…a creature that strives, that gets tired, and is infinitely reborn

…that leaves a trace in its exhausted wake, that can feast upon its former remnants

…that can be poisoned by a pestilence that thrives when those remnants are left untended

That was the core of an “idea for a game” that I had about 2 years ago, which I finally implemented last week in a feverish 5-hour rush:

Try it on desktop, and let me know what you think!

In between the levels, the animation is an implementation of Conway’s game of life, which this game is also named after.

The above is only playable on desktop because it requires WASD / arrow keys, but if I sort out the feeling of mouse controls, it will be mobile-playable, too. I am experimenting with that here - the idea is to support both, and infer why the player prefers. This is the aim for v1.x - to improve the interaction and tutorial/help experience.

For v2, the intent is to bring in architecture - places that are impassable by the creature; places where both nutrient and pestilence can accumulate. This should create more variety in levels. At the current stage, levels from 4 onward are relatively monotonous. Architecture implementation will aim to make it possible to create and share new architectures, and to play with generative architectures.

For v3, the intent is to introduce cooperation; and on this subject, I will for now remain coy.

It is possible at some point I will move away from p5.js; it is also possible I will do no such thing.