ColorShapeLinks AI competition

An AI competition for the IEEE CoG 2021 conference

Important dates (updated!) | Daily standings | Implementation guide | Tutorial video

Description

ColorShapeLinks is an AI competition for the Simplexity board game with arbitrary game dimensions. The first player to place n pieces of the same type in a row wins. In this regard, the base game, with a 6 x 7 board and n = 4, is similar to Connect Four. However, pieces are defined not only by color, but also by shape: round or square. Round or white pieces offer the win to player 1, while square or red pieces do the same for player 2. Contrary to color, players start the game with pieces of both shapes. This means that a less observant player can lose in its turn, especially since shape has priority over color as a winning condition. Given this fact, as well as the arbitrary game dimensions, the challenges for the AI are multifold.

AI agents must be implemented in C# (.NET Standard 2.0) by extending one class and overriding one method. The development framework includes both console and Unity frontends (.NET Core 3.1 and Unity 2019.4 LTS, respectively) and can be downloaded with the following command (requires Git and Git LFS):

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/VideojogosLusofona/color-shape-links-ai-competition.git

If you did a regular clone and are missing the submodule folders, these can be populated and/or updated with:

git submodule update --init --recursive

The implementation guide contains the required documentation for developing an AI agent for ColorShapeLinks. Th

The competition

Tracks and prize money

The competition runs on two distinct tracks:

1. The Base Track competition will be played using standard Simplexity rules (6x7 board, 4 pieces in a row for victory) and with a time limit of 0.2 seconds. Only one processor core will be available for the AIs.
2. The Unknown Track competition will be played on a multi-core processor under conditions that will only be revealed after the competition deadline. These conditions will be derived from the EuroMillions draw that will take place on July 30, 2021, as follows:
   • NumberOfRows = Lowest EuroMillions ball number higher than 6 (ascending order).
   • NumberOfCols = Next EuroMillions ball (ascending order).
   • WiningSequenceLength = Ceil(NumberOfRows / 2.0).
   • InitialNumberOfRoundPiecesPerPlayer = Floor(NumberOfRows * NumberOfCols / 4.0)
   • InitialNumberOfSquarePiecesPerPlayer = Ceil(NumberOfRows * NumberOfCols / 4.0)
   • TimeLimit (milliseconds) = 25 * Max(NumberOfRows, NumberOfCols)

The winner of each track will receive a prize money of $500 (USD), sponsored by the IEEE CIS Competition Subcommittee.

Standings

All AI agents will play against each other two times, so each agent has the opportunity to play first. Players will be awarded 3 points per win, 1 point per draw and 0 points per loss. The standings for each track will be based on the total number of points obtained per AI, sorted in descending order.

Tie-breaks are performed only when there are two or more AIs with the same points in first place. In such cases, ties are solved according to the greatest number of points obtained in the matches between AIs with the same points. If the tie persists, the AIs are considered officially tied and ex aequo winners of the competition.

Standings for the base track and two other test configurations are updated daily. These offer a good idea of how each AI is faring. However, there are two issues which may impact final results:

1. The actual competition will run on a slightly more powerful computer, with possibly newer software (e.g., a more recent OS kernel or .NET version).
2. After the first deadline, submissions may require changes in order to comply with the rules.

Submissions

AI agents should be submitted via email to [email protected]. Only one agent is allowed per team, but multiple submissions are encouraged (within reasonable frequency) as the agent is being developed and improved. Upon submission, the submitted code is:

1. Superficially checked for rule compliance, though not otherwise studied or analysed. Thorough tests will be performed only after the first deadline for AI submissions.
2. Added to the automated competitions, the standings of which are updated daily.

All submitted codes are considered private and will not be shared, discussed or analyzed by the organization, except for rule compliance purposes.

Important dates

• May 28 (optional) - IEEE CoG competition papers deadline, e.g., for participants that wish to submit a paper about their entry for this competition.
• July 15 July 29 - First deadline for AI submissions. Submissions will be thoroughly checked for rule compliance and technical issues.
• July 20 August 3 - Author notification of any issues encountered with the submissions.
• July 25 August 9 - Final deadline for AI submissions + short description of the methods used for implementing the AI.
• July 30 August 10 - EuroMillions draw which will determine the conditions for the Unknown track.
• August 17-20 - IEEE CoG 2021 takes place, final competition results are announced.

These dates are anywhere in the world.

Rules

Rules for the AI code

• Can only use cross-platform .NET Standard 2.0 API calls in C#.
• Can use additional (open-source) libraries which abide by these same rules.
• Must run in the same process that invokes it.
• Can be multithreaded and use unsafe contexts.
• Cannot think in its opponent time (e.g., by using a background thread).
• Must acknowledge cancellation requests, in which case it should terminate quickly and in an orderly fashion.
• Can only probe the environment for the number of processor cores. Cannot search or use any other information, besides what is already available in the AbstractThinker class or passed to the Think() method, e.g., such as using reflection to probe the capabilities of its opponents.
• Cannot use and/or communicate with external data sources.
• Cannot use more than 2GB of memory during the course of a match.
• Must have a reasonable size in disk, including libraries. For example, source code, project files and compiled binaries should not exceed 1 MB.

General competition rules

• Submissions automatically compete in both tracks with the same setup parameters (if any are specified).
• An individual may only be affiliated with one team, except for teachers or supervisors of student teams, which may be affiliated with more than one team.
• Attending IEEE CoG 2021 is not mandatory for participating in the competition. However, all participants are invited to submit a competition paper about their entry (in which case, please cite this publication).

Resources and guides

• Implementation guide
• Tutorial video
• Standings (updated daily)
• ColorShapeLinks: A board game AI competition for educators and students

Licenses

The code is made available under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. All the text and documentation (i.e., non-code files) are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Organization

• Nuno Fachada, COPELABS, Lusófona University, Portugal
• Contact us by e-mail or open an issue