4 ms·

Code & Conquer: A War Game for Coders

119 points by elliottcarlson 13y ago

manuletroll 13y ago
Well this looks like it might be fun but it hasn't launched yet, so..
weavie 13y ago
This looks very interesting. a game I can play without feeling like I am wasting my time
weavie 13y ago
This looks very interesting. a game I can play without feeling like I am wasting my time
Game_Ender 13y ago
There is a good discussion of this on progit [1]. The general consensus was there have/are lots of coding games, so this is not revolutionary, and the product is currently vaporware for a startup contest. 1 - http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1lnm3m/we_want_to_create_a_war_game_to_boost_your_coding/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1lnm3m/we_want_...
sunkarapk 13y ago
The problem with these kind of competitions is replayability. I would love to see a programming game which is PvP and has good replayability.
fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
"We are launching very very soon! Support us! Get exclusive features and early bird discounts to become a premium player. Thanks for your help! " I've seen this posted here twice now. Wake me up when it is open for business.
- phaus 13y ago
  >Get exclusive features This is the quickest way to kill my interest in a game. I don't want exclusive items/features/modes/whatever the fuck you are selling. I want everyone who purchases the game, now and forever, to get an identical product. Early bird discounts are fine, but everything else ruins the experience for me.
bengotow 13y ago
I've been hoping for a game like this for a long time. That said, I'm not going to support it until they demonstrate how it's going to be played. The problem is that programming is a challenging—and often frustrating—experience, and building it into a game in a way that is educational and enjoyable is not easy. Heck—even Notch said he couldn't figure out how to build programming into 0x10c in a way that worked.
pearjuice 13y ago
So any ideas about how to realize the technical side of such a game? Doesn't running arbitrary code bring all sorts of security risks?
- rtkwe 13y ago
  There are loads of different ways to sandbox a given process. If they're feeling particularly paranoid/lazy running each match in an ephemeral VM would be one way. Here's a SO question with more: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4249063/how-can-i-run-an-untrusted-c-program-in-a-sandbox-in-linux http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4249063/how-can-i-run-an-...
kmonsen 13y ago
No mention of platform support, no screenshots, no details at all. Just "hand over ~10 usd and we will give you something in the future.
gaoshan 13y ago
Given the number of these sorts of code contests, which ones do Hacker News readers like/dislike? I tried one mentioned on the reddit post linked in the top comment and enjoyed it (codewars). What do you all like?
- yaddayadda 13y ago
  I think this question is worthy of an "Ask HN" with one game per answer and people upvoting from there. Hope you post it as an "Ask HN" soon. :-)
javajosh 13y ago
I think that if you have at least a video of real game-play, your poised to take donations like this. If you have something users can download and play with, even if it's unstable, then you could definitely solicit. But a nice website and a vague concept is not good enough. I mean, in terms of specifics all we get is: "You've just landed on an island. Deploy your soldiers and decide when and how to attack to defeat your opponents. Code your strategy in Python or Javascript (more languages coming up!) and prove your skill in a revolutionary programming competition." Yeah, no.
- yulaow 13y ago
  Agree. Or you show a prototype or AT LEAST a video of the gameplay concept or you won't get any donations
  - mikeurbanski 13y ago
    I love their design and I was a huge fan of Core Wars in HS. I've been trying to get them to give me a peek for the last week, I really want to cover them/give them free ad space at launch. Nothing. Radio Silence.
jdthomas 13y ago
Cool. Reminds me a bit of http://aichallenge.org/ http://aichallenge.org/ which was TONS of fun.
todd-davies 13y ago
The AI Sandbox looks similar to this. I've played it before and it was good! http://aisandbox.com/start/ http://aisandbox.com/start/
- LolWolf 13y ago
  Wow, been looking for something like this for some time... thank you.
shire 13y ago
I was excited until I noticed it hasn't launched yet. Looks fun though since Python is one of the choice.
trout 13y ago
For reference, this is an output of the Stanford startup engineering course (which I also signed up for after it hit the HN front page) In the homework, this is what they mention the goal of the 'bitstarter' page to be: "Choose a project which you can get to a crowdfunder People in the class have widely varying backgrounds, ranging from relative neophytes to fairly advanced students. Your goal is to figure out a final project that you can get to the level of a reasonable crowdfunding site. This can mean anything from verbal description and mockups to fully working code, or anything in between: whatever is necessary to make the sale and prove that you have a market. Note that you have control over who's seeing the crowdfunder (e.g. the people in your email list or social circle), so you are also determining the difficulty of the sale itself by choosing the market and the initial crowdfunding audience. Note also that you can just ask for someone to share your content on social media rather than pay you real money for a preorder. Open source projects are ok as well, not just for-profit businesses. The main guideline is to set your success bar at the point that it'll be an achievable challenge for you. That might be a target of $100 or it might be $100,000." You can see the other projects here: http://startupmooc.org/ http://startupmooc.org/
- awhitty 13y ago
  I took this class in person back in the winter. I was under the impression that this class would help me hone my web dev skills a bit, but it really turned out to be very focused on business dev. That said, Balaji provided some excellent advice, and the course itself is great for anyone interested in the startup process. Just don't expect to come out of the class as some web dev master.
SamBoogie 13y ago
This looks pretty interesting. My friends and I are working on a game in a similar vein to this one (teaching programming through gameplay) however it is a 2D platform game. If you like this sort of stuff check the project I'm working on at www.betathegame.com . We have done workshops with kids and have footage although we aren't releasing playable demo's just yet. We are closing in on completion. No need for donations but if you like what we're doing please share!
smallegan 13y ago
Does the name coders bother anyone else? Whenever I hear coders I think of people who do medical coding and billing.
noddingham 13y ago
Reminds me of Code Ruler/Code Rally/Robocode. Really good ideas, especially for use in academic settings.
sideproject 13y ago
This project is actually for sale. https://www.sideprojectors.com/project/project/144/code-conquer https://www.sideprojectors.com/project/project/144/code-conq... or the owner is seeking a co-founder.

