Zombies attack!

Introduction Conway’s Game of Life includes many different variations and can be changed and complicated without limit. Except for the classic game of life, which involves the death of a cell with too large a population around it due to lack of food and the death of a cell due to loneliness, we also complicate it by adding new rules and zones. In order to complicate the game of life, such components as a dead zone, zombie infestation, synopsis, a menu allowing you to set custom settings, etc. were added. Below is the initial window of the game: Image 1: New version of Game of Life. As we can see, this version of game is more nice, than previous: Image 2: Old version of Game of Life. Chisinau 2025 Types of cells and their behaviour We have two main types of cells: - Usual citizens; - Zombies. Depending on the cell type, it can perform different roles. A normal resident behaves like a normal cell: communicates with people, avoids crowded or lonely places. However, it can become infected with a disease and become a zombie. Zombies are much more dangerous types of cells. They hunt normal residents and turn them into zombies infected with the virus. They can move along their own route and chase people, the normal rules of cell life are not important to them. They are less sensitive to the zone (more on that later) and eventually enslave the world. Image 3: Two types of cell (green - zombie). Theme & Synopsis Professor Alexei was working on an experimental model of a virus, which he implanted into a live dog. This virus also had a GPS tracker, but suddenly there was an emergency in the laboratory, the dog escaped from the laboratory. That same evening the factory worker Ivan had just finished his shift, he was drinking his routine life with his grandfather's moonshine, when suddenly a dog with vertical pupils attacked him, Ivan thought it was nothing, at the same moment a second green dot appeared on Alexey's screens.... In the world introduced a degree of emergency, but Alexey could only watch this picture, as suddenly he came up with the idea to lead the affected areas, for the death of all living things and lead recovery points, where they could cure zombies The laboratory from which the dog escaped, became requested and sealed with the status of "in quarantine", only light was visible from the room of experiments Alexey, Chisinau 2025 it was a screen on which was presented a picture of the development of events "Conway's Game of Life". Main Menu In order to make the game more variable, it was decided to add a menu. The menu has many different options that allow you to change both the appearance and its logic. You can enter the menu by pressing the "M" button. Some menu options are also available outside of it. It is worth noting that standard settings are also provided and help to start the simulation without delving into the rules. You can start the simulation by pressing the "P" button. Below are its main options: - Create new simulation; - Increase / Decrease initial population probability; - Increase / Decrease grid size; - Increase / Decrease generation; - Moving dead zone; - Pause/Resume simulation; - Scroll across; - And other additional options. Image 4: Menu in Game of Life. Chisinau 2025 Dead Zone According to one of the requirements, we needed to add a zone in which the behavior of cells would begin to change. Given the general setting, it was decided that we would have a dead zone. This exclusion zone is the place where the explosion occurred at the nuclear power plant. It is the heart of the zombies' origin, so they prefer to look there from time to time, but there is no food there, so they do not linger. As for the inhabitants, sometimes they go there due to their own illiteracy, their path ends there and they die. Thus, the dead zone is destructive for ordinary inhabitants. Image 5: Dead zone. a) First seconds; b) After a few seconds. ReHub Zone It's a zone where infected cells have a 33% chance of turning back into normal, healthy cells.Simulating natural human development, and ways to overcome this apocalypse. Image 5.1: ReHub zone Chisinau 2025 Changing Greed To make the game more flexible and open to changes by the user, he can always change the size or position of the cells. According to the requirements (and even more), the ability to configure cells was added. It is worth noting that it works both at the very beginning of the simulation and at any time. Perhaps the best way to use it is in combination with reducing the simulation time, in which case you can follow the change in the simulation step by step by manually pressing "P". Image 6: Changing configuration. a) Before; b) After. Behavior Comparison A separate aspect covered in this report is the comparison of the behavior of cells in the dead zone and outside it. As mentioned earlier, zombies are loyal to this zone and do not try to stay there for a long time, they do not die there and continue to feel great. In the case of ordinary cells, they try to escape from the zone as soon as they notice that they are getting worse (there is a small chance of this outcome), but they often die (disappear on the screen), another feature is that they do not recover in this zone. With a small probability, ordinary residents can gain immunity in the death zone. In this case, they will remain there in quarantine, but will survive (you can imagine some kind of TV series like "Survival in Pripyat"). Rule Effect The introduced rule radically changes the lives of both residents inside and outside the dead zone. Now an ordinary resident is highly likely to die. He can be killed by both the zone itself and zombies. Considering that zombies are gaining more and more strength each time, the survival of ordinary cells becomes impossible. This means that the introduced rule is a simulation of the apocalypse, but a real one, and not the one that is usually shown in such films, with a happy ending. Chisinau 2025 Emergent Behaviors & Patterns The introduced rule completely changes the focus of the game of life from the usual Conway game to real-time survival. This not only changes the attitude to the game, but also makes the game unique (as much as possible given the zombie theme). Such a rule also introduces some potential for the game, for example, if we assume a pandemic instead of a zombie virus, we can get an excellent pandemic simulator, which can be useful, and not just fun. Conclusion Conway's Game of Life was expanded in this lab project by adding extra complexity and physics, turning it from a straightforward cellular automaton into a dynamic survival simulation. The addition of zombie cells, a dead zone, and a menu that could be customized to change gameplay parameters were the main improvements. The typical behavior of living forms was changed by the inclusion of zombie cells, making survival more difficult. The dead zone was a crucial component that reinforced the apocalyptic atmosphere by serving as both a starting place for zombies and a dangerous location for regular residents. By providing choices to change the grid, tweak population probabilities, and dynamically adapt the simulation, the menu system significantly improved user control. By adding emergent behaviors, these changes changed the game's emphasis from traditional cellular development to real-time survival, adding intrigue and unpredictability to the simulation. The system may be used for purposes other than amusement, such as studying population dynamics in harsh environments or simulating pandemics. In the end, this experiment showed how little rule changes may significantly change a simulation's result, making it an important investigation into system modeling and multimedia technologies.