up!
n8___
24. Apr 2020 · 13:12 UTC
This was a good head scratcher. Forced you to work backwards. I don't know that the theme was the strongest but the game was something I could play a lot on a phone/browser and kill my work productivity.
Kiddy
24. Apr 2020 · 14:18 UTC
This is a great puzzle game to keep this mathematician alive ;)
Sheepolution
25. Apr 2020 · 09:58 UTC
I thought I would be quite good at this but I must admit that I couldn't get past level 4. Nice idea!
🎤 kevinworkman
25. Apr 2020 · 20:26 UTC
@jonah Thank you for playing! If you made it to level 10, that's really impressive. If you're curious, here are the solutions to all of the levels: https://imgur.com/a/lTWsTRU
🎤 kevinworkman
25. Apr 2020 · 20:27 UTC
@sheepolution Thank you for playing! If you're curious, here are the solutions to all of the levels: https://imgur.com/a/lTWsTRU
Szieberth Adam
25. Apr 2020 · 22:30 UTC
Also a Game of Life entry maker. Very nice puzzler you made of it, and it is surprisingly hard!
SelfTitled
26. Apr 2020 · 08:38 UTC
I'm shock how hard I found it to work the game of life rules in reverse in my head. Nice idea, and great tribute to the man. You might want to explicitly define when cells die though, if players arn't familiar with game of life they may miss that.
kleinzach
26. Apr 2020 · 18:08 UTC
Cool concept. It takes so much thought to figure out the puzzles, so its a good thing that you keep the grid size small!
Baturinsky
26. Apr 2020 · 18:34 UTC
I have counted five Game of Life inspired games on LD46, including mine. And each one is different and interesting in it's own way.

You puzzle is interesting, though a bit too hard for me - I got stuck on 4th. I figured the next-to last step, but not the first one.

You have a small field, instead of effectively infinite one, so most real GOL patters do not work there. Which is not necessarily bad, I guess, but was a minor annoyance for me.

I also liked that you use unusual "hosting" for you game. I also initially considered to just put my game on codepen:)
Baturinsky
26. Apr 2020 · 18:36 UTC
@kevinworkman Thanks, I was sure that 4th need to have symmetrical solution, and I think tried them all in vain.
🎤 kevinworkman
26. Apr 2020 · 21:02 UTC
If anybody is looking for other Game of Life games, check out [this entry](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/cellular-automata) by @baturinsky. So good!
despdair
26. Apr 2020 · 23:46 UTC
You should give hints after 2-3 tries, giving them at first error can lead behaviors like "I will get a hint so just press random cells to solve it with hint" Cool try though and brain cracking
Demandooda
12. May 2020 · 05:35 UTC
Very fun, very challenging, great tribute to John Conway. I'm not smart enough to go past level five, but I'm sure it's possible. I think that normal people may have trouble predicting after 1 generation, though. Really smooth, really well executed. Nice job!