robinson7d / hackathon-2019

xMatters TKO 2019 Coding Challenge

xMatters TKO 2019 Coding Challenge

July 11th, 2019 at Westin Hotel, Whistler.

The 2019 xMatters TKO coding challenge will be BattleSnake! ...Again!!!

BattleSnake is an adaptation of the classic video game "Snake", where the player maneuvers a snake around the play field to collect food pellets, which makes the snake grow longer. The main objective is to collect as much food as as possible, while avoiding hitting obstacles, such as other snakes and most importantly - your own snake.

In BattleSnake, each round two snakes are pitted against each other, and the goal is to be the last snake left alive at the end of the round.

Game rules

You lose if your snake…

• Runs off the board.
• Runs into another snake's body.
• Runs into its own body.
• Collides head-to-head with a longer snake (both die if they are of the same size).
• Starves.

Starvation rules

• Your snake starts out with 100 health.
• Snake loses 1 point on every turn.
• When your snake's health reaches 0, it dies of starvation.

Avoiding starvation

• Food pellets spawn randomly around the play field.
• Each food pellet increases your snake's length by 1.
• Each pellet resets your snake's health to 100.

Game Server

We will be hosting a game server where the games will be played. The game server is the brain of the operations and coordinates all of the game play.

• Snakes are registered with the game server using a publicly accessible URL
• Server communicates to snake clients via HTTP requests
• Snake client responds to API commands requested by the server

Snake End Points

The creators of the BattleSnake server, StemboltHQ, have provided documentation for the API calls that each snake is required to implement. Basically, all competing clients are expected to provide a web application that is available at a routeable URL that can respond to HTTP requests and provide a route to three end points:

• POST /start
  • This is where you customize the appearance of your snake. Spend a bit of time to make your snake unique.
• POST /move
  • This is where your game logic is going to go. Basically, the server makes a call to your snake API endpoint, with all the game state in the request object. Using that information, you need to return a Move object back to the server stating if you are going to go Up, Down, Left, or Right. How hard could it be?
• POST /end
  • Just leave this one as it is.

All clients are expected to respond within 500ms of the server's initial request. Failing to respond before the timemout may result in the server choosing a random move for you. All responses are expected to have a 200 OK status code.

All the details are documented at BattleSnake API Reference

Game Play

There are a number of controllable variables on each game server but the following should be considered as part of your game strategy:

• Expect a variable size grid
• Only one food pellet
  • Food pellets will respawn once consumed, in random locations
• Response times should be under 500ms

Pre-requisites

Every team must show up with a laptop and have the following software installed in order to use the provided start snakes.

• Docker (https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop)
• Git CLI (https://git-scm.com/downloads)
• Heroku CLI (https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-cli)
• Create a free account on Github - https://www.github.com/
• Create a free account on Heroku - https://www.heroku.com/

Starter Snakes

We have provided a list of starter snakes that are Heroku ready, for javascript and java languages. Each project has a set of instructions on how to get it deployed and running on Heroku using the Git and Heroku command line tools. Unlike the previous event the snakes are pre-programmed to seek out food so that you can jump into some more fun aspects right away

• xm-battlesnake-java
• xm-battlesnake-nodejs
• xm-battlesnake-python python does not currently have a food seeking algorithm

Testing Your Snake

Curl your Snake

Like any web client, you can easily test your snake using curl which comes on most modern operating systems. The BattleSnake API Reference has example curl commands for each end point you must implement.

Getting your own Game Server

Each team should run a game server locally to help iterate on your snake's AI. Game servers can be run on docker with: docker run -it -p 4000:4000 stembolt/battle_snake

Team Registration

Every team are required their Snake URL before they can compete and scoring points! Registration is simple. Find Pete Kosa, given him your team name, and a working url of your snake. You cannot change the URL of your snake once registered. There's no time limit on registration can be done at any time prior to your first match.

Competition

The competition will be single elimination bracket of 16 teams 3-4 people per team :

• round of 16 - one match

• round of 8 - one match

• semi final best 2 of 3

• final best 2 of 3

• the twelve first and second round losers will get places in a 3 match battle royale

Prizes

• 1st place 2000

• 2nd place 1000

• Semi-finalists $500

• Battle Royale winner $1000

Pro Tips

Each team will have people from different disciplines and skill sets. Work together as a team to ensure that everyone is involved in some capacity. Here are some tips on getting organized:

• Consider a team captain
  • someone to take on admin functions i.e. team registration, game submissions, coffee runs
• Get someone started immediately on working on server deplopyment for your snake
  • setting up the GitHub and Heroku accounts, forking the project, deploying to Heroku
• Break up development tasks
  • creating helper functions, laying out board strategy, figuring out testing
• Consider building mulitple snakes
  • divide and conquer by building several snakes and submitting the best one (only one can be submitted)
• Test your snake in battle
  • You will learn a lot just by watching your snake in battle. By running a local server, you can easily have your snake fight itself. Maybe have a friendly battle with another team... or have a go with Shaun's snake at https://stk-battlesnake.herokuapp.com

Sportsmanship

The competition is intended to be fun and generate camaraderie with your fellow xPerts. There are plenty of examples and existing snakes on the internet. For obvious reasons these are off limits and defeat the purpose of the competition. So you will be competing based on the honor system. We will not be able to police this as internet access is required to build and run your snake, However, if you are caught your snake will be disqualified from the competition. Play fair and keep it fun!

• Don't plagarize other snakes.
• No DDoSing your opponents.

Getting Started

So what now!?

• Sign up for the free accounts
  • Install the pre-requisite CLI tools
• Pick a starter snake
  • Follow instructions
• Register your snake
  • use your team name
• Get coding!

Asking for Help

We'll have a number of game officials that will be able to assist with getting the start snakes up and running, answering questions, helping on code reviews, etc. Call on anyone you see wearing the Red ball caps!