Success of a graduate of Computer Science at Jagiellonian University

Press Release

We have the winner of the first edition of the CodeCraft tournament

The first edition of the CodeCraft tournament, organized on the codearena.pl platform, has ended. The winner was a programmer from Gdańsk, Daniel Dymek. He won PLN 2,500 and in-kind prizes.

At the end of August, the first edition of the tournament for CodeCraft programmers ended. The competition task was to write an artificial intelligence that would direct the movements of the characters on the board and defeat the opponents. Almost 1,000 people from all over Poland signed up for the tournament.

The games started on July 31 and lasted throughout August. Participants tested individual games at the beginning and then moved on to friendly matches. Ultimately, the tournament was won by the ranking, headed by Daniel Dymek at the end of the tournament on August 31. The winner is a graduate of computer science at Jagiellonian University, is interested in new technologies and works as a C# programmer, and in his spare time he is addicted to watching TV series. The organizers met the laureate in person in Gdańsk and handed him a check for PLN 2,500 and in-kind prizes.

- The work on the algorithm for the last month has paid off - sums up the winner - although the opponents were quite a challenge, especially at the stage of playing ranked matches - he adds.

Contest participants from the next places in the ranking feel that they were close to winning, which further motivates them to take part in the next edition of CodeCraft. They agree that the tournament was an addictive entertainment for them, which they do not want to give up. The top five players received industry publications from PWN, and eight - Enemy Front games sponsored by CI Games, and T-shirts from 1ndie World and Games Rage.

The second edition of the tournament started on September 1 and will last until the end of the month. Registration is free for everyone until September 12, and later, you will have to pay PLN 9.99 to participate in the contest for prizes. This time, you can get PLN 3,000 , although the organizers provide for the possibility of raising the prize and extending the competition until the end of October. The game has been designed with attention to attractive graphics and an interesting plot.

- We want our players and their algorithms to develop with the next editions of the competition - says Adam Bicz , co-creator of CodeCraft - that is why in the second round some modifications appeared, e.g. the element of combat between the board characters. We also plan to add sounds and more advanced animations.

Codearena began to appear at industry events and meetings between players and programmers. You can meet the organizers of the tournament during such events as: Pog(R)adajmy, Tech Saturdays, World of Gamedev Knowledge Conference or Java User Group meetings. During the last Pog(R)adajmy, on August 30 in Warsaw, representatives of the Codearena were honored by the participants of the meeting with a statuette for the most interesting presentation.

The organizer of the CodeCraft competition is codearena.pl - a platform with cyclical tournaments for programmers, which are about the competition of artificial intelligence written by the participants. These are the first tournaments on the Polish market based on an advanced mechanism of strategic games using attractive graphics, in which the player is artificial intelligence, not human.

More information at: http://codearena.pl

Contact:

Karolina Ostaszewska

PR Manager

http://codearena.pl

E-mail: karolina.ostaszewska@codearena.pl

Interview with the winner of the first edition of CodeCraft, Daniel Dymek

Daniel Dymek won the first edition of the CodeCraft tournament. He wrote his artificial intelligence, which beat other players, in C#.

Codearena: What prompted you to take part in the CodeCraft tournament?

Daniel Dymek: I like this kind of challenge, and the first place prize was tempting, so I decided to give it a try.

Codearena: Have you ever participated in a similar competition?

D. Dymek: As for the AI ​​competition, we once won the Lego Mindstorms robot competition while studying with a roommate. In addition, I took part in more algorithmic competitions - recently at the Future3 fair in Gdańsk, previously without major successes Algorithmic Skirmishes etc.

Codearena: Was it difficult to start the games?

D. Dymek: I made the first manual version quite quickly, but later it turned out that half of it could be rewritten. The very beginning was not a problem for me, I think that later at the stage of creating and refining the strategy, as well as looking for mistakes, it was more difficult.

Codearena: How long did it take you to pass the first board?

D. Balloon: Since I had manual control at the beginning, I went through the first board in this way, several times - I tested the map drawing. The second board can be considered the beginning of some artificial intelligence in my code, I think I got through it about 10 days after I started writing.

Codearena: How much time did you spend writing code in total?

D. Balloon: About 50 - 60 hours.

Codearena: What did you like the most about the CodeCraft tournament?

D. Balloon: Ability to check if my algorithm will be better than others. Besides, it was probably the first time since my studies that I had the opportunity to use theoretical knowledge, such as drawing paths in a graph - it turned out that I remember and am able to use most of the things.

Codearena: What was the most difficult for you?

D. Dymek: I had a huge problem with disconnecting in games waiting for a second player. After searching for the error for a few hours, it seems to me (although I'm still not sure) that my WiFi router was just to blame, and the code was still ok. In addition, thread synchronization and generally multi-threading - as if it was a lot in college, but in this case I had to do a solid revision.

Codearena: How do you rate the level of the tournament?

D. Dymek: The opponents were quite a challenge, especially at the stage of playing ranked matches.

Codearena: What did you learn during the tournament?

D. Dymek: The most organization and persistence to develop your program after 8 hours of work.

Codearena: Would you recommend the tournament to others?

D. Dymek: Of course, it's a great opportunity to test your skills and learn something new.

Codearena: Would you make any modifications, improvements to the tournament?

D. Dymek: From the very beginning I thought that adding a fight to the tournament would be a good idea - in the September edition it will be what makes me happy. There are also good suggestions on the forum - I would especially favor the introduction of random maps or at least increasing their number and the possibility of changing the type of game (solo, friendly, ranking) from the level of XML sent.

Codearena: Congratulations again on winning! Thank you for your commitment and good luck in the next editions of CodeCraft.

Contact:

Karolina Ostaszewska

PR Manager
Published Date: 09.09.2014
Published by: Krzysztof Bartosz