Overview

What's Bomberjam?

Bomberjam is an event where programming teams compete in coding the best Bomberman bot.

The game world consists in a 13 x 11 tile grid with blocks that can be destroyed using bombs, bonuses randomly hidden in some of these blocks, and non-destructible walls. At the beginning of the game, each player (bot) will be assigned and placed at one of the four corners.

The tick is a counter that increases over time. At each tick, players will received the current state of the game and their player ID. They will have to decide whether to go left, right, up, down, to stay or drop a bomb.

Players get points by doing specific actions:

• Destroying blocks: 5 points
• Hit another player with a bomb: 20 points
• Being the last player standing: 50 points

Players can also lose points by getting hit by a bomb : -10 points

Installation

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 12.x
• .NET Core 2.0+ if you plan to code in C#

1. Checkout the starters git repository at https://github.com/bomberjam-2019/bomberjam-starters

2. Install Node.js dependencies using npm install

3. Run Bomberjam server locally using npm run server

4. Once the server is up and running, browse http://localhost:4321

5. Finish reading this page and the read the one that match your chosen starter. Happy coding!

SSH: git clone git@github.com:bomberjam-2019/bomberjam-starters.git
HTTPS: git clone https://github.com/bomberjam-2019/bomberjam-starters.git

The game state object

{
  "tick": 189,                 
  "width": 13,
  "height": 11,
  // flattened grid tiles, see tile type descriptions below
  "tiles": "****+++++++.*.#*#+#+#+#.#*++.+.++++++**+#+#+#+#+#.#*.+++++++.+++*+#+#+#.#+#.#.+.+..++..++++.#+#+#+#+#.#....++++++.....#+#+#+#+#+#...+++++++++..",
  // learn more about sudden death below
  "suddenDeathCountdown": 216, // number of ticks until the sudden death starts
  "suddenDeathEnabled": false, // whether or not the sudden death is active
  "players": {
    "gF7JULw01": {
      "id": "gF7JULw01",
      "name": "mySuperTeamName",
      "x": 0,
      "y": 1,
      "bombsLeft": 0,
      "maxBombs": 1,
      "bombRange": 2,
      "alive": true, // if true, the player has been killed by the sudden death and is no longer in the game
      "respawning": 0, // if positive, the player has been blown by a bomb and is now respawning for this amount of ticks
      "score": 15 // zero of positive number of points
    },
    "cU6VlQvrf": { ... },
    "bP9NFDqTb": { ... },
    "QMgU3aG3O": { ... }
  },
  "bombs": {
    "11": {
      "playerId": "QMgU3aG3O",
      "countdown": 4, // when countdown reach zero, the bomb explodes and is removed from this collection
      "range": 2,
      "x": 10,
      "y": 8
    },
    "12": { ... }
  },
  "bonuses": {
    "13": {
      "x": 3,
      "y": 0,
      "type": "bomb" // possible values: bomb (increases maxBombs) and fire (increases bombRange)
    }
  }
}

Tile types

Character	Description	Image
.	Walkable empty tile
*	Explosion
+	Destructible block
#	Non-destructible wall

Sudden death

When suddenDeathCountdown reach zero, new walls are added to the grid from the outside to the inside in a circular manner. Players that are on its way will die (player.alive: false) and won't respawn. The only player left gets extra points.

Respawning

If suddenDeathCountdown is not active and a player gets hit by a bomb, he will be teleported to his starting corner. For a specific amount of ticks (player.respawning), this player will be invincible but won't be able to drop bomb.

Bonuses

Players get permanent bonuses by walking on them.

Type	Description	Image
bomb	Increases player.maxBombs property
fire	Increases player.bombRange property

Loading gamelog files

A gamelog file is a save of all ticks of a game. Use the Load gamelog file link to load and replay a specific game.

Saved gamelogs will be saved in the gamelogs subfolder of the starters repository. Use these to understand how your bot behave.