Home / Projects by Jeffrey West / January 2022 / CelluWar
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CelluWar

The Rules

CelluWar is a two-player extension of Conway's Game of Life. The game board is an 8 by 8 grid containing red and blue cells. Just like cells in real life, they can divide, die, or live on to the next day. Your objective is to foster the growth of the red cells, and inhibit the growth of the blue cells.

You will play as the red cells, and the computer will play as the blue cells. The game play is as follows:

  1. Your move: click to place a red cell on the board.
  2. Computer's move: computer places a blue cell on the board.
  3. Conway's move: the "Game of Life" rules are simulated to mimic birth & death.

CelluWar is a game based on Conway's Game of Life. After you and your opponent have placed a single cell on the board, the cells grow, die, or survive according the rules of Conway's Game of Life.

Conway's "Game of Life" has 4 rules:

  1. Cells that have exactly 2 or 3 neighbors survive.
  2. Cells with fewer than 2 neighbors die due to under-population.
  3. Cells with more than 3 neighbors die due to over-population.
  4. Empty locations (black) that have exactly 3 neighbors reproduce a daughter cell.

Your objective is to remove all the blue cells from the board while at least one red cell remains alive. The game can only end after the Game of Life is simulated.

Enable Hints

The rules can be a bit confusing. Toggle the switch on and off, to show hints. All squares that will be dead (empty) are marked with an "x" while squares that will be alive are marked with a "✓" in the corresponding color ("✓" or "✓").

Game Board

Make a move by clicking on a black or blue square.

This website was created by Jeffrey West in 2022. CelluWar is based on an iPhone app originally developed by Andy Rowan and Jeffrey West in 2013.