BattleSnake is an adaptation of the classic video game "Snake", where the player maneuvers a snake around the game board to collect food pellets, which makes the snake grow longer. The main objective is to collect as much food as as possible while avoiding obstacles like walls and snakes' body.
In BattleSnake a number of snakes are pitted against each other and the last snake alive wins.
If a snake leaves the last tile of the board, they will die.
Eating a food pellet will make snakes one segment longer. Snakes grow out of their tail: new tail segment will appear in the same square that the tail was in the previous turn.
Eating a food pellet will restore snakes' health-points to 100.
The amount of food can vary from game to game, but within the same game it will always stay the same. As soon as a piece of food is eaten, it will respawn at a random, unoccupied location on the next turn.
Every turn snakes will loose one health-point. In BattleSnake health-points serve like the snake's hunger bar, and if it reaches zero, the snake will starve and die. Eating food will restore snake's health to one-hundred points on the next turn.
If a snake collides with itself or any other snakes' tails, it dies.
Head-to-head collisions follow different rules than the previously mentioned tail collisions.
In head-on collisions, the longer snake will survive.
But if both snakes are the same size, they both die. Note that in the below scenario, the food remains (collisions are resolved before food is eaten).
If you have a game server running locally you can visit /test, plug your
snake's URL in and a number of tests will be run against your server, checking
if it follows all the basic game rules.
All interactions with the game are implemented as HTTP POST webhooks. Once the
game has begun your server will receive a request to your /start endpoint, and
then on each turn a request to the /move endpoint. When a game has completed and the last move has been processed, a request to the /end endpoint will be made with information about which snake won, dead snakes, and death reasons.
A request including the game_id will be issued to this endpoint to signify the start of a new game. The game server expects a JSON response with some information about your snake in order to start the game.
You can customise your snake with a head and tail type from the lists below:
String referring to what head image should be used for your snake.
Renders one of the matching images in this directory.
bendrdeadfangpixelregularsafesand-wormshadessmiletongue
String referring to what tail image should be used for your snake.
Renders one of the matching images in this directory.
block-bumcurledfat-rattlefreckledpixelregularround-bumskinnysmall-rattle
{
"game_id": 1,
"width": 20,
"height": 20
}{
"color": "#FF0000",
"secondary_color": "#00FF00",
"head_url": "http://placecage.com/c/100/100",
"taunt": "OH GOD NOT THE BEES",
"head_type": "pixel",
"tail_type": "pixel"
}A request including all the current game information will be issued to this endpoint on each turn. The game server expects a JSON response within 200ms.
{
"food": {
"data": [
{
"object": "point",
"x": 0,
"y": 9
}
],
"object": "list"
},
"height": 20,
"id": 1,
"object": "world",
"snakes": {
"data": [
{
"body": {
"data": [
{
"object": "point",
"x": 13,
"y": 19
},
{
"object": "point",
"x": 13,
"y": 19
},
{
"object": "point",
"x": 13,
"y": 19
}
],
"object": "list"
},
"health": 100,
"id": "58a0142f-4cd7-4d35-9b17-815ec8ff8e70",
"length": 3,
"name": "Sonic Snake",
"object": "snake",
"taunt": "Gotta go fast"
},
{
"body": {
"data": [
{
"object": "point",
"x": 8,
"y": 15
},
{
"object": "point",
"x": 8,
"y": 15
},
{
"object": "point",
"x": 8,
"y": 15
}
],
"object": "list"
},
"health": 100,
"id": "48ca23a2-dde8-4d0f-b03a-61cc9780427e",
"length": 3,
"name": "Typescript Snake",
"object": "snake",
"taunt": ""
}
],
"object": "list"
},
"turn": 0,
"width": 20,
"you": {
"body": {
"data": [
{
"object": "point",
"x": 8,
"y": 15
},
{
"object": "point",
"x": 8,
"y": 15
},
{
"object": "point",
"x": 8,
"y": 15
}
],
"object": "list"
},
"health": 100,
"id": "48ca23a2-dde8-4d0f-b03a-61cc9780427e",
"length": 3,
"name": "Typescript Snake",
"object": "snake",
"taunt": ""
}
}{
"move": "up"
}A request including end game information such as winners, dead snakes, and death reasons will be issued to this endpoint at the end of the game.
Possible death causes are:
body collisionhead collisionself collisionstarvationwall collision
{
"game_id": 10,
"winners": [ "a46b558b-f31b-418f-bb07-6017dd91f653" ],
"dead_snakes": {
"object": "list",
"data": [{
"id": "4a35fd1c-434b-431b-839c-edf958d67e9a",
"length": 3,
"death": {
"turn": 4,
"causes": ["self collision"]
}
}]
}
}Simply return a 200 OK response, the server will stop processing this game moving forward.
You can run the official BattleSnake game server through Docker, allowing you to develop your snakes locally and whenever you want.
docker pull sendwithus/battlesnake-server
docker run --rm -it -p 3000:3000 sendwithus/battlesnake-serverYou can then view the game server at http://localhost:3000.
NOTE: If you are running your snake on localhost or on the same local machine where you're running the game server, you won't be able to reference it as localhost in the game setup UI because the game server docker container runs on its own network. What this means for you is that you will need to use your computer's IP address (something like http://192.168.1.10:<port>) as your snake URL in order to add it to a game and not http://localhost:<port>.
brew update && brew install erlang elixir nodejs yarnYou should manage Erlang through evm and Elixir through kiex.
git clone git@github.com:sendwithus/battlesnake-server.git`
cd battlesnake-server
mix do local.hex --force, local.rebar
mix do deps.get, deps.compile
mix do ecto.create, ecto.migrate
yarn install
mix phx.serveryarn cypress:openmix testSpotted an inaccuracy in the document, think they suck, or have a suggestion on how to make it better? Open an issue, or even better submit a PR!