A frantic, cerebral arcade game where Conway's Game of Life is the physics engine, your ink is your brush, and every cell you draw is both a weapon and a liability. Paint living structures across the lower half of the screen, watch them evolve under Life's rules, and engineer collisions that annihilate the gliders descending toward your cities.
Genre: Action / Puzzle / Strategy Engine: Pure HTML5 Canvas + ES Modules — no frameworks, no dependencies. Sim Backends: CPU (bitpacked) or GPU (WebGL2) — auto-selected by grid size. Rulesets: 30+ cellular automaton rules including Conway, HighLife, exotic neighborhoods (hex, triangular, Euclidean radius), TCA (teleological CA), time-integrated rules, and fractional lightcones.
The grid is alive — and so is the threat. In The Arcade of Life, enemy patterns aren't dumb projectiles; they're gliders, spaceships, and glider guns straight out of Conway's cellular automaton, evolving and descending inexorably toward the cities you've sworn to protect.
Your only tool is ink. Drag your cursor across the bottom half of the grid to paint living cells. When you release the mouse, your ink dries into active structures that obey the same Life rules as the incoming threats. A lone cell dies of loneliness. A square of four cells will sit forever like a stone wall. A glider you stamp upward will fly into the enemy's spawn line and detonate their formations.
Every cell is both creation and consequence. Every stroke is a tradeoff between coverage and chaos. Master the rules — or watch your cities burn.
The grid is divided into zones:
- The top dead zone (rows 0–4) — Nothing spawns here. Used to detect "return fire" when your defenses send cells back upward.
- The base zone (amber tint) — Where static enemy bases and horizontal cruisers spawn. Bases must be destroyed to clear the wave.
- The missile spawn line — Where new gliders are launched downward.
- The neutral combat zone — Where enemy patterns descend and combat happens. You cannot draw here.
- The draw zone (green tint, bottom half by default) — Where you paint defenses. The dotted boundary line shows where you're allowed to draw.
- The rear dead zone (red tint, very bottom) — If a hostile cell slips into this strip, it counts as a BREACH! — score penalty + explosion.
- Cities (yellow blocks) — Your win condition. Lose them all and the game ends.
When a hostile cell (red/orange) and a defense cell (green/cyan) end up adjacent in the same tick, they annihilate each other in a small explosion. Your job is to engineer those collisions before missiles reach your cities.
But the simulation doesn't care who you are. A poorly-placed defense will die of loneliness on the next tick. A dense cluster will overpopulate and collapse. A glider you accidentally created will sail into your own cities in Hardcore Mode. You aren't just a defender — you're a cellular engineer, and the puzzle is figuring out which shapes survive and which ones kill.
- Click Start Game from the main menu, or explore the side options:
- 🦓 Pattern Zoo — Browse the full pattern library with live previews
- 🛠 Level Designer — Craft custom scenarios with designer-placed bases
- How to Play — This guide
- Console Hacking Guide — DevTools cheats and API reference
- Click and drag in the bottom half of the screen to paint defensive ink. The dotted boundary line shows where you're allowed to draw.
- Release the mouse to commit your ink. It will briefly dry (deepening green) before becoming an active defense cell.
- Watch the simulation evolve. Your defenses will reproduce, decay, or stabilize based on the active ruleset (Conway by default).
- Engineer collisions. When red enemy cells touch your green cells, both die in an explosion.
- Protect your cities. If even one missile cell touches a city, you lose part of that city. Lose all your cities and the game ends.
- Survive waves. Each wave brings more hostile patterns, faster spawns, and (eventually) deadlier formations like glider guns.
The screen is divided into four major regions:
A single dark strip across the top displays your vital stats:
| Element | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SCORE | Total points earned this run. |
| WAVE | Current wave number. |
| CITIES | How many of your cities are still alive. |
| INK + bar | Cyan progress bar showing remaining ink (your ammo). |
| SPD | Current speed multiplier (or "PAUSED"). |
| HI | Persistent high score across runs. |
The main grid where the game happens. Visual zones are clearly marked:
- Top dead zone (subtle gray tint) — Nothing spawns here. Return-fire detection zone.
- Base zone (amber tint) — Static enemy bases and horizontal cruisers spawn here.
