Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

Life is Short is a minimal implementation of Conway's Game of Life compressed into 203 characters of HTML and JavaScript code. The project demonstrates how the classic cellular automaton simulation can be created with… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Life is Short – Game of Life in 203 chars of HTML/JavaScript launched in 2020; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   Game of Life in 32 bytes of assembler▲267

   pouët.net - your online demoscene resource

   2020 · pouet.net · its alternatives →

2. 2HG
   HTML5 Game of Life in 24-bit RGB▲79

   2014 · rgb.0-z-0.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Conway's Game of Life in TypeScript's type system▲186

   TypeScript playground: https://www.typescriptlang.org/play?#code/KYDwDg9gTgLgBDAnmY...

   2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4SG
   Stacked Game of Life▲195

   https://github.com/vnglst/stacked-game-of-life

   Feb 2026 · stacked-game-of-life.koenvangilst.nl · its alternatives →

5. 5LS
   Life Simulation Written in Rust▲169

   2021 · joelthelion.github.io · its alternatives →

6. 6CS
   Conway's Game of Life, but as a div full of Braille characters▲104

   I built this many years ago to try out rendering images in textboxes, using braille characters as groups of 8 pixels. You can try different fonts to see how the spacing changes too.

   2024 · px.neocities.org · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Lifeee – Conway’s Game of Life with an infinite zoomable grid▲75

   A Rust implementation of John Conway’s Game of Life, using a zoomable infinite grid, and with access to a pattern library.

   2021 · lifeee.netlify.app · its alternatives →

8. 8CS
   Conway's Game of Life JS implementation▲11

   All credit goes to https://twitter.com/WiseAndy

   2013 · 54.247.181.15 · its alternatives →

9. 9IM
   I'm 12, learning JS, and wrote Wolfram's cellular automaton in Node▲1,072

   2018 · bitbucket.org · its alternatives →

10. 10
    Rust Implementation of Conway's Game of Life▲76

    Simple Rust implementation of Conway's Game of Life - brundonsmith/life

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

11. 11AS
    A Stargate in 140 chars of JavaScript▲377

    2020 · dwitter.net · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Conway's Game of Life in 10 Programming Languages▲10

    Benchmarking 10 dynamic languages on array-heavy code - rusini/life10-benchmarks

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

13. 13MP
    Multi-player Competitive Conway's Game of Life▲85

    2014 · gameoflifetotalwar.com · its alternatives →

14. 14IT
    I taught my little brother JS, and he made this videogame in a week▲1,079

    2019 · s-poony.github.io · its alternatives →

15. 15IS
    I spent two years working on an HTML5 game. I finally released it▲515

    2012 · ektomarch.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Conway's Game of Life on GitHub contribution board▲14

    A browser extension to play Conway's Game of Life on GitHub contribution board - yuanchuan/game-of-life

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Game of Life on non-square topologies with 2^32 update rules▲69

    Hi HN, when learning Golang (and topology), I ported a simple GOL in C (https://github.com/Jeadie/GoL) into Go. I then added a bunch of features - Playing on other fundamental polygons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_polygon#Examples_o...) - Considering all possible update rules (of which, there are many). Looking to get back to this project soon. Would love some feedback + ideas.

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

18. 18AV
    A variation on GoL with fertility/mortality based on the age of cells▲28

    2017 · samlev.github.io · its alternatives →

19. 19TW
    The Way of Life▲22

    2017 · blaze33.github.io · its alternatives →

20. 20
    30 seconds of code▲337

    Short code snippets for all your development needs

    2020 · 30secondsofcode.org · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Watch Life – A compact "analog" watch in Conway's Game of Life▲23

    Contribute to pmerolla/watch-life development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Conway's Game of Life, but with a gallery of other peoples patterns▲62

    This is my spin on Conway's Game of Life. I have added the ability to create an account, save grids that you have discovered, and browse the gallery of grids saved by other people and replay them. This project has served as a sandbox for me to practice various aspects of developing a comprehensive web application from scratch. This was my first time developing a full scale web app with [almost] all the features you would expect. I know it is nowhere near perfect in its current state, but I feel it has reached a point of diminishing returns, and therefore my time is better spent focussing on…

    2024 · game-of-life-f262d.web.app · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Rust type level Game of Life▲5

    Implementation of game of life and a bunch of primitive recursive functions at the type level in rust - gtestault/primitive-recursive-functions

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Minimal 3D creative coding tool – control 8×8×8 dots with JavaScript▲206

    A minimalist three-dimensional coding environment. Control 8x8x8 dots with a single JavaScript function.

    2021 · doersino.github.io · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →