What is PythonBot?

PythonBot is a game where you write an AI (in Python) which will fight in an arena for its survival.

Each bot in the arena has its own AI, written by a player. The bot can move around, scan its environment, and shoot bullets at others. The game ends when there is only one survivor (or when the game master decide to stop it, as it can be very long), but you can also attribute victory on other critters (like the number of kills among the survivors).

You do not need to have a deep knowledge of Python to play; even without any basis, you could easily write your bot in a short amount of time (provided you already have some understanding with programming languages).

Installation

Requirements

• The game engine uses SFML (http://www.sfml-dev.org/index.php) so you will need it
• The bots are written in Python, and consequently need Python
• Linux, Windows or Mac

Linux

1. Install SFML (for Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libsfml-dev)
2. Install Python (already installed in Ubuntu)
3. Download the game (clone the repository or download the zip archive)
4. Compile it: go into the game directory and type make

Windows

I installed the game on Windows only once (a long time ago) and so do not remember well the steps in detail. It should be straighforward, and I give the main steps here:

1. Install SFML (See https://www.sfml-dev.org/tutorials/2.5)
2. Install Python (Choose "Windows installer (64-bit)" in https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-391/)
3. Download the game (clone the repository or download the zip archive)
4. Compile it using your favorite IDE (make sure to link against sfml-system, sfml-window, sfml-graphics, and sfml-network)
5. Move the executable in the root directory (the one where pythonbot.py is), and rename it to pythonbot_core

Mac

I never tried on Mac, but I assume it works the same way.

1. Install SFML (See https://www.sfml-dev.org/tutorials/2.5/start-osx-fr.php)
2. Install Python (Choose "macOS 64-bit Intel installer" in https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-391/)
3. Download the game (clone the repository or download the zip archive)
4. Compile it using Xcode (make sure to link against sfml-system, sfml-window, sfml-graphics, and sfml-network), or do it in the Unix way
5. Move the executable in the root directory (the one where pythonbot.py is), and rename it to pythonbot_core

Test it

Start the program

Once the game is compiled, just run the script pythonbot.py in a terminal: python pythonbot.py. Pause/unpause the game by pressing the space bar. Admire how the bots seek and destroy each others (actually the default bots are not that smart...).

Use different bots

By default, 5 bots are participating into the fight, and you will see that they are not very intelligent. These bots are located in the subdirectory Bots/. You can find other examples in the BotLibrary/ folder. To use a bot, just copy it to the Bots/ folder.

Write your own bot!

Creating your bot is very simple. What you need is to create a python file named after the name of your bot (for example myBot.py). Inside this file, create a function main that takes one argument bot:

def main(bot):

The object bot gives you access to five functions:

• skip(): do nothing
• move(): advance your bot by one unit of distance
• rotate(angle): rotate your bot by angle degrees (not radians)
• fire(): fire, but only if you have some bullets left
• scan(distance, radius, scan_circles, scan_bots, scan_bullets): Err, this one is harder. Basically scan the map in a circle to see if there are enemy bots, bullets, or just walls

If for instance I want to move forward, I write: bot.move()

Description of the scan() function:

1. distance is the relative distance from your bot to the center of the circle you're scanning
2. radius is the radius of this very circle
3. scan_circles is a boolean that tells if walls should be scanned
4. scan_bots is the same but for the bots. Note that dead bots nor your bot are scanned
5. scan_bullets is also the same, but for enemys' bullets

This function returns a triplet which contains respectively:

1. The number of walls (if there is at least one wall, you probably want to rotate)
2. The number of enemy bots
3. The number of enemy bullets

Finally, your bot has access to its life remaining, its number of bullets available, and its number of kill (see the bot "dumb" for an example). These are not functions, just attributes, so you can only read it, like this:

bot.health
bot.bullets
bot.kills

And that's it! Just build your AI from these functions, and don't forget that you can look at the bots provided in BotLibrary to find inspiration ;)

Here is the most basic bot you can build (does nothing):

def main(bot):
  while True:
    bot.skip()

Improve PythonBot!

Modifications to PythonBot are encouraged! Feel free to fork, clone, download... and change it in the way you like :)

The smartest brains out there will notice that other languages could easily replace Python (overlay of the Python functions, or rewritting of the Python module in another language, thanks to TCP).

I used a GPL license, so PythonBot will stay open forever. You can still do whatever you want with it, as long as you provide the sources when releasing your version. More information on the GPL here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/

Notes

Status of the development

I am no longer releasing updates as I consider that the game reached a really good shape (compared to what I had in mind at the beginning). I would still love to receive feedback, so feel free to contact me if you liked the game. I am open to suggestions, but I will implement them only if I really (really) like your idea −so you can try−. However let me now if you encounter bugs, I will fix these!

License

PythonBot - A game by a developer for developers.
Copyright (C) 2015-2021 Jean-Marie BARAN

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Refer to 'LICENSE.txt' for the full notice.

The license apply for all source files (both C++ and Python), README.md and LICENSE.txt. The bots provided in Bots/ and BotLibrary/ are not part of the license. The Makefile, and Git-related files (.gitignore) are not part of the license.