- Missile spawn line — Where new gliders are launched downward.
- Neutral combat zone — Enemy patterns descend; defenses cannot be drawn here. Most explosions happen here.
- Draw zone (green tint, bottom) — Where you paint defenses. A pulsing dashed cyan line marks the top boundary.
- Cities (yellow blocks) — Your win condition.
- Rear dead zone (red tint, very bottom) — If a hostile cell slips into this strip, it counts as a BREACH!
Visual feedback is everywhere:
- Wet ink (translucent green) → freshly drawn, still drying.
- Drying ink (darkening green) → committing in real time.
- Active defenses (bright green/cyan) → alive and evolving.
- Explosions (orange flash) → annihilation events.
- Enemy cells (red/orange with glow) → hostile patterns, descending.
- Particles, shockwaves, screen shake → fire feedback for impacts, ricochets, and base destruction.
- Floating text ("RETURN FIRE!", "RICOCHET!", "CITY HIT!") → narrates significant events as they happen.
Just below the canvas, a control strip with:
- Speed slider (0× paused → 256× ultra) with named presets.
- Step button (⏭) — Advance simulation by one tick when paused.
- Settings (⚙) — opens the in-play settings menu (pauses the game).
- Help — opens the How to Play guide.
- 🦓 Zoo — opens the Pattern Zoo browser.
- 🛠 Designer — opens the Level Designer.
- Guide — opens the Console Hacking Guide.
- ⛶ — Toggles fullscreen.
- ✕ Exit — Returns to main menu.
Below the speed bar, your painting toolkit:
- Mode buttons — Freehand, Line, Pattern, Fill.
- Line tools — Width slider (1–8 cells) and dash pattern selector (solid / dashed / dotted / sparse).
- Pattern preset — Dropdown to load classic patterns.
- ✏ Edit Pattern — Opens the pattern editor overlay with a 16×16 grid where you can hand-draw a custom pattern, save it with metadata, and import/export as JSON.
- Fill tools — Pattern selector for region fills (solid, checker, stripes, diagonal, dots, grid, cross, random).
- Clear Defenses button — wipes your defenses for a 50% ink refund.
- ◧ Capture Pattern — Drag-select a region of the grid to save as a reusable custom pattern.
- Ability buttons — active abilities (EMP Burst, Ink Surge, Time Stop, etc.) appear here when enabled, with cooldown indicators.
The grid is a 2D array of cells (default 120×80, resizable up to 800×600 or "Auto Fit Window"). Horizontally, the world wraps around like a cylinder — cells at the right edge are neighbors of cells at the left edge. Vertically, the top and bottom are hard boundaries.
Each row of the grid has a specific role:
| Zone | Default Rows | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Top Dead Zone | 0–4 | Nothing spawns here. Used to detect "return fire". |
| Base Zone | 5–16 | Enemy bases & horizontal cruisers spawn here. |
| Missile Spawn Row | 17 | Where new gliders are launched downward. |
| Neutral Combat | 18 to draw-zone | Combat happens here. No one can place new cells. |
| Draw Zone | bottom half | Where you paint defenses. |
| Rear Dead Zone | bottom 2 rows | No-man's land. Missiles here = BREACH. |
| Cities | within draw zone | Yellow blocks you must protect. |
All of these are tunable in Settings if you want a different feel.
- You start with 200 ink (default), capped at 300.
- Every cell you paint costs 1 ink.
- Ink regenerates at 0.5 per simulation tick (~5 per second at default speed).
- You also get a regen boost at the start of each new wave.
- Clearing your defenses gives a partial refund (50% default), and undoing a stroke refunds the full ink cost.
- Unlimited ink toggle — In Settings, you can mark ink and regen as "∞" for unlimited supply.
Running out of ink mid-stroke isn't lethal — you just can't draw more until it regenerates. But timing matters: a wave of hostile patterns can overwhelm you while your reservoir refills.
When you click-drag in the draw zone:
- Each cell you touch becomes pending (translucent green).
- Pending cells do not participate in the Game of Life — they're inert ink waiting to set.
- When you release the mouse, all pending cells start a drying timer (default 5 ticks, ~0.5 seconds).
