Simulation rules:

• Cells contend with neighboring cells for food. If a cell has too many others cells adjacent to it, it will starve. Cells at the edge of the simulation region are especially likely to starve as it is assumed there is no food outside the bounds of the region.
• The ability of a cell to mate is determined by whether or not it is old enough to have children, has exceeded its limit of children, and whether there are enough neighboring cells for it to choose a mate from. If a child is born, then it is placed adjacent to both parent cells.
• There is also a slight probability each cycle that cells may immigrate from outside the field.
• At the end of each simulation cycle, each cell is aged, and dies if it reaches its maximum lifespan. The age of a cell determines its appearance; in this case, the older the cell, the darker the color.

Starting the simulation:
When the simulation loads the region contains no cells. You may either wait for cells to immigrate into the region, use your mouse to click in the region and manually populate it, or click the "Random Fill" button to have the region randomly populated.

Return to Kelly's JavaScript Cellular Automata page.