This project is a desktop implementation of Conway's Game of Life, built using modern .NET and WPF. It follows the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) architecture to ensure a clean separation between the simulation logic and the user interface.

Features

• Dynamic Simulation: Start, stop, and control the speed of the simulation.
• Step-by-Step Execution: Advance the simulation one generation at a time to observe changes.
• Interactive Board: Manually toggle the state of cells by clicking on them when the simulation is paused.
• Customizable Setup:
  • Define the board's width and height.
  • Specify custom rules for cell survival and birth (e.g., "B3/S23").
  • Choose custom colors for alive and dead cells.
  • Initialize the board with predefined patterns.
• State Persistence: Save the current game state (board and rules) to a file and load it later.
• Real-time Statistics: View statistics such as the current generation number.

Architecture

The solution is structured into three distinct projects, adhering to the principles of clean architecture and the MVVM design pattern.

• GameOfLife.Core: A .NET class library that contains all the core business logic.

  • Models: Board, Cell, Rules, and Statistics.
  • Services: SimulationService for running the simulation logic and FileService for saving/loading the game state.
  • This project is completely independent of the UI, making the core logic portable and easy to test.

• GameOfLife.WPF: The main WPF application that provides the user interface.

  • Views: XAML files that define the structure and appearance of the UI (MainWindow, InitializationWindow, BoardControl).
  • ViewModels: Classes that manage the application's state and logic, acting as a bridge between the Views and the Models (MainViewModel, InitializationViewModel).
  • MVVM Pattern: Utilizes CommunityToolkit.Mvvm for implementing ObservableObject and RelayCommand.
  • Dependency Injection: Services from the Core project are injected into the ViewModels.

• GameOfLife.Tests: A test project for unit testing the logic within GameOfLife.Core and the ViewModels in GameOfLife.WPF.

Technologies Used

• .NET
• C#
• WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)
• MVVM Design Pattern
• CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
• Microsoft Extensions for Dependency Injection