6 ms·

A Programming War Between 545 Wizards

244 points by gsaines 12y ago

asselinpaul 12y ago
Finished 30th woo! Really enjoyed the challenge. Thank you Codecombat team. Hope to see some more in the future.
- gsaines 12y ago
  It was fun to host the competition! Hope to see you in the future competitions.
  - rezistik 12y ago
    I've played the game a bit but I just don't feel like I understand it. It seemed like there were only one or two commands so you basically coded that up and you pressed play. How does the game work exactly?
    - nwinter 12y ago
      I think you probably played the beginner levels? The tournament level in question was http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/greed http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/greed
tibbon 12y ago
I want to play in one of these, but this one has ended. Can we spin up another one somehow?
- nwinter 12y ago
  You can still play this one, there's just no tournament cutoff date or prizes any more. There are three other ongoing arenas here: http://codecombat.com/play/ladder http://codecombat.com/play/ladder We're working on the next tournament level, which will be ready for playtesting soon–message me if you want to help! Otherwise, it should be launched in a few weeks, so follow our blog to know when it starts. Not sure whether there will be prizes, but there will be glory.
otoburb 12y ago
This is a brilliant platform! Didn't realize the company was YC-backed. Curious to know if there has been any interest from junior or high schools to adapt to a classroom curriculum? Current CodeCombat business model seems to be connecting employers with budding Javascript programmers, but the educational angle may be a possible recurring revenue stream to explore.
- eterm 12y ago
  Here's one reason why it's not a brilliant platform, check the URL after clicking log in: http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/gold-rush?email=ohdear@example.org&password=goddam http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/gold-rush?email=ohdear@exa... edit: Seems to only happen after clicking log in on the main page right side bar rather than the header one.
  - nwinter 12y ago
    Can you email nick@codecombat.com to help us reproduce this? It sounds like a form is getting submitted somehow, which shouldn't happen. I haven't been able to reproduce in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari yet. Sorry about this–we take security seriously.
    - eterm 12y ago
      Thanks, I've dropped you an email with the steps to reproduce. Somehow I had landed on a particular ladder page and it looks like it may have an older style log in modal.
      - nwinter 12y ago
        Thank you! I'm tracking the bug over here and will fix soon: https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/issues/1153 https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/issues/1153
        Smudge 12y ago
        Nice response time!
jimmyislive 12y ago
Awesome work George....
- gsaines 12y ago
  Thanks Jimmy, just emailed you with a question about some business related stuff, but this post definitely did quite well!
josephschmoe 12y ago
I'm worried that these sorts of things can 'railroad' programmers, by giving them well-defined problems instead of truly open-ended ones. The real difficulty in learning programming isn't syntax - it's semantics. And when you finally become skilled in that, it's separation of concerns and modularization. Any programming learning tool should mirror those notions as players develop "skill". Otherwise, as a user, you'll end up great at programming simple AI's...without any knowledge of how programming actually works.
- sillysaurus3 12y ago
  If a programmer can't learn new ideas after learning poor ones, they're in trouble. Even pg started with BASIC.
  - josephschmoe 12y ago
    I'm worried they may push themselves into this: http://www.daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of-the-expert-beginner http://www.daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of... An expert beginner is a person who is very competent in one area, but is unable to expand their horizons without making some very big changes. In a perfect world, I would love it if this game slowly turned into a real programming environment, where the user experiences freedom with a trajectory that will push them into learning core programming concepts.
highsea 12y ago
It was a blast playing! Thank you CodeCombat team! PS. Here's my entry code: https://gist.github.com/mpolyak/8af627cbdf596b5e294a https://gist.github.com/mpolyak/8af627cbdf596b5e294a I wish I had more time to optimize it as well as develop additional army building strategies. See you at the next tournament!
Siecje 12y ago
Is there a video of 'how' you play?
waterside81 12y ago
If any of the Code Combat gang is lurking: 1) What did you use (javascript libraries, gaming engine etc.) to make the intro/tutorial? 2) The intro/tutorial is fantastically well done. Like really, really well done.
- nwinter 12y ago
  Hehe, from our point of view, the intro/tutorial needs a lot of work–if you watch the playtesters, anyway. We will continue to work on it. Most of our libraries and engines and such are listed here: https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/wiki/Third-party-software-and-services https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/wiki/Third-party-so... There are probably a few more in use. If you are really interested, all the code is open source, so you can dig into it here: https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat
rossjudson 12y ago
Anyone can play at a game like this. It's called Linux Kernel Development.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Vektorweg 12y ago
Actually, to see lots of elite programmers makes me sad. Because i try to be a good programmer long enough to be frustrated about myself.
- sejje 12y ago
  highsea kindly posted his (very good) code in this thread. Study that, for starters.
  - schmatz 12y ago
    I also linked to the code of the winners in the blog post (you can also find them here https://gist.github.com/schmatz https://gist.github.com/schmatz)
serf 12y ago
This is neat, and I just started playing with it. Please fix how it scales for vertical displays. I know that's a strange case, but it's near unplayable on a large 1200x1920 due to the graphics being scaled by the horizontal size of the browser. Perhaps when a display like that is encountered, logic moves the code editor below the gameplay window and keeps them equally sized horizontally?
doctorKrieger 12y ago
i would love to play one of these, provided it would be c++/python/haskell based.
- nwinter 12y ago
  We have experimental Python support now! blog.codecombat.com/new-experimental-languages-python-lua-clojure-and-io
  - codygman 12y ago
    I would spend way too much time on codecombat if Haskell were available. If I wanted to implement it like others implemented these languages would I just look over their code and try to emulate their process (except for Haskell differences) they've done? Is there any documentation on this? Should I just wait for the next blog post explaining things more? :D Thanks!
    - serickson 12y ago
      Come find us on our public hipchat room: http://www.hipchat.com/g3plnOKqa http://www.hipchat.com/g3plnOKqa We're on all the time that we're working (though we may often be afk hacking away on the site/business). There you'll also often find the people who wrote the parsers we have, but mainly you'll want to chat with Nick Winter, who wrote Aether. https://github.com/codecombat/aether https://github.com/codecombat/aether

