conwaysGoL

R package for Conway’s Game of Life

2026

The goal of conwaysGoL is to provide an easy-to-handle package to explore artificial life using the Conway’s Game of Life.

Overview

The package allows to run simulations in a toroidal grid of any size for a desired number of generations. Users can save their simulations as a succession of frames and/or as GIFs. The package comes with a library of some common patterns that can be used freely during their simulations. This library can be enriched by the users and stored patterns can be used indefinitely across R sessions. Finally, users can easily convert Run-Length Encoding (RLE) files (from https://copy.sh/life/ for example) into binary (0,1) matrices compatible with the package functions.

Install from GitHub



A glider (in white)

A glider is a pattern that travels across the grid. 

# from a manual matrix
glider <- matrix(c(0,1,0,
0,0,1,
1,1,1),
nrow = 3,
byrow = TRUE)

plot_grid(glider)

# from the built-in pattern list
plot_grid("glider")

A pulsar (in white)

A pulsar is a common oscillator with a period of 3. 

# from a manual matrix
pulsar <- matrix(
c(0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,
  0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
  1,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,
  1,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,
  1,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,
  0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,
  0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
  0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,
  1,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,
  1,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,
  1,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,
  0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
  0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0),
nrow = 13,
byrow = TRUE
)

plot_grid(pulsar)

# from the built-in pattern list
plot_grid("pulsar")

An example of a Conway’s Game of Life.

A randomly generated 100x100 grid following Conway’s Game of Life rules for 100 generations. Notice the presence of still-lifes, oscillators and random patterns. 

gameoflife(nrow = 100,
ncol = 100,
generations = 100,
p = 0.8,
record = TRUE,
frames_prefix = "random",
zero_padding = 3,
gif_name = "random.gif",
output_path = "animations/")

A Gosper glider gun for 1000 generations.

A single Gosper glider gun for 1000 generations. Guns are patterns displaying infinite growth by generating smaller patterns, here gliders. Gosper glider guns have a period of 30. As time advances, we can observe new structures appearing as gliders hit back the gun, some of those being still-life structures, some others being oscillators or random structures. 

gameoflife(nrow = 100,
ncol = 100,
generations = 1000,
pattern = "gosper_gun",
pos.row = 10,
pos.col = 10,
rotation = 90,
record = TRUE,
frames_prefix = "gosper_glider",
zero_padding = 3,
gif_name = "gosper_glider.gif",
output_path = "animations/")

Functions

  • gameoflife()

    Runs a simulation starting with a glider (initial position: (10,10)) and a Gosper glider gun (initial position: (60, 60)), rotated clockwise, in an empty grid. By setting record = TRUE, users can save their simulation as GIF file in desired directory. 

    gameoflife(
  nrow = 100,
  ncol = 100,
  generations = 50,
  pattern = c("glider", "gosper_gun"),
  pos.row = c(10, 60),
  pos.col = c(10, 60),
  rotation = 90,
  record = TRUE,
  frames_prefix = "gosper_glider",
  zero_padding = 3,
  gif_name = "gosper_glider.gif",
  output_path = "animations/"
)
    to run (and record) simulations.

  • plot_grid()

    Enter either a manually constructed matrix, or a built-in pattern in plot. 

    # direct matrix
glider <- matrix(
  c(0,1,0,
    0,0,1,
    1,1,1),
  nrow = 3,
  byrow = TRUE
)

plot_grid(glider)

# multiple patterns
plot_grid(list("pulsar", glider))
    to visualize binary (0,1) matrices and built-in patterns.

  • list_patterns()

    Buit-in patterns can be accessed via list_patterns(). 

    list_patterns()
#>  [1] "beacon"         "beehive"        "blinker"        "block"         
#>  [5] "boat"           "glider"         "gosper_gun"     "HWSS"          
#>  [9] "loaf"           "LWSS"           "MWSS"           "pentadecathlon"
#> [13] "pulsar"         "random"         "toad"           "tub"
    to access the list of built-in patterns.

  • add_pattern()

    Adds temporarily or permanently patterns to the pattern library (permanent = FALSE (default) or permanent = TRUE). 

    # temporary add a pattern built by the user
pattern <- matrix(
  c(1,0,0,
    1,1,1,
    0,0,1),
  nrow = 3,
  byrow = TRUE
)

add_pattern("my_own_pattern", pattern)

# permanently add a pattern
add_pattern("my_own_permanent_pattern", pattern, permanent = TRUE)

# can be plotted and used in gameoflife
    to permanently or temporarily add patterns to the built-in list of patterns.

  • read_rle()

    Automatically convert RLE files into pattern matrix by providing rle_path as the relative or absolute path the downloaded file. 

    # a pattern extracted from a .rle file
cordership <- read_rle("patterns/cordership.rle")

# can be plotted or used in gameoflife()

# can be added to the library temporarily or permanently
add_pattern("cordership", cordership, permanent = TRUE)
    to convert Run-Length Encoding (RLE) files from a downloaded .rle file.

    • Resources

    All documentation and source code for the conwaysGoL package can be found on my GitHub page.

    License

    This package is under the MIT License.

    Citation

    To cite conwaysGoL in your publications, please use:

    conwaysGoL v0.1.1

    Lalande LD (2026). conwaysGoL: An easy-to-handle Conway’s Game of Life simulator for R. R package version 0.1.0. 10.5281/zenodo.18290213.

    For the canonical citation of the software project, use the concept DOI:

    10.5281/zenodo.18290212

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