- Cells visibly darken as they dry. Once dry, they become live defense cells and immediately join the next simulation tick.
Drying matters strategically. You can plan a complex pattern at full leisure (even while paused), then release and watch it commit all at once into a single coordinated structure. Pending cells take up no Conway-neighbor space, so a half-drawn glider won't get killed by Life rules before it's complete.
The Game of Life has just three rules:
- Survival. A living cell with 2 or 3 living neighbors survives to the next tick.
- Birth. A dead cell with exactly 3 living neighbors comes alive.
- Death. Anything else dies — of loneliness (<2) or overcrowding (>3).
These rules apply to both your defenses and the enemy patterns. Internalize them or perish:
- A single isolated cell dies on the next tick. Always draw in clusters.
- A 2×2 square (a "block") is a stable still-life. Perfect tiny walls.
- A 3-cell row (a "blinker") oscillates between horizontal and vertical. Annoying but defensive.
- A diagonal line of 3 cells becomes a "blinker" that immediately stops.
- A glider pattern travels across the grid. You can shoot back!
The game supports 30+ cellular automaton rulesets beyond Conway, selectable in Settings → CA Ruleset:
Standard square-grid rules:
- Conway (B3/S23) — The classic
- HighLife (B36/S23) — Contains a replicator
- Day & Night (B3678/S34678) — Symmetric on/off behavior
- Seeds (B2/S) — No survival, explosive chaos
- Life Without Death (B3/S012345678) — Cells never die
- Maze, Mazectric — Forms maze-like corridors
- Replicator — Every pattern replicates itself
- DryLife, Pedestrian Life, Move/Morley, Coral, Anneal, Diamoeba, Stains, Flock, Gnarl, Long Life
Hexagonal grid rules (6 edge neighbors):
- HexLife (B2/S34), Hex B24/S35, Hex Replicator, Hex Snowflakes, Hex Maze
Triangular grid rules (12 vertex+edge neighbors):
- TriLife (B45/S456), Tri B4/S345, Tri Maze, Tri Coral, Tri Edge
Exotic Euclidean-radius rules (fractional neighborhood radii):
- Conway (r=2.0, 12-cell) — Smoother, more circular fronts
- Isotropic Life (r=3) — PDE-like wave propagation
- Bugs (r=√5) — Wandering bug-like creatures
- Globe (r=2.6) — Pulsing cellular blobs
Anisotropic rules (transformed neighborhoods):
- Wind (horizontal stretch), Gravity (vertical stretch), Current (sheared), Diagonal Drift (rotated)
Teleological CA (TCA) — Multi-proposal rules with lookahead scoring:
- TCA: Survivor — Picks variant that maximizes survival
- TCA: Aesthetic — Drifts toward symmetric configurations
- TCA: Glider Seeker — Rewards small moving clusters
- TCA: Minimal Entropy — Collapses toward ordered structures
Time-Integrated rules — Cells remember past states:
- Momentum, Persistence, Drag
Fractional Lightcone rules — Continuous spatial+temporal decay:
- Relativistic, Diffusive, Compact
Custom neighborhoods — Build your own with the in-Settings neighborhood builder (Euclidean, ellipse, rotated, shear).
⚠ Non-Conway rulesets change how all cells evolve. Some patterns may behave unexpectedly. Hex/Tri topologies use entirely different grid geometries — the game rebuilds the world when you switch.
Whenever a hostile cell is adjacent (8-neighborhood) to a defense cell at the start of a tick:
- Both cells are destroyed and become explosions (which last a few ticks before fading).
- A particle burst and small shockwave fire visually.
- The player scores +10 for the kill.
- If the hostile cell was also adjacent to a city, the city cell is destroyed too.
City cells follow special rules:
- They are immune to Life rules (no death by loneliness/overcrowding).
- They are destroyed only by missile contact (or, in Hardcore mode, by defense contact).
- When a city loses all its cells, it's marked dead. Lose all cities → game over.
To prevent permanent "fortress" walls and endless missile clouds, every cell can age:
- Defense cells can die after a configurable number of ticks (default unlimited).
- Enemy cells can die after a configurable number of ticks (default unlimited).
- Region-specific aging — Set different max ages for friendly vs. enemy regions, separately for defense and missile cells. Configurable in Settings → Aging Matrix tab.
