Match setup
Choose the board, pace, and placement budget before the duel begins. The panel on the right keeps a live summary so you can see what kind of match you are creating.
Square plays closer to classic Life. Hex reduces hard corners and creates looser fronts.
Board size changes how quickly fronts collide. Speed and generation cap decide whether the game feels surgical or chaotic.
Board size
Simulation speed
Match length
Reinforcement pauses
Setup is exact. Reinforcement rounds use a minimum and maximum budget, with saved cells banking at a one-cell tax.
Placement timer
Click or drag the left half to place cells. Click staged cells to remove. Select a pattern to stamp it.
Click or drag the right half to place cells. Click staged cells to remove. Select a pattern to stamp it.
Setup: Each player places the set number of cells on their half (Red = left, Blue = right), then presses Ready. Simulation starts when both are ready.
Drag to place: Hold and drag across empty cells to stage them all at once. Drag across staged cells to remove them.
Patterns: Select a pre-made formation from the buttons in your panel, then click the board to stamp it. Glider and R-pentomino are mirrored for Blue so they face Red.
Simulation: The board evolves automatically. In paused pacing, input waits for reinforcement windows; in continuous pacing, banked cells can be spent while the world keeps moving.
Reinforcement: After each block, place 5–max cells. Unused cells are banked with a 1-cell storage tax.
Banking: If you save 5 cells this round, you bank 4 (1 tax). Those 4 are added to your budget next round.
Continuous mode: No placement pauses. Every block, both players receive reinforcement cells in their bank. Click or drag your half at any time during simulation to spend them; bot opponents spend their own banks automatically.
Ecology: Stability tracks cells likely to survive, diversity tracks colour balance, age tracks mature lineages, volatility tracks birth/death pressure, and territory tracks the living footprint across the board.
Survival (square): A cell lives when it has 2–3 same-colour neighbours and at most 3 total neighbours.
Survival (hex): A cell lives when it has 2–3 same-colour neighbours and at most 4 total neighbours.
Birth: An empty cell with exactly 3 living neighbours is colonised by the majority colour (both modes).
Win: Eliminate all opponent cells. Finite matches can also end at the generation cap; endless matches continue until defeat or giving up.