244 points by gsaines 12y ago

asselinpaul 12y ago

Finished 30th woo! Really enjoyed the challenge. Thank you Codecombat team. Hope to see some more in the future.

gsaines 12y ago
It was fun to host the competition! Hope to see you in the future competitions.
- rezistik 12y ago
  I've played the game a bit but I just don't feel like I understand it. It seemed like there were only one or two commands so you basically coded that up and you pressed play. How does the game work exactly?
  - nwinter 12y ago
    I think you probably played the beginner levels? The tournament level in question was http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/greed http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/greed

tibbon 12y ago

I want to play in one of these, but this one has ended. Can we spin up another one somehow?

nwinter 12y ago
You can still play this one, there's just no tournament cutoff date or prizes any more. There are three other ongoing arenas here: http://codecombat.com/play/ladder http://codecombat.com/play/ladder We're working on the next tournament level, which will be ready for playtesting soon–message me if you want to help! Otherwise, it should be launched in a few weeks, so follow our blog to know when it starts. Not sure whether there will be prizes, but there will be glory.

otoburb 12y ago

This is a brilliant platform! Didn't realize the company was YC-backed. Curious to know if there has been any interest from junior or high schools to adapt to a classroom curriculum? Current CodeCombat business model seems to be connecting employers with budding Javascript programmers, but the educational angle may be a possible recurring revenue stream to explore.

eterm 12y ago
Here's one reason why it's not a brilliant platform, check the URL after clicking log in: http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/gold-rush?email=ohdear@example.org&password=goddam http://codecombat.com/play/ladder/gold-rush?email=ohdear@exa... edit: Seems to only happen after clicking log in on the main page right side bar rather than the header one.
- nwinter 12y ago
  Can you email nick@codecombat.com to help us reproduce this? It sounds like a form is getting submitted somehow, which shouldn't happen. I haven't been able to reproduce in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari yet. Sorry about this–we take security seriously.
  - eterm 12y ago
    Thanks, I've dropped you an email with the steps to reproduce. Somehow I had landed on a particular ladder page and it looks like it may have an older style log in modal.
    - nwinter 12y ago
      Thank you! I'm tracking the bug over here and will fix soon: https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/issues/1153 https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/issues/1153
      - Smudge 12y ago
        Nice response time!

