Spring 2009 – Zombie Survival

About the tournament:

The MegaMiner AI Tournament is a completely student run AI competition that is held at Missouri S&T. The tournament has been held at the end of each semester since Spring of 2008 – this will be the third tournament in the series. A new game is developed each semester; details about the game are kept secret until the tournament begins. In general, the style of API has stayed the same since the beginning – old client (C++) and server (Python) code is available on our main site in the past tournaments section.

General Game Description:

The game is a turn based RTS style game – this time with a twist. Each team will be writing two AI’s for the competition – a zombie AI and a human AI. The overall goal of the game is to survive the longest. A game is decided by two matches – your zombies versus the competitor’s humans and vice versa. The team whose humans survive the longest against the other team’s zombies is the winner of the game. The humans will never survive – there are a number of game mechanics in place to make sure this happens.

At the time of writing, there are working C++, Java, and Python clients – competitors are free to use any of the three languages in the competition. Regardless of language, all clients will be subject to the same timing rules – we have built a chess clock system into the game to ensure that games do not go on forever.

Finally, we have created an OpenGL based visualizer for this game. The visualizer will be available from the start of the competition and will aid in the development and debugging of competition AI’s.

Difficulty:

The API is very easy to pick up. It’s fully documented with Doxygen - Doxygen output from previous tournaments is available on the respective tournament pages if you want to get an idea of what you’ll see when you first sit down. For students at Missouri S&T – CS53 teaches you enough to be able to compete. In general, if you know the language you want to compete in, you’ll do fine from a programming standpoint. The development team will be available to help, but we’ll also be busy making sure everything else is running smoothly during the competition.

Rules:

  • Teams will consist of 2-3 people. Teams with one member will not be allowed this semester due to the two AI requirement.
  • All work must be completed in the tournament lab (Centennial 105). Competitors are free to come and go.
  • All code must be written by the team during the 24 hours given for coding. External resources are allowed (feel free to Google anything or bring books – just don’t copy/paste code from outside sources).

When & Where:

  • The entire competition will take place in Centennial Hall, room 105 (#33 on the map). Parking on campus is free on weekends.
  • The competition will begin at 1:00pm on Saturday, April 18th. Coding will commence as soon as the game rules and API have been introduced.
  • Coding will end at 1:00pm on Sunday, April 19th. Sleeping is advised, but not required.
  • The tournament will begin at 1:30pm and will run until a winner has emerged victorious!
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Centennial Hall, 105

Registration:

So what are you waiting for! The registration fee is $10 per team – this helps cover the food and constant stream of caffeine that will be available during the tournament. Register now! The first 28 competitors registered will receive t-shirts!

Prizes:

  • TBD

Sponsorship:

Cerner Corporation has graciously agreed to sponsor t-shirts for the tournament! Microsoft has donated prizes for the tournament! If you or your company would like to help sponsor this event, please contact Ben Murrell, the current leader of this group and the president of Missouri S&T ACM chapter. Sponsorship opportunities are still available to help with meals and prizes for the competition.