The Game of Life is one of the simplest video games ever to exist, and yet is one of the most addictive! It’s known as a zero player game as you simply choose your initial layout of black and white squares and then leave the game to evolve over time following a set of four simple rules. The patterns created have provided inspiration for many things and can be seen in the design of the facade at Cambridge North train station in the UK. Listen below as St John’s Maths Tutor Dr Tom Crawford explains the Game of Life live on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire…

Examples (image credits: Wikipedia)

Stable ‘still-life’ patterns remain fixed for every turn:

block	beehive	boat	loaf	tub

‘Oscillators’ cycle through a number of designs repeating every few turns:

beacon (period 2)	blinker (period 2)	toad (period 2)

pulsar (period 3)	pentadecathlon (period 15)

Spaceships travel across the board forever:

glider	lightweight spaceship

Your task

You can play the game of life for yourself online here. See if you can design a starting pattern and predict what the game will do with it.