The Game of Life is entirely deterministic. Whether the word "game" is appropriate is debatable, since no player needs to intervene once the initial configuration has been defined. It could be described as a zero-player game. Finding interesting initial configurations, however, really is a one-player game!
Much more than a game
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In a cellular automaton, an initial population of single-celled beings lives, gives birth to new cells and sometimes dies according to immutable rules. The Game of Life takes place on a regular grid of unit squares tiling the plane. Cells on this grid live and are born. Time advances in discrete steps, or generations: from generation 0 to generation 1, then generation 2, etc., with no transition between them. Each cell on the grid is either alive (filled) or dead (empty). Its fate depends on each of its eight neighbors (two cells are neighbors if they share either a side or a vertex).
Conway's Game of Life has elementary rules, yet they can generate astonishing objects. If a cell is alive at generation n, it remains alive at generation n + 1 if and only if two or three of its neighboring cells are alive. In every other case, the cell dies in the next generation. If a cell is empty at generation n, it is born and comes to life at generation n + 1 if and only if exactly three neighboring cells are alive. In every other case, the cell remains empty.
Deaths and births occur simultaneously; just before it dies, a cell can help bring another cell to life.
