aagol is "another automaton game of life".
aagol is a system of states and rules that transition into new states based on those rules.
meh.
Users write programs and watch them transform the state of the world. It is similar to Conway's game of life. It consists of a number of parts:
1. The server (the world):
The world consists of a 2d grid of spaces in a given state.
States:
0 Empty
1 Block
2 Program
3 Resource
Rules:
Programs can move into empty spaces
Programs can switch places with blocks
Programs that surround a resource on two sides turn that resource into a like program (replicate)
Programs that have no neighboring like programs turn into empty space (die)
Unlike programs are resources (for your programs)
Newer programs have iteration priority
The server takes care of ticking the world forward based on certain transitions the cells make. Life cells' transitions are programmable by the user.
2. The client:
Receives game state and displays it. Could possibly just receive the initial game state and transitions to cut down on data transmission.
3. The language:
Defines transitions of programs. The user defines a pre and post transition state using a char array in which each char represents a cell.
The user defines a 3x3 block of the world as a string of states 0-3 or X (the program being iterated over):
000 000
2X0 20X
000 000
This transition shows a program that is right of a like program in otherwise empty space moving to the right.
000 000
0X0 X0X
020 020
This transition shows a program above a like program moving EITHER left OR right.
000 XXX
0X0 X0X
020 X2X
Randomly move anywhere (except to the space already occupied by a like program).
000 000
0X0 000
202 2X2
Move down in between two like programs.
003 0X3
0X0 000
020 020
Move in on a resource.