jimmyislive 12y ago

Awesome work George....

gsaines 12y ago
Thanks Jimmy, just emailed you with a question about some business related stuff, but this post definitely did quite well!

josephschmoe 12y ago

I'm worried that these sorts of things can 'railroad' programmers, by giving them well-defined problems instead of truly open-ended ones. The real difficulty in learning programming isn't syntax - it's semantics. And when you finally become skilled in that, it's separation of concerns and modularization. Any programming learning tool should mirror those notions as players develop "skill". Otherwise, as a user, you'll end up great at programming simple AI's...without any knowledge of how programming actually works.

sillysaurus3 12y ago
If a programmer can't learn new ideas after learning poor ones, they're in trouble. Even pg started with BASIC.
- josephschmoe 12y ago
  I'm worried they may push themselves into this: http://www.daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of-the-expert-beginner http://www.daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of... An expert beginner is a person who is very competent in one area, but is unable to expand their horizons without making some very big changes. In a perfect world, I would love it if this game slowly turned into a real programming environment, where the user experiences freedom with a trajectory that will push them into learning core programming concepts.

highsea 12y ago

It was a blast playing! Thank you CodeCombat team! PS. Here's my entry code: https://gist.github.com/mpolyak/8af627cbdf596b5e294a https://gist.github.com/mpolyak/8af627cbdf596b5e294a I wish I had more time to optimize it as well as develop additional army building strategies. See you at the next tournament!

Siecje 12y ago

Is there a video of 'how' you play?

waterside81 12y ago

If any of the Code Combat gang is lurking: 1) What did you use (javascript libraries, gaming engine etc.) to make the intro/tutorial? 2) The intro/tutorial is fantastically well done. Like really, really well done.

nwinter 12y ago
Hehe, from our point of view, the intro/tutorial needs a lot of work–if you watch the playtesters, anyway. We will continue to work on it. Most of our libraries and engines and such are listed here: https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/wiki/Third-party-software-and-services https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat/wiki/Third-party-so... There are probably a few more in use. If you are really interested, all the code is open source, so you can dig into it here: https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat

rossjudson 12y ago

Anyone can play at a game like this. It's called Linux Kernel Development.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Vektorweg 12y ago

Actually, to see lots of elite programmers makes me sad. Because i try to be a good programmer long enough to be frustrated about myself.

sejje 12y ago
highsea kindly posted his (very good) code in this thread. Study that, for starters.
- schmatz 12y ago
  I also linked to the code of the winners in the blog post (you can also find them here https://gist.github.com/schmatz https://gist.github.com/schmatz)

serf 12y ago

This is neat, and I just started playing with it. Please fix how it scales for vertical displays. I know that's a strange case, but it's near unplayable on a large 1200x1920 due to the graphics being scaled by the horizontal size of the browser. Perhaps when a display like that is encountered, logic moves the code editor below the gameplay window and keeps them equally sized horizontally?

doctorKrieger 12y ago

i would love to play one of these, provided it would be c++/python/haskell based.

nwinter 12y ago
We have experimental Python support now! blog.codecombat.com/new-experimental-languages-python-lua-clojure-and-io
- codygman 12y ago
  I would spend way too much time on codecombat if Haskell were available. If I wanted to implement it like others implemented these languages would I just look over their code and try to emulate their process (except for Haskell differences) they've done? Is there any documentation on this? Should I just wait for the next blog post explaining things more? :D Thanks!
  - serickson 12y ago
    Come find us on our public hipchat room: http://www.hipchat.com/g3plnOKqa http://www.hipchat.com/g3plnOKqa We're on all the time that we're working (though we may often be afk hacking away on the site/business). There you'll also often find the people who wrote the parsers we have, but mainly you'll want to chat with Nick Winter, who wrote Aether. https://github.com/codecombat/aether https://github.com/codecombat/aether