- Cascade despawn: when an enemy cell expires, any neighboring enemy
cell within
MISSILE_CASCADE_TICKSof its own expiry also despawns. This creates dramatic chain reactions when you bait enemy formations into tangling with each other.
Cells visibly never change color due to age — the timer is silent — but you can feel the rhythm: if aging is enabled, defenses you draw won't last forever, so you must keep painting and reinforcing.
If a hostile cell somehow ends up in the top dead zone (rows 0–4) via Life evolution — for example, because your defenses bounced a glider's trajectory upward — that's called return fire or a ricochet:
- Return Fire (a single cell drifts up): +20 score, blue "RETURN FIRE!" floater.
- Ricochet (a dense cluster reflects): +50 score, orange "RICOCHET!" floater, screen shake, and the entire cluster detonates in a chain.
- Defense cells that reach the top dead zone are also counted as ricochets — you successfully launched a counter-attack!
This is the deepest layer of skill expression. By shaping your defenses deliberately, you can launch your own gliders upward to plow through enemy formations from below, score huge bonuses, and even destroy stationary enemy bases.
The enemy pattern roster, in roughly increasing difficulty:
| Pattern | Behavior |
|---|---|
| R-Glider (SE) | Classic Conway glider, descends southeast. |
| L-Glider (SW) | Mirrored, descends southwest. |
| Target Emplacement | Stationary 4×4 block that periodically emits gliders. Must be destroyed by counter-attack! |
| Lightweight Spaceship (LWSS) | Fast, large, durable. |
| Middleweight Spaceship (MWSS) | Bigger, more menacing. |
| Twin Glider | Two gliders in formation — collide together for chaos. |
| Gosper Glider Gun | Plants itself near the top and produces a glider every 30 ticks. Devastating if left alive. |
| Fortress (base zone) | Static, re-imprints itself, emits gliders. |
| Bunker (base zone) | Smaller fortress variant. |
| Cruiser (E/W) | Horizontal spaceships sweeping the base zone. |
Bases (fortresses, bunkers, cruisers) must be destroyed before a wave is complete. They show as red/amber emplacements in the base zone, and only counter-attacks (your gliders reaching them) can take them out.
Toggle in Settings. When enabled:
- Your own defense cells damage cities on contact.
- A poorly-placed wall, a glider that wandered into your own town, or an exploding ricochet can wreck your civilians.
- Friendly fire shows distinct green-yellow particle FX and the "FRIENDLY FIRE!" label.
Recommended for veterans only. Not the default.
A configurable lever for advanced play: how often defenders tick vs. attackers.
- Default is
1:1— both tick together. DEFENDER_TICKS = 2, ATTACKER_TICKS = 1→ your defenses evolve twice as fast as the enemy patterns. Easier game.DEFENDER_TICKS = 1, ATTACKER_TICKS = 2→ enemy patterns evolve twice as fast. Brutal.
Settable in the Settings panel → Advanced tab.
The Settings panel includes 15+ preset game modes that patch multiple config values at once:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Custom | Your current settings (no preset applied). |
| 🌱 Tutorial | Very slow, generous ink, few enemies. Conway rules. |
| 🎮 Classic | Balanced default. Conway, SE + SW gliders, moderate pace. |
| ⚡ Blitz | Fast spawns, short-lived cells, DryLife rules. Reflexes required. |
| 🛸 Armada | Spaceships and twin formations. HighLife rules, replicators. |
| 🏰 Siege | Heavy bases dominate. Maze rules create defensive corridors. |
| 💀 Hardcore | Friendly fire ON. Be precise. |
| 🕊 Pacifist | Slow and contemplative. Long Life rules. |
| 🌀 Chaos | Everything enabled. Glider guns, spaceships, bases. Pure mayhem. |
| 🧩 Maze Runner | Mazectric rules. Strategic positioning. |
| ☄️ Apocalypse | Seeds rule. Every cell dies each tick. Very short lifespans. |
| 🛡️ Fortress | Life Without Death. Your defenses are permanent. |
| 🔁 Replicators | HighLife with glider guns. Asymmetric warfare. |
| 🐢 Turtle | Defender-favored timestep (3:1). Strategic mastermind mode. |
| ⚡⚡ Lightning | Attacker-favored timestep (1:3). Brutal speed test. |
Four drawing modes, switchable on the toolbar or via hotkeys:
Click and drag to paint a continuous line. Width and dash pattern apply.
