MapEsc

rixgol

A minimalist Game of Life simulator

rixgol is Conway's Game of Life with nothing else on the screen. It is a minimalist simulator, and I like it that way.

Full screen, no chromeThe whole screen is the grid. A random seed starts in the middle, you drag to paint cells in, and dead cells fade out over four ticks.
Patterns on right-clickRight-click opens a menu of still lifes, oscillators and spaceships. You pick one, choose its rotation, and it lands where you clicked.

No toolbar

Every Game of Life I found had a toolbar, a speed slider and a grid of buttons. I wanted the opposite. A full screen of cells, no chrome, and something calming to leave running on a second monitor.

Paint, plant, watch

Click and drag to paint cells. Right-click to plant a classic pattern, such as a glider gun or one of the long-lived starter shapes. Then watch.

Cells fade out when they die instead of blinking off. It is a small detail, and it is most of why the thing feels calm.

Built in a day, finished

Done. I built it in a day, wrote the engine test-first, and have not wanted to add anything since. The simulation state lives outside React, so the page never re-renders while it runs.