Play Next
View all →
About this game
Life Grid is an inversion puzzle on Conway Game of Life rules. B3 S23: a live cell with two or three neighbors survives, a dead cell with exactly three neighbors comes alive. Each level shows a ghost target and a generation count G. You place live cells on the empty board, press Evolve and watch the pattern grow generation by generation. If the final state equals the target cell for cell, the level clears. This turns the classic Life picture book puzzle of finding the parent of a pattern into a hands-on guessing game about time and emergence, not a lights out switch puzzle or a pixel picture. The live heat rings around every cell show their fate in real time: green survives, yellow dies alone, red dies crowded. Twenty four levels in four chapters run from one generation decides, through gliders and displacement and oscillators and still life, to a creation chapter with tight budgets. Stars are double scored by seed economy: at most the reference cell count earns three stars, two more cells still earn two. An endless sandbox adds an infinite board with edge expansion, twelve classic patterns from glider to gosper glider gun, each verified by the same kernel that runs the game, and twelve achievements that persist across visits. A daily puzzle generated from the UTC date challenges the whole world with one pattern, and the spoiler free share card shows only stars and cells. Your best stars are saved on your device.
How to play
Paint live cells by tapping or dragging on the board, check the ghost target and the generation count, then press Evolve. Undo one stroke, clear the board or step one generation at a time whenever you like. Fewer seed cells earn more stars.
Tips & Tricks
- Read the heat rings before running: a green ring survives one generation, a yellow or red ring dies. Fewer green rings usually means fewer wasted cells.
- The glider flies one cell down and one right every four generations, so a target glider that moved needs its seed one step back.
- Blinkers, toads and beacons flip between two phases, so for odd generation counts you must plant the mirrored phase.
- A block can be born from just three cells in an L corner, the cheapest still life seed in the game.
- Save three sandbox worlds and stamp the twelve classics to complete the achievement row.
Frequently asked questions
How are the three star thresholds decided?
Every campaign level is solved at build time by an inversion search running the exact same B3 S23 kernel as the game. The reference seed size is either proven minimal by exhaustive search or constructed by forward generation, and each shipped reference solution is simulated generation by generation to confirm it matches the ghost target within the cell budget.
Does the sandbox count as a game?
No. The sandbox never reports a round. Saving a world or placing a stamp only records a best effort local event and can unlock achievements, which persist on your device across visits.