- Brush width (1–8 cells): scales the brush as a square stamp.
- Dash pattern (solid / dashed / dotted / sparse): emits brushes at intervals along your stroke. Dash spacing scales with brush width so dotted lines stay visible even with thick brushes.
Great for organic walls, blanket coverage, and quick reactions.
Click to set a start point, drag to preview a straight line, release to commit. Honors width and dash settings.
- Preview is rendered live as you drag (cyan if valid, red if out-of-zone, amber if blocked).
- Perfect for surgical horizontal walls, vertical pylons, and diagonal sweeps.
Click anywhere in the draw zone to stamp a pre-designed pattern.
- The Pattern Editor overlay (✏ Edit Pattern button) provides a 16×16 mini-canvas where you can hand-draw a custom pattern, with full metadata support (name, category, period, direction, tags, description).
- Patterns can be saved as custom patterns or exported as JSON.
- Preset dropdown offers Game-of-Life classics:
- Still lifes: Block, Beacon.
- Oscillators: Blinker, Toad, Pulsar, Penta-Decathlon.
- Spaceships: Glider, LWSS, MWSS, HWSS, Copperhead.
- Methuselahs: R-Pentomino, Acorn, Diehard.
- Glider guns: ★ Gosper Glider Gun (the legendary infinite weapon).
Press R to rotate the pattern 90°, X to mirror it horizontally, Y to mirror vertically. Stamping aims pieces at the cursor (centered on bounding box).
Pattern mode is the highest-skill option: a well-placed glider stamp can be fired upward as a counter-attack, while a stamped pulsar acts as a long-lived defensive wall.
Click and drag to draw a rectangle that gets filled with a pattern:
- Solid — Every cell in the rectangle.
- Checker — Alternating cells.
- Stripes (h/v) — Horizontal or vertical stripes.
- Diagonal — Diagonal stripe pattern.
- Dots (sparse/dense) — Dotted patterns at varying density.
- Grid — Grid lines.
- Cross — Cross intersection pattern.
- Random 50% / 25% — Stochastic fills.
Useful for creating starting configurations for cellular automaton experiments or quick-fill defenses.
Press Z or click 🦓 Pattern Zoo from the main menu (or in-game) to browse the entire pattern library:
- Filter by category, ruleset, tag, or source (built-in vs. custom).
- Search by name, id, or tag.
- Live previews — Each card runs a tiny toroidal simulation showing the pattern in action.
- Per-card controls — Speed, reset, pause individual previews.
- Detail view — Click any pattern for a larger preview with stats: generation count, population, max bounds, period, direction, etc.
- Place in Game — Load a pattern directly into the pattern editor for stamping.
- Custom patterns — Edit, rename, or delete your saved patterns.
- New Pattern — Open the editor to create one from scratch.
The zoo includes 1800+ patterns when the LifeWiki dataset is
imported (see npm run import:lifewiki). Patterns are characterized
automatically — category, period, direction, stabilization point, etc.
Press D or click 🛠 Level Designer to craft custom scenarios:
Modes:
- 🏙 City — Place city blocks
- ✏ Defense — Paint pre-placed defense cells
- 📏 Line — Straight line with width/dash options
- 🪣 Fill — Region fill with pattern selector
- 🧬 Pattern — Stamp any zoo pattern as defenses
- ⚔ Base — Stamp zoo patterns as enemy bases
- 🚀 Spawner — Place missile spawn points (limited to spaceships)
- 🧹 Erase — Remove anything
Settings tab lets you override the full CONFIG for the level: grid size, ruleset, wave config, glider types, abilities, aging, base spawning, etc.
Save/Load:
- Save levels by name to local storage.
- Export/import as JSON for sharing.
- Save & Play — Launch the level immediately (paused for inspection).
Custom levels with designed bases and spawners completely override the default per-wave base spawning and glider waves, giving you full creative control.
Press Shift+C or click ◧ Capture Pattern to drag-select a region of the live grid and save it as a reusable pattern:
- Capture mode pauses the game and shows a dashed amber overlay.
