Forces at Play

A cellular automaton.

• Try it online
• To compile, run npx tsc && npx browserify js/main.js -o game.js

Cell types

There are nine kinds of cell:

• Empty (white square)
• Pusher (blue square with arrow)
  Moves in the direction of the arrow, pushing the cells in front of it, unless blocked by a wall or a board.
• Box (black square with white square inside it)
  Doesn't do anything on its own, but can be moved by other cells.
• Wall (solid black square)
  Cannot be moved by other cells.
• Board (black square with parallel lines)
  Boards with horizontal lines can move horizontally but not vertically; boards with vertical lines can move vertically but not horizontally.
• Destroyer (red square with parallel lines)
  Adjacent cells in the direction of the lines are safe; adjacent cells perpendicular to the lines are deleted.
• Shifter (purple square with arrow)
  Similar to the pusher, but doesn't move itself, only the cells in front of it.
• Rotator (green square with arc)
  Rotates the adjacent cells. There are two types of rotator: the one with a "C" rotates things counterclockwise, and the one with a "Ɔ" rotates things clockwise.
• Generator (yellow square with arrow)
  Creates copies of the cell behind it.

Controls

• Click: select cell
• Click and drag: select region
• Arrow keys: move selected region
• W: create wall
• E: create box
• F: create/edit board
• D: create/edit destroyer
• R: create/edit rotator
• Q: create/edit pusher
• S: create/edit shifter
• A: create/edit generator
• Backspace: delete region
• Space: start/stop automaton
• Digits 1-5: change animation speed (1 is slowest, 5 is fastest)

Copy and paste

You can copy and cut regions of the grid using ctrl-C and ctrl-X respectively. Use ctrl-V to paste the copied pattern.

When you copy a pattern, a text representation of that pattern is saved to your device's clipboard. This allows you to save and import patterns by converting them into text and vice versa. For example, try pasting the following text onto the canvas: Pzerzfr.

Inspiration

This project was inspired by a video game called Cell Machine by Sam Hogan.