BerryBots is a programming game. A player programs a ship that moves
around the stage, sees gameplay events, and shoots at other ships. The
API and game rules are simple and it's easy to get
started in just a few minutes.
The stage is also configured and controlled by a program, so the gameplay
on every stage is different. The
sample stages
include mazes, jousting, a race track, several arcade style games,
and a few battle stages. You can program custom stages for tournaments or to
focus on certain types of programming problems, like pathfinding or
classification algorithms.
BerryBots tries to follow in the footsteps of
Robocode,
Robot Battle,
Logo,
and many other great programming games. You "play" these games by writing
code to control a bot that moves around the screen. They can be used in
educational settings to make learning to code more fun, or to provide a
platform for exploring algorithms and AI.
BerryBots' origins can be traced back to
a discussion at the RoboWiki,
starting with a request from a legendary Robocoder to port Robocode to the
Raspberry Pi. A few months later, I got Raspberry Pi fever. I ordered one to
try writing a new programming game with the Raspberry Pi as the target
platform.
I began with the goal of creating a simplified, Robocode-esque game with
good performance on the Raspberry Pi. What I ended up with is a lightweight,
flexible game that runs fast enough for the Raspberry Pi, has simpler APIs
and game rules than Robocode, but also introduces a few elements that add a
lot of gameplay depth, like walls on the playing field, programmable stages,
simpler team support, and a secondary weapon.
BerryBots source code is released under the
zlib license. Grab it
from the Download page or the
GitHub repository.