- Drag to draw a selection rectangle.
- Release to capture all DEFENSE cells (and pending ink) in the region.
- Enter a name and save — the pattern is added to the dropdown and the Pattern Zoo.
- Captured patterns are automatically characterized (category, period, direction) and flagged as duplicates of built-in patterns if they match.
Captured patterns are saved to localStorage and persist across sessions.
Some abilities are passive (always-on once enabled in settings), others are active (have a cooldown and a button + hotkey to trigger).
| Icon | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| ⭐ | Combat Bonuses | +50% score from all kills. |
| ⚡ | Instant Set | Ink commits instantly (no drying). |
| 💰 | Veteran Pay | +30 ink at start of each wave. |
| 🛡 | Demilitarized Zone | Disables friendly fire (Hardcore off). |
| 🐢 | Atmospheric Drag | Missiles spawn 20% slower. |
Active abilities show as buttons in the speed control bar with cooldown timers. Click or press the corresponding hotkey (Q, W, E) to trigger.
| Icon | Name | Cooldown | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💥 | EMP Burst | 30s | Vaporize all enemy missile cells + active targets. |
| 🎁 | Ink Surge | 20s | Instantly refill +200 ink. |
| ⏱ | Time Stop | 45s | Freeze enemy missiles for 5 seconds. Your defenses keep moving! |
Active abilities are the panic buttons of the game. Time Stop in particular is a god-tier ability — freezing missile evolution while your defenses continue lets you reshape the entire battlefield in seconds.
All enabled abilities install simultaneously. Toggle individual abilities on/off in Settings → Abilities tab.
Press ? in-game to bring up the full hotkey overlay.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Space |
Pause / resume |
N |
Step forward one tick (paused) |
[ , |
Slower (previous speed preset) |
] . |
Faster (next speed preset) |
0–9 |
Jump to speed preset by index |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
F |
Freehand mode |
L |
Line mode |
P |
Pattern mode |
B |
Fill mode |
Tab / Shift+Tab |
Cycle modes |
R |
Rotate pattern (Pattern mode) |
X |
Mirror pattern horizontally |
Y |
Mirror pattern vertically |
+ / = |
Increase brush width |
- / _ |
Decrease brush width |
Shift+1–8 |
Load pattern preset by index |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Z |
Undo last stroke (refunds ink) |
C |
Clear all defenses (50% refund) |
Shift+C |
Toggle pattern capture mode |
Esc |
Cancel current draw / close menu |
Q / W / E |
Trigger ability slot 1 / 2 / 3 |
A |
Trigger ability slot 1 (alias) |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Enter |
Start game from menu / game over |
S |
Open settings (during play) |
Z |
Open Pattern Zoo |
D |
Open Level Designer |
M |
Mute / unmute audio |
H |
Open How to Play guide |
G / F1 |
Open Console Hacking Guide |
F11 |
Toggle fullscreen |
? |
Open hotkey help overlay |
Open your browser's DevTools console (F12) and you'll find a full Console API exposed:
window.game; // live Game instance
window.CONFIG; // live config (mutate to tune)
window.CELL_TYPE; // {EMPTY, DEFENSE, MISSILE, CITY, EXPLOSION}
window.cheats; // cheat shortcuts (try cheats.help())
window.MD; // namespaced bundleQuick cheats include:
cheats.infiniteInk(); // max ink + max regen
cheats.killAllMissiles(); // clear all missile cells
cheats.skipWave(5); // jump forward 5 waves
cheats.godMode(true); // immortality + ink refill
cheats.gosperGun(20, 30); // stamp a Gosper gun on the field
cheats.spawnPattern(x, y, [
[0, 0],
[1, 0],
[2, 0],
]);
cheats.dump(); // print live game stats
cheats.setMode('chaos'); // apply a game mode preset
cheats.vfxStats(); // VFX throttling diagnosticsSee the in-game Console Hacking Guide (press G or F1) for the complete reference, including how to write your own auto-pilot scripts, swap simulation backends, hook the game's event callbacks, and more.
Open Settings from the main menu, or with the ⚙ Settings button / S hotkey during play (auto-pauses).
