The Challenge is designed to test the creativity and programming skills of entrants, and is open to contestants of all levels including students, novice coders and professional developers. The theme of the 2016 challenge is centred around the classic 1980s strategy maze-based game, Bomberman - with a twist. Multiple players will be abandoned in a maze arena, armed with bombs, wit and the desire to be the best. Their goal is to outlast their opponents to be the last one standing. Taking advantage of various power-ups, players must explore the dark corners of the maze to accumulate points by bombing everything and everyone in their path. In the end, the surviving player with the most points will be victorious.
Tomislav Ravic, team lead at Entelect, notes that the company sent out a survey earlier this year to find out what changes potential entrants wanted to see in the annual challenge. “We see the Entelect Challenge as an opportunity to connect our community of hobbyists and developers, to experience the fun side of software engineering that we don’t always get exposed to in our day to day work. After having run the competition for four years, we thought it was an appropriate time to ask the community to tell us what they would like to see changed or included in this year’s challenge.
"As a result of the responses received from the survey, we have split the prize money significantly, enhancing it from last year’s total of R165,000 to this year’s R200,000 so that the top eight finalists will get prizes, with the top three getting R70,000, R35,000 and R25,000 respectively. In this way, more winners will benefit from the prize money at stake.” In having prizes significantly more tiered this year, the competition will be more inclusive and give contestants a greater chance of taking something home.
Another change to the competition which came from the feedback received is that before, where they had one competitor playing another, there will now be four people playing against each other at the same time. “It adds a different dimension to the game and may require the competitors to design their bot differently,” Ravic adds.
Prize money will be awarded to the top eight performing bots competing in the AI Challenge and, like previous years, there will be a prize for the best GUI Challenge entrant. This year’s challenge will cater for and provide sample bots for the following languages: C++, C#, F#, Java, Node.JS and Python, whilst the reference bot is coded in C#. Players must first register on the website through the player portal. The dashboard allows players to build and submit their bots against reference bots, and they will be able to visualise the matches using our own visualiser.
For those who are more interested in building a GUI than entering the AI arena, the Entelect Challenge also offers a GUI specific competition. GUI specialists or hobbyists can enter the Gooey Award challenge, to build their own graphical user interface for the game, and stand to win R15,000 in cash.
Entries close on 2 September, with a play-off event on 17 September that will be attended by gaming and technology media. The grand finale will be held on 8 October at the rAge main stage. Players can visit the website for more information and full rules.
