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Make Your Own

So far, we've looked mostly at gliders. But most collections of squares aren't as orderly as gliders. In fact, gliders are the exception. Using the Seeds rules, most patterns lead to chaos, not order.

Try making your own pattern. Just click on a square to turn it on. Click on it again to turn it off.

Turn on a bunch of squares, then click Step or Start to see what emerges. Setup brings you back to where you started.

On the Rules of the Game page, we showed three variations of gliders. Can you create any other types of gliders?

A pattern that goes through several phases and then returns to its original configuration is called a "blinker." For example, turn on two diagonal squares: they will oscillate between two patterns. Can you find any other blinkers?

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