A Monk's Quest, questions

As I've said before, I'm happy to write and run a Monk's Quest type programming "competition". The motivation behind this type of challenge was sparked from recent dicussions, here and on chatter box. These challenges will therefore be ...

Problems not usually encountered at work.
Small enough to be completed by people with little time.
Open enough to have multiple solutions.
Competitive as well as co-operative (see below).
and above all .... Fun.

I have come up with a few ideas, but have a few concerns about whether or not people will actually do it. The reason for this post is simple; I'll post a few ideas and you tell me if you would like to actually do them. Probably best to /msg me, save cluttering up the thread.

The Weakest Link

Based on a UK game show, a team compete for a cash prize. The twist is that they have to work together to do well. It's a winner take all scenario. The challenge will involve Game Theory and may present some interesting methods of getting to the optimum solution.

Treasure Hunt

A simple game of running about picking up stuff. Will be an Agent oriented type problem with a communication element. Teams will compete against eachother. Again, there may be a co-operative twist, tbc.

Camel Round Up

Another game, (I love games), again played in teams, but this time the team is all on one side. You have to catch the tricky Camels. Opportunities will be given to write Camel and Sheppard code.

OK, these are all games ... but that's 'cos I love 'em. If you want me to carry on with something like this, let me know. /msg your interest in actually programming, and use the thread to discuss such general principals.

I'm happy to come up with a whole new set of ideas on a different tack, if people want a more "coding" oriented challenge as opposed to an "algorithmic" one.

I'm also interested in judging methods. I thought it might be nice to simple post the results and the people post the code (after the event). People can then vote on the code, giving XP as the prizes.

You're thoughts please ... I don't want to waste my time.

--
Brother Marvell

Comment on A Monk's Quest, questions

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Re: A Monk's Quest, questions by Blue (Hermit) on Dec 07, 2000 at 20:49 UTC
I like the idea. I like games. Heck, it seems everyone's first program was a tank game. I especially like the idea of code that plays against other code. Competative in a way that will allow us all of grow, not only on a 'neat Perl tricks' level, but also on algorithm design, etc. This would probably be easier if we had a standard way for code to talk to each other to compete. Client/server like. That might be fun to code. And someone with more experience with modules could do one that makes all the communications a black box so you don't have to worry about it. (Though some people would insist or rolling their own. {grin}.) Thoughts? =Blue ...you might be eaten by a grue...	[reply]
Re: A Monk's Quest, questions by jynx (Priest) on Dec 08, 2000 at 01:17 UTC
there are a lot of possibilities here, The one thing i would suggest to keep it nice and simple is to have the game developed in stages and prizes go to the winner of each stage. It sounds like you want to possibly have a gui involved here, and it would be easier if a gui was predefined so that you don't have a lot of different implementations of just one feature going on. But to allow for maximum creativity you could start with a contest on building that gui (which would have to have standard interfaces that the agent could call) and then move to the contest involving the agents. You could have a different gui designed for each contest, and the gui would be downloadable so that all participants designing an agent (or whatever) could use and test the gui (no changes!). Recently i had to design an agent and a gui for AI class and it is a hassle doing both at the same time (in my experience). Other than that it sounds fantastically fun and amusing (perl instead of java!!), i'd definitely have to turn something in... jynx	[reply]
Re: A Monk's Quest, questions by zigster (Hermit) on Dec 07, 2000 at 21:11 UTC
Count me in Mr Marvell.. Any game, Any time, damn it! yes a challenge.. I like it, all the problems sound interesting. Shame I have no-one to talk the problems through with... I have a problem with java exceptions atm that needs discussion, javamonks anyone? grins no maybe not. UPDATE: PS ++ will ocur tomorrow (now votes atm ;-( ) -- Zigster	[reply]