BATTLECODE HACKATHON

Welcome to the battlecode hackathon!

1-minute setup (Python):

• Download a copy of this repository here or fork / clone it.
• Install a recent version of node.js (> 8). If you already have Node installed, you can check which version you have with node --version in your terminal.
• Open a terminal / command prompt.
• Run npm install -g @battlecode/battlehack.
  • If you're on linux, you might need sudo.
• Run battlehack start and leave that terminal running. Make sure that http://localhost:8080/ has opened in your browser.
• Open a new terminal; cd into the hackathon-starter/python directory and run python player.py.
• Open a third and last terminal; cd into the hackathon-starter/python directory and run python player.py again.
• You should now be able to watch a game run in your browser.
• Open player.py and start hacking!

Note: you should ignore run.sh for now.

1-minute setup (Java)

• Download a copy of this repository here or fork / clone it.
• Install a recent version of node.js (> 8). If you already have Node installed, you can check which version you have with node --version in your terminal.
• Open a terminal / command prompt.
• Run npm install -g @battlecode/battlehack.
  • If you're on linux, you might need sudo.
• Run battlehack start and leave that terminal running. Make sure that http://localhost:8080/ has opened in your browser.
• Create a Java project wherever you'd like. Import java/battlehack17.jar into your project.
• Copy RobotPlayer.java to get yourself started. You'll need a main function, with a game loop.
• To run, use your IDE. Make sure you run your program twice so that the two copies can fight each other.
• You should now be able to watch a game run in your browser.
• Open RobotPlayer.java and start hacking!

Note: you should ignore run.sh for now.

Specs

See website: http://battlehack.mit.edu/#/releases

API docs

There is documentation for the Python API in python/battlecode-docs.txt and python/battlecode-docs.html. There is documentation for the Java API in python/battlecode-docs.txt and python/battlecode-docs.html.

Uploading to the matchmaking server

Note: the matchmaking server doesn't open until 2PM.

• Python:

  • Go into the python directory.
  • Make sure that run.sh runs your main player.
  • Run battlehack upload and answer the prompts.
  • Win all the glory!

• Java:

  • When you're ready to submit, use your IDE to generate a jar containing both the extracted contents of battlehack17.jar, as well as your code. Mark your main class in the jar's manifest (your IDE will give you an option to do so).
  • IntelliJ version: File > Project Structure > Artifacts > JAR (remember to select where your main() is!)
  • Put run.sh and your_package_name.jar in the same directory.
  • Modify run.sh and replace your_package_name.jar with the jar file's name.
  • Go into the directory with run.sh and your_package_name.jar and answer the prompts.
  • Win all the glory!

Other languages

Technically, we support other languages besides python 2, python 3, and java, but you'll have to do a lot more work to use any of them. Talk to the devs for more information.

Source code

The source code for the competition is at https://github.com/battlecode/battlecode-hackathon. Feel free to peruse it.