Particle Life
A few thousand particles, a small table of attraction rules, and life-like creatures appear on their own. Edit the rules, roll a new lifeform, and watch it self-organize. Every force is computed on your graphics card in real time.
⚡ 100% on your device — nothing is uploadedPreset
Force matrix — drag a cell
Green = attract · Red = repel · drag up/down.
Tuning
Look
What you are looking at
Each dot is a particle with a color. A small square table, the force matrix on the right, says how strongly every color is attracted to or repelled by every other color. That is the entire rulebook. There is no goal coded in, no behavior scripted. Yet from those few numbers you get cells that hold together, predators that chase prey, and slow churning ecosystems that never quite settle. This is the model people call particle life, and the surprise is how much life comes out of how little.
How it runs in your browser
The honest answer to "how is this smooth?" is the GPU. Every frame the simulation measures the force between particles, and with a few thousand particles that is millions of little calculations. A WebGPU compute shader does all of them in parallel on your graphics card, writes the new positions to a buffer, and a second pass draws that same buffer straight to the screen, so the data never leaves the GPU. Nothing is uploaded, there is no server, and the whole thing is one HTML file. That is also why it needs WebGPU: it is the browser feature that lets a web page run real compute on the GPU.
Things to try
Hit Randomize a few times until something catches your eye, then drag a single matrix cell up or down and watch the whole population change its mind. Turn the interaction radius up for sweeping galaxy-like motion or down for tight, twitchy cells. Drag on the canvas to stir it. When you find something you love, press Share to copy a link that rebuilds the exact same world for anyone you send it to.
How does this work without a server?
Everything is computed on your own GPU with WebGPU and drawn on the spot. There is no backend and nothing is uploaded. The page is a single static file.
Why does it need WebGPU?
The simulation compares every particle with every other particle each frame, which is millions of operations. WebGPU runs that in parallel on your graphics card so it stays at full frame rate. It works in recent Chrome, Edge, and Brave on desktop, and in Safari 18 and up.
What is the force matrix?
It is the rulebook. The value in row A, column B is how strongly color A is pulled toward or pushed from color B. Positive is attraction, negative is repulsion. Asymmetry, where A chases B but B flees A, is what creates the most life-like motion.
Is it free?
Yes, completely free, no sign-up, and it runs entirely on your device.
I build something like this every day.
Senior full-stack engineer, open to senior or contract roles, fully remote. See the rest of the lab or get in touch.