Yes they are indeed lifes. They are different shapes since it felt really bland having them be just pentagons.
I had actually used only two hours for this version of the game (and 1 hour for a 3d prototype which didn't turn out as well) so technically I had one hour left which I could have used for the music. It does work well with certain pieces of classical music, e.g. "In The Steppes of Central Asia" by A. Borodin.