This is my first Pico-8 program. The idea is to make a version of Conway's game of life that incorporates some 'quantum-esque' probabilistic behaviour.
The latest version (0.7) has a few new update rules as well as some graphics and sound improvements.
Here is how the 'Game of quantum life' works:
The playing field is 64x64 cells and wraps around the edges both horizontally and vertically. Each cell can have one of 16 values, displayed as different colours. Cells that are alive have colour 15, cells that are dead have colour 0. Cells that are in superposition cycle through colours 1-14.
The seed is always created with a random number generator, according to the weighting you select on the start screen. The rules depend on the mode.
Classical rules (standard Conway game of life):
- All cells can be alive or dead
- Live cells stay alive if they have either two or three live neighbours, otherwise they die
- Dead cells turn alive if they have exactly three live neighbours, otherwise they stay dead
Additional quantum rules:
- Cells can also be in a superposition of alive and dead
- Superposed cells with 2 or more live neighbours will be ‘measured’ and will turn either alive or dead, each with probability 1/2
- Dead cells with exactly 2 live neighbours may turn alive with probability 1/8192.
- Dead cells with less than 2 living neighbours may go into superposition with probability 1/8192.
- Superposed cells with less than 2 living neighbours may turn dead or alive, each with probability 1/16384.
The “Copenhagen” and “Multiverse” modes both use the quantum ruleset, they only differ in whether a measurement is counted as a collapse or as a branching. The branch counter displays an estimate of how many branches were created in total from the seed, this is given as 2^[number of measurements].
About the music:
I made a simple chord progression in 4 part harmony where each part plays at its own pace. Together they form a slow moving polymeter of the first four primes (2,3,5,7). It takes about 5 minutes to complete one full cycle, after which it loops back to the start.
Thanks to Mithuna Yoganathan of the wonderful youtube channel Looking Glass Universe for providing the inspiration for this project :)
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