Settings are organized into tabs:
- Game mode preset selector
- CA Ruleset (with custom neighborhood builder)
- Resolution preset (Auto-fit, presets, or custom)
- City count, starting ink, max ink, ink regen
- Clear refund fraction, hardcore mode
- Enabled glider types (SE, SW, targets, LWSS, MWSS, twin, gun)
- Missiles per wave (base + increment)
- Spawn interval, decrement per wave, minimum interval
- Missile max age, cascade window
- Base spawning: enabled, zone height, count, max
- Ink drying time
- Draw zone size, rear dead zone height
- Defense cell max age
- Draw zone display toggle
- Region-specific aging: friendly vs. enemy region × defense vs. missile
- Each cell has independent max age + ∞ unlimited toggle
- Passive abilities (Combat Bonuses, Instant Set, Veteran Pay, Demilitarized Zone, Atmospheric Drag)
- Active abilities (EMP Burst, Ink Surge, Time Stop)
- Resolution preset (mirrored)
- Show draw zone indicator
- Tick rate (40–300 ms)
- Defender/Attacker ticks (M:N timestep ratio)
- Cell max age (mirrored)
- Hashlife cache toggle
- Base↔glider buffer
- Visual effects toggles (particles, shockwaves, floaters, screen shake, cell glow, draw zone tint)
- Save named configuration profiles
- Load/delete saved profiles
- Import/export full config as JSON
All settings persist in localStorage and apply immediately. The
"Reset to Defaults" button restores factory values.
- Always draw in clusters. Single cells die instantly.
- A 2×3 horizontal block is the cheapest stable wall — 6 ink for a permanent obstacle.
- Watch where missiles spawn. Walls placed under spawn columns are vastly more effective than walls everywhere.
- Use the speed slider. Slow down (0.5×) to study enemy patterns, then speed up (2×, 4×) to grind ink and score. Press N to step one tick at a time when paused.
- Cell aging matters. If enabled, don't paint a wall on wave 1 and expect it to last to wave 5. Reinforce constantly.
- Bait cascades. If you can get an enemy glider cluster to tangle, the cascade despawn rule clears huge swaths at once.
- Use undo (Ctrl+Z) liberally. Misplaced a stamp? Undo refunds the full pending ink — no waste.
- Learn the Block stamp. A pattern-mode Block stamp is a perfect 4-cell still-life that never dies, for the same ink cost as 4 freehand cells but with guaranteed stability.
- Capture patterns that work well in your gameplay so you can stamp them later.
- Counter-attack with gliders. Stamp a glider pointed upward (rotate with R until it heads north) and watch it sail into the enemy spawn line for a Ricochet bonus + base destruction.
- Plant a Gosper Gun in your draw zone. Once available, it's a permanent glider factory firing toward the enemy. Massive risk (eats huge ink, can be destroyed) but enormous reward.
- Use Time Stop strategically. Freeze the enemy, then carefully reshape your defenses to plug gaps. Your cells keep evolving — but no missiles will arrive while you work.
- Tune the M:N ratio. Set defenders to 2× attacker speed in Settings for a more puzzle-y, less reflexive experience.
- Experiment with rulesets. HighLife adds replicators. Maze builds corridors automatically. Each ruleset is a different game.
- Design your own levels with the Level Designer for custom challenges — share JSON exports with friends.
- Hardcore + Glider Gun is the ultimate challenge. Your own ammunition can kill your cities. May the rules be ever in your favor.
Built with vanilla HTML5 Canvas and ES Modules. Conway's Game of Life invented by John Horton Conway, 1970. Famous Life patterns (Gosper Gun, Pulsar, LWSS, Diehard, Acorn, R-Pentomino, Copperhead) are part of the public cellular automaton canon.
Pattern library can be augmented with the LifeWiki dataset
(1800+ patterns) via the importer script. See docs/lifewiki-import.md.
Exotic ruleset categories (TCA, time-integrated, fractional lightcones, hex/triangular topologies, anisotropic neighborhoods) extend the classical CA framework into new territory.
Synthesized SFX via Web Audio API — no external assets.
Source code: https://github.com/SimiaCryptus/Arcade_of_Life
Now stop reading. The grid is alive. Go draw.