Battlesnake Quickstart

A framework for easily creating Kotlin and Java Battlesnakes

Motivation

Out of the box, Battlesnake requires a fair amount of JSON/REST wiring before one can start authoring a snake. That initial exercise can prove problematic for some developers. This repo takes care of the wiring and communications and provides a simple framework for writing Battlesnakes in Kotlin and Java.

Usage

1. Define a snake as a subclass of AbstractBattleSnake.

2. Implement the two abstract classes of AbstractBattleSnake: snakeContext() and gameStrategy().

3. Define a SnakeContext object to maintain state between game moves. The framework creates SnakeContext instances at the start of every game (one for each snake your server is supporting).

4. Define a GameStrategy object to produce responses for the /, /start, /move, and /end requests. The framework creates a single GameStrategy instance when the server launches.

Examples

Examples of simple Battlesnakes created with this framework are here.

Clone your own snake

Use the Battlesnake_Template to clone the code for your own snake.

Minimal Kotlin Battlesnake

object ExampleSnake : AbstractBattleSnake<MySnakeContext>(){
  
    // Called once during server launch
    override fun gameStrategy() : GameStrategy<MySnakeContext> =
        strategy(verbose = true) {

            // DescribeResponse describes snake color and head/tail type
            onDescribe { call: ApplicationCall ->
                DescribeResponse("#ff00ff", "beluga", "bolt")
            }

            // MoveResponse can be LEFT, RIGHT, UP or DOWN
            onMove { context: MySnakeContext, request: MoveRequest ->
                RIGHT
            }
        }

    // Called at the beginning of each game on Start for each snake
    override fun snakeContext(): MySnakeContext = MySnakeContext()

    // Add any necessary snake-specific data to the SnakeContext class
    class MySnakeContext : SnakeContext() {
        // Snake-specific context data goes here
    }

    @JvmStatic
    fun main(args: Array<String>) {
        run()
    }
}

Minimal Java Battlesnake

public class ExampleSnake extends AbstractBattleSnake<ExampleSnake.MySnakeContext> {

    // Called at the beginning of each game on Start for each snake
    @Override
    public MySnakeContext snakeContext() {
        return new MySnakeContext();
    }

    // Called once during server launch
    @Override
    public MyGameStrategy gameStrategy() {
        return new MyGameStrategy(true);
    }

    // Add any necessary snake-specific data to the SnakeContext class
    static class MySnakeContext extends SnakeContext {
        // Snake-specific context data goes here
    }

    static class MyGameStrategy extends AbstractGameStrategy<MySnakeContext> {
        public MyGameStrategy(boolean verbose) {
            super(verbose);
        }
        
        // DescibeResponse describes snake color and head/tail type
        @Override
        public DescibeResponse onDescribe(MySnakeContext context, StartRequest request) {
            return new DescribeResponse("me", "#ff00ff", "beluga", "bolt");
        }
        
        // MoveResponse can be LEFT, RIGHT, UP or DOWN
        @Override
        public MoveResponse onMove(MySnakeContext context, MoveRequest request) {
            return RIGHT;
        }
    }              
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new ExampleSnake().run(8080);
    }
}