League of Life

Game example screenshot 1, hovered over Highlife
Game example screenshot 3, with Life currently selected
Game example screenshot 2, with Serviettes currently selected
Title screen

Our Inspiration

We were fascinated by Conway's Game of Life, but we wondered if we could incorporate a real game around it, meaning we would not only have actual player input, but a reason to find strategy in a "zero player game".

What does League of Life currently do?

Currently, we have a major part of the game done, with the mana system implemented so that whenever you "cast" a spell to change the algorithm of the cell automata on the board, it will use up the mana you have. In addition, we have most of the HUD done, such as the different spells you can cast, with a nice retro feel to it. In addition, we have a mini map of the entire board, and depending on what spell you hover over, you have information displayed to you about what each algorithm does. The main menu displays a nice, big play button, with some video footage playing in the background that shows example footage from the game.

How we built it

We both were familiar with Java, and we wanted to try something that we both could are currently using in school, so we used Java alongside JavaFX for the UI, and game.

Challenges

We have a few performance issues that still need to be addressed, and we think we can optimize some things down the road.

Accomplishments

We are proud of the HUD of the game, the framework for gameplay mechanics being mostly added, and the other neat bells and whistles that we made, such as adding smooth scrolling when panning and zooming, the coordinate calculation for offsets, it's all math and somehow we did it!