Project Description
Background
Conway’s Game of Life is a simulation that was originally created in 1970 by John Conway. The idea behind it is to simulate cell automation. It is considered a zero player game in the sense that once the initial state is set, the simulation continues on automatically.
Rules
The game is played on a square board. (We will use a default value of 15 by 15, but you can update this.) Each position on the board represents either a living cell (X) or a dead cell (O). The initial board will have some living and some dead cells. In each round, the status of each cell gets updated based on the following rules:
If the cell is alive:
- It stays alive if 2 or 3 of its neighbors are also alive
- Otherwise it dies
If the cell is dead:
- It becomes alive if exactly 3 of its neighbors are alive
- Otherwise it remains dead
A neighbor is considered any cell touching the current cell horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. A cell in the middle will have 8 neighbors. Cells on the edges and corners will have fewer.
Your Task
You will start by using a 2D character vector to create the original board and randomly set the cells as dead or alive. You will then add in the simulation that executes the rules of the game!
