/connect_four

Primary LanguageElixir

ConnectFour

A competition to find the ultimate AI bot to beat Connect Four.

Installation

Fork the repo:

Instructions

You have 1 hour to create the best bot that you can to play Connect Four. The winner will receive a prize of some sort (for those at the meetup for which this was programmed).

  • try it out (might improve interface at some point)

    • you must run this in bash shell within no muxer for the colors to work properly

      > mix run -e 'ConnectFour.Controller.start_game([ConnectFour.Contenders.PureRandomness, ConnectFour.Contenders.PureRandomness])'

  • create a contender (<project_root>/lib/connect_four/contenders)

    • take a look at PureRandomness for some ideas
    • it needs to be a GenServer that responds to:
      • :name: (return your team name)
      • {:move, board} calls (return the column from 0-6 that you would like to put your piece into)
    • utilize the BoardHelper (and refer to the tests) for several functions that simplify some common tasks
      • board evaluation
      • board creation
      • piece at given coordinate
      • "what would the board look like if I dropped my piece in this column?"
      • etc.
    • your GenServer can choose to store state if if wishes, but the full board will be passed each time.
      • 0 is an empty, eligible space / column
      • 1 is where you've moved previously
      • 2 is where your opponent has moved
    • test it against PureRandomness. if you can't beat it 100% of the time...
    • your GenServer should respond to all calls within 5 seconds. If not, you forfeit.
      • you are allowed to do as much background processessing as you want between calls.
      • you are allowed to spin up other processes.
      • the lifecyle of your bot will be around 10 seconds.
        • no supervisor will keep it alive (if your GenServer dies, tough luck)
        • it will be started each time a match with your (new) opponent begins
    • if you make a disallowed move (a column that is already full), you also forfeit.

  • create a pull request

  • we'll run a tournament with all the contenders to find the ultimate winner

    • to pit all contenders against each other

      > mix run -e 'ConnectFour.Controller.start_battle'