I already made GoLlyGee for fun. Then I thought: what the heck, make a Mac version… also just for fun.
See my intro post from a couple of days ago for the original announcement.
GoLlyGee is still Conway’s Game of Life as a calm little visualization: colors, speed, liquid cells, ambient Watch mode, the whole tiny feature list. The Mac build is Mac Catalyst, so it is the same app family as the iPhone and iPad versions, not a separate rewrite with a separate price tag.
Resize the window and the board grows with it. Hit settings when you want softer blobs instead of square cells. Leave it running in a corner while you pretend to work. That’s the product pitch.
It is a universal app. One $0.99US purchase gets you iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the Apple Watch companion. I am not building a platform empire. I am selling a screensaver with opinions.
If you already grabbed it on iOS, the Mac version should come along with that same purchase once it is live on the Mac App Store side of the listing.
A short tap still brings up the little toolbar. Hold your finger (or mouse button) down and GoLlyGee drops a 5×5 randomized patch of live cells onto the board — soup, not a solid brick, so it tends to keep thrashing instead of freezing into still lifes. Keep holding and drag to paint more of that chaos wherever you like.
It is a small change, but it turns the screensaver into something you can poke.
Honestly? Because watching Life on a big window is oddly nice, and shipping a Mac build sounded more entertaining than an evening of doomscrolling. Same energy as the original: low stakes, slightly hypnotic, done when it feels done.
Enjoy some soothing cellular chaos on whichever device is closest. Check it out on the App Store.
Brett is a writer and developer living in Minnesota, USA. You can follow him as ttscoff on GitHub, Mastodon, and elsewhere.
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