119 points by elliottcarlson 13y ago

manuletroll 13y ago

Well this looks like it might be fun but it hasn't launched yet, so..

weavie 13y ago

This looks very interesting. a game I can play without feeling like I am wasting my time

weavie 13y ago

This looks very interesting. a game I can play without feeling like I am wasting my time

Game_Ender 13y ago

There is a good discussion of this on progit [1]. The general consensus was there have/are lots of coding games, so this is not revolutionary, and the product is currently vaporware for a startup contest. 1 - http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1lnm3m/we_want_to_create_a_war_game_to_boost_your_coding/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1lnm3m/we_want_...

sunkarapk 13y ago

The problem with these kind of competitions is replayability. I would love to see a programming game which is PvP and has good replayability.

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago

"We are launching very very soon! Support us! Get exclusive features and early bird discounts to become a premium player. Thanks for your help! " I've seen this posted here twice now. Wake me up when it is open for business.

phaus 13y ago
>Get exclusive features This is the quickest way to kill my interest in a game. I don't want exclusive items/features/modes/whatever the fuck you are selling. I want everyone who purchases the game, now and forever, to get an identical product. Early bird discounts are fine, but everything else ruins the experience for me.

bengotow 13y ago

I've been hoping for a game like this for a long time. That said, I'm not going to support it until they demonstrate how it's going to be played. The problem is that programming is a challenging—and often frustrating—experience, and building it into a game in a way that is educational and enjoyable is not easy. Heck—even Notch said he couldn't figure out how to build programming into 0x10c in a way that worked.

pearjuice 13y ago

So any ideas about how to realize the technical side of such a game? Doesn't running arbitrary code bring all sorts of security risks?

rtkwe 13y ago
There are loads of different ways to sandbox a given process. If they're feeling particularly paranoid/lazy running each match in an ephemeral VM would be one way. Here's a SO question with more: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4249063/how-can-i-run-an-untrusted-c-program-in-a-sandbox-in-linux http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4249063/how-can-i-run-an-...

