Last updated: 1 June 2018

Monad is a web-based artificial intelligence programming challenge. The user-facing interface is a web client where users submit code files that implement artificial intelligence agents (hereafter referred to as "bots"). Once submitted, users pit their bots against those designed by other users in a simple yet engaging turn-based strategy game combining elements of Starcraft and chess.

Monad is currently deployed and publicly at playmonad.com.

As of June 1, 2018, Monad is no longer under active development, at least for the time being.

The itemization below shows the features that we accomplished throughout our two terms working on the project in an academic setting (Dartmouth's CS98) as well as those features that were under consideration but were never implemented. These may serve as a starting point should development re-commence in the future.

Implemented: Winter, 2018

• Initial game logic
• Initial GameHelper class to aid users in bot development
• Containerized worker to run matches safely
• Web client that allows users to:
  • Register / sign in
  • Upload a new bot
  • Modify an existing bot (with new code)
  • Start a match against a selected opponent
  • View replays of matches (both those that they have participated in and others)
  • View the profile of other users
  • Create and join groups
  • View leaderboards of bot performance
  • Upload locally-produced replay files and view corresponding replays
  • View documentation on game rules, development, and strategy
• Web API that supports the functions of both the web client and the worker and couples the two components together

Implemented: Spring, 2018

• Improved UI / UX experience
• Guided tutorials regarding bot development
• Guided tutorials regarding bot strategy improvement
• Sample bots of various skill levels against which users may train their bots and gauge progress
• Collection and visualization of individual match statistics (units, resources, etc.)
• Support for matches of varying numbers of players
• More advanced / aesthetically pleasing replay graphics
• Native desktop application for match replay visualization
• CLI to enable more efficient local bot development
• Support for easily-alterable hyperparameter choices within bot implementations

Future Directions

• Game universe lore
• Online IDE to implement bots
• Online discussion forum
• Feed page to display activity of users of interest
• More complex game mechanics allowing for cooperation
• More complex game mechanics allowing for incomplete information
• Support for a larger subset of programming languages
• Support for machine learning

This project consists of several distinct components that together implement the above functionality.

Web Client

The project's user-facing interface. This component is responsible for allowing users to register, login, upload bots, and interact with other users of the application. The web client follows the single-page application paradigm.

The code that implements the web client is located in the web/ subdirectory.

Web Documentation

User-facing documentation regarding all aspects of interacting with the product including getting started, game rules, strategies, and an API reference. We use GitBook to generate a static site that provides this documentation.

The code that implements the web documentation is located in the docs/ subdirectory.

Web API

The project's web server. This component is responsible for receiving requests from the both the web client and the game engine, performing some computation in response to these requests, interacting with the database, and generating appropriate responses. The web API follows the REST paradigm.

The code that implements the web API is located in the api/ subdirectory.

Database

The project's persistence layer. This component is responsible for maintaining user-produced data, including account details, match and bot statistics, and bot code files.

For bot code file persistence, we use Amazon S3. For all other data persistence, we use MongoDB.

The code that implements the database is located in the api/ subdirectory.

Worker

A containerized infrastructure for running matches. The game engine is a process that constantly polls the web API awaiting matches to run, initiates these matches once they become available, and communicates the results of these matches to the web API once they conclude.

We use Docker for containerization.

The code that implements the worker is located in the worker/ subdirectory.

Game Engine / Game Logic

The rules and protocols that implement the game itself, as well as a definition of the procedure for running an individual game.

The code that implements the game engine and game logic is located in the game/ subdirectory.

Bot Development Kit

A wrapper around various game protocols to allow users to design and implement bots more efficiently by abstracting away low level details.

The code that implements the bot development kit is located in the devkit/ subdirectory.

Offline Visualizer

A standalone native desktop application (implemented with Electron) that allows users to visualize match replays during local bot development and debugging without an internet connection.

The code that implements the offline visualizer is located in the visulizer/ subdirectory.

Web Client

Navigate to the web/ directory.

The command npm run start will build and serve the client at localhost:4000.

To build for production, run npm run build.

View README in the web/ subdirectory for more details.

Web Documentation

Navigate to the docs/ directory.

The command npm run serve will build the static site and serve it at localhost:4001.

To build for production, run npm run build.

View README in the docs/ subdirectory for more details.

Web API

Navigate to the api/ directory.

Ensure that you have Docker installed on your machine.

The command npm run build (equivalent to docker-compose build) will build the Docker images necessary to run the API locally. Once the image has been built, run npm run up (equivalent to docker-compose up) to run the API locally. Docker links together mongo, redis, and the web components for you.

View README in the api/ subdirectory for more details.

Worker

Navigate to the worker/ directory.

Ensure that you have Docker installed on your machine.

The command make will build and configure the worker. You should now be ready to run the script ./start.sh and see a 'game' spin up, where the bots do nothing.

View README in the worker/ subdirectory for more details.

Offline Visualizer

Navigate to the visualizer/ directory.

The command npm run electron-dev will build the application and serve it via webpack-dev-server in an Electron application window.

To build for production, run npm run electron-pack.

View README in the visualizer/ subdirectory for more details.

Assets

In addition to the moving pieces of the platform described above, we maintain a growing volume of downloadable content for users. This content includes the local bot development kit, the offline visualizer, and sample bot archives.

Downloadable content is managed automatically via a collection of scripts maintained in the internal/ subdirectory. See the README there for more details.

Web Client

We deploy the web client statically with Surge. Running npm run deploy in the web/ directory will deploy the client to the production site at playmonad.com.

npm run deploy-dev will deploy to the staging site at monad-dev.surge.sh.

Web Documentation

We deploy the web documentation statically with Surge. Running npm run deploy in the docs/ directory will deploy the documentation.

Web API

We deploy the web API with Heroku.

Running heroku container:push web -a APPNAME will deploy to the application at APPNAME.

Worker

We deploy the worker with Heroku.

Gabe Boning, Kyle Dotterrer, Robin Jayaswal, Paul Spangfort, Tong Xu

We owe a great deal to Professor Tim Tregubov for providing an academic setting in which a project like this may be realized. Cheers, Tim!

We derived a significant degree of inspiration from the Halite programming challenge. While we are deeply indebted to the creators of this superb competition, we simultaneously hope to differentiate our product from theirs via original game mechanics and additional web interface functionalities that combine to produce a fundamentally different user experience.