On the Subject of Game of Ants

The Circle rules your life.

• On this module is a 5×5 grid of cells that can be white or black. Within this grid, there are up to five red ants.
• This is the initial state of a cellular automaton. To defuse the module, determine the state of the grid after the following steps have been performed.

1. Perform one iteration of Game of Life on the cells of the grid, ignoring the ants.
2. All ants simultaneously move one space forwards, toggling the state of cell it exited from.
3. If two or more ants end up on the same cell, apply these steps in order:
   • If the ants are facing in different directions, all move another space forwards.
   • If the ants are facing the same direction, all but one ant move another space forwards.
4. If any ant leaves the grid, skip to step 6.
5. Each ant turns to its left if ends up on a black cell, or to its right if it ends up on a white cell. Repeat steps 2 to 5.
6. Perform another iteration of Game of Life on the resulting grid, once again ignoring the ants.

To change the state of the grid, select a cell within it.

• If the blinking button is active, selecting a cell toggles its state.
• If the ant button is active:
  • Selecting an empty cell will place an ant on it in the orientation of the button.
  • Selecting a cell with an ant in a different orientation to the button changes the ant’s orientation to match.
  • Selecting a cell with an ant in the same orientation as the button removes the ant from the cell.
• Selecting either the blinking or ant button will activate that button and deactivate the other.
  • Selecting the ant button while it is active rotates it 90° clockwise.
• Selecting an arrow marks a location where at least one ant left the grid.
  Doing so will also activate the ant button and set its orientation to the direction of the arrow.

Interactive Controls

• In Read mode:
  • Click on a cell in the grid to toggle its color.
  • Press Space/Enter/0 or 1 to quickly enter the Game of Life grid.
  • Right-click on a cell in the Game of Life grid to mark it as changing.
  • Click an ant tool, then click on a cell to place an ant in the selected orientation.
  • Using an ant tool will remove the ant of that type and replace it where you click.
  • Use the Rotate tool or Ctrl+Click an ant tool (or a cell containing an ant) to rotate 90° CW. Shift+Click to rotate CCW.
  • If a cell contains multiple ants, all ants in the cell will rotate.
• In Solve mode:
  • Select an occupied cell to toggle it and use the arrow keys or WASD to move the selected ant in the corresponding direction.
  • If a cell contains multiple ants, the first ant in reading order will be moved.
  • Right-click a cell to select it without toggling.
  • The Reset button (↻) will restore the grid and ants to their initial state when switching into Solve mode.
  • Click a bordering arrow button to mark locations where ants left the grid.
• In Generated mode:
  • Press the Manual button to switch to Generated mode.
  • Have fun solving the generated puzzle!
  • Press the Solution Hidden button to show the step-by-step solution.
  • Press the Playing button to pause or resume the animation of the solution.
  • The puzzle is solved when all cells are the right color, all ants are in the right places and orientations (ant number doesn’t matter), and the location where ant(s) left the grid are marked.
• The sound effects can be muted.
• The Reset Saves button clears all the saved states.
• The Reset All button resets the entire interactive.