kmonsen 13y ago

No mention of platform support, no screenshots, no details at all. Just "hand over ~10 usd and we will give you something in the future.

gaoshan 13y ago

Given the number of these sorts of code contests, which ones do Hacker News readers like/dislike? I tried one mentioned on the reddit post linked in the top comment and enjoyed it (codewars). What do you all like?

yaddayadda 13y ago
I think this question is worthy of an "Ask HN" with one game per answer and people upvoting from there. Hope you post it as an "Ask HN" soon. :-)

javajosh 13y ago

I think that if you have at least a video of real game-play, your poised to take donations like this. If you have something users can download and play with, even if it's unstable, then you could definitely solicit. But a nice website and a vague concept is not good enough. I mean, in terms of specifics all we get is: "You've just landed on an island. Deploy your soldiers and decide when and how to attack to defeat your opponents. Code your strategy in Python or Javascript (more languages coming up!) and prove your skill in a revolutionary programming competition." Yeah, no.

yulaow 13y ago
Agree. Or you show a prototype or AT LEAST a video of the gameplay concept or you won't get any donations
- mikeurbanski 13y ago
  I love their design and I was a huge fan of Core Wars in HS. I've been trying to get them to give me a peek for the last week, I really want to cover them/give them free ad space at launch. Nothing. Radio Silence.

jdthomas 13y ago

Cool. Reminds me a bit of http://aichallenge.org/ http://aichallenge.org/ which was TONS of fun.

todd-davies 13y ago

The AI Sandbox looks similar to this. I've played it before and it was good! http://aisandbox.com/start/ http://aisandbox.com/start/

LolWolf 13y ago
Wow, been looking for something like this for some time... thank you.

shire 13y ago

I was excited until I noticed it hasn't launched yet. Looks fun though since Python is one of the choice.

trout 13y ago

For reference, this is an output of the Stanford startup engineering course (which I also signed up for after it hit the HN front page) In the homework, this is what they mention the goal of the 'bitstarter' page to be: "Choose a project which you can get to a crowdfunder People in the class have widely varying backgrounds, ranging from relative neophytes to fairly advanced students. Your goal is to figure out a final project that you can get to the level of a reasonable crowdfunding site. This can mean anything from verbal description and mockups to fully working code, or anything in between: whatever is necessary to make the sale and prove that you have a market. Note that you have control over who's seeing the crowdfunder (e.g. the people in your email list or social circle), so you are also determining the difficulty of the sale itself by choosing the market and the initial crowdfunding audience. Note also that you can just ask for someone to share your content on social media rather than pay you real money for a preorder. Open source projects are ok as well, not just for-profit businesses. The main guideline is to set your success bar at the point that it'll be an achievable challenge for you. That might be a target of $100 or it might be $100,000." You can see the other projects here: http://startupmooc.org/ http://startupmooc.org/

awhitty 13y ago
I took this class in person back in the winter. I was under the impression that this class would help me hone my web dev skills a bit, but it really turned out to be very focused on business dev. That said, Balaji provided some excellent advice, and the course itself is great for anyone interested in the startup process. Just don't expect to come out of the class as some web dev master.

SamBoogie 13y ago

This looks pretty interesting. My friends and I are working on a game in a similar vein to this one (teaching programming through gameplay) however it is a 2D platform game. If you like this sort of stuff check the project I'm working on at www.betathegame.com . We have done workshops with kids and have footage although we aren't releasing playable demo's just yet. We are closing in on completion. No need for donations but if you like what we're doing please share!

smallegan 13y ago

Does the name coders bother anyone else? Whenever I hear coders I think of people who do medical coding and billing.

noddingham 13y ago

Reminds me of Code Ruler/Code Rally/Robocode. Really good ideas, especially for use in academic settings.

sideproject 13y ago

This project is actually for sale. https://www.sideprojectors.com/project/project/144/code-conquer https://www.sideprojectors.com/project/project/144/code-conq... or the owner is seeking a co-founder.