Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

The Way of Life is a JavaScript implementation of Conway's Game of Life that simulates cellular automata on an infinite grid. Cells are either alive or dead and evolve based on interactions with their eight neighbors.… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. The Way of Life launched in 2017; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1SG
   Stacked Game of Life▲195

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

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

2. 2CS
   Conway's Game of Life JS implementation▲11

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

   2013 · 54.247.181.15 · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Game of Life in 32 bytes of assembler▲267

   pouët.net - your online demoscene resource

   2020 · pouet.net · its alternatives →

4. 4
   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 →

5. 5
   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 →

6. 6LS
   Life Simulation Written in Rust▲169

   2021 · joelthelion.github.io · its alternatives →

7. 7MP
   Multi-player Competitive Conway's Game of Life▲85

   2014 · gameoflifetotalwar.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   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 →

9. 9AV
   A variation on GoL with fertility/mortality based on the age of cells▲28

   2017 · samlev.github.io · its alternatives →

10. 10HG
    HTML5 Game of Life in 24-bit RGB▲79

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

11. 11
    Conway's Game of Life with AI ▲13

    Interactive cellular automaton simulator with AI

    2025 · life.angen.ai · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Alive or Dead: Game of Life▲3

    Conway's Game of Life

    2023 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    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 →

14. 14
    Game Of Life▲4

    A highly customisable cellular automaton.

    2018 · xs-labs.com · its alternatives →

15. 15IM
    I'm 12, learning JS, and wrote Wolfram's cellular automaton in Node▲1,072

    2018 · bitbucket.org · its alternatives →

16. 16TA
    Terra, a JS framework for cellular automata and biological simulations▲121

    2014 · rileyjshaw.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    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 →

18. 18
    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 →

19. 19
    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 →

20. 20
    LifeHash - beautiful hash visualization based on Conway’s Game of Life▲11

    A beautiful method of hash visualization based on Conway’s Game of Life. - wolfmcnally/LifeHash

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Nirvana▲89

    A life simulation & adventure game with swipe mechanic

    2017 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

22. 22LI
    Life is Short – Game of Life in 203 chars of HTML/JavaScript▲10

    Game of Life in html/javascript, a journey from nice and readable to 203 chars total.

    2020 · shorterlife.github.io · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Evolution Game▲2

    How Evolution and Natural Selection works

    2022 · evolutiongame.online · its alternatives →

24. 24SL
    Smooth Life playground (continuous game of life simulation in WebGL)▲30

    2022 · smooth-life.netlify.app · 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 →