Advolition

Overview

Advolition is a roguelike adventure game in which 1-4 players program robots that compete to explore a randomly generated dungeon and collect items that increase their power and wealth.

The robots are programmed by creating and uploading JavaScript classes that the game engine uses to determine how each of the machines responds to its environment.

The only factors that distinguish one robot from one another are their programs and the items that they find and equip in the dungeon. These items affect the robots' abilities and add their overall scores. The robot with the highest score at the end of the game wins.

I'm creating the game to help teach students how to program in object oriented programming languages like JavaScript.

You can play the most recent version of the game at https://darozak.github.io/Advolition/

Programming your robot

Players program their robots by creating JavaScript classes that tell the robots how to respond to their environments. Every program must have a class definition that extends the Program class, a run function that accepts a scan data object its an argument and returns an action object, and an object declaration that establishes and unnamed instance of the class.

Here is an example of the most basic "Hello world!" program that your robot can run:

class MyProgram extends Program {
    run(myData) {
        var myAction = new Say('Hello world!');
        return myAction;
    }
}
new MyProgram();

The run function must accept an object that contains the most current information about your robot and its environment. It must also return an extension of the Action class that dictates the robot's next action.

A robot can only perform one action at a time. Different actions take different amounts of time to complete. Whenever an action is complete, the game engine will execute the robot's run function and pass it the most current information about its environment via the myData object.

Therefore, the player must design a run function to analyze the robot's current situation and request a new action from the game engine.

myData

Everthing that a robot needs to know about its environment is contained in the myData data set that is passed to the robot via the run method.

ScanData Class

Variable	Type	Description
gameTime	number	The current game time, which counts down to zero.
itemMap[x][y][n]	Item	A 3D array that can contain any number (n) of items located at the x, y coordinate.
mapSize	Vector	A vector that holds the maximum x, y coordinate of the game map.
myID	number	The robot's ID, which can be used to access data about itself drom the robots array.
robotMap[x][y]	number	A 2D array that contains the ID of the robot located at that position. A negative value indicates that no robot is present at that location.
robots[n]	RobotData	The data on a specific robot (n).
scanTime[x][y]	number	The last time at which your robot scanned position x, y. Any robot or item data asociated with that location will be current as of that point in time. A negative value indicates that this position has not yet been scanned by the robot.
tileMap[x][y]	number	The numeric ID of the tile at position x, y. A negative value indicates that the this position has not yet been scaned by the robot.
tiles[n]	Tile	Information on tile type n.

Item Class

The item class is used to describe to properties and status of all in-game items.

Variable	Type	Description
effects	Stat	The effect the item has on each of the robot's stats when equipped.
isEquipped	boolean	True if the item is equipped.
name	string	The name of the item.
timeToEquip	number	This is the time required to equip an item for use.

Attributes Class

Both robots and items have attributes. Generally, a robot's attributes sum all the attributes of it's equipped items.

Variable	Type	Description
credits	number	The total value of the robot or item. The robot with the greatest value at the end of the game wins.
HPs	number	The total amount of hitpoints posessed by a robot or provided by an intem.
moveCost	number	The total power cost of a move action.
moveTime	number	The amount of time it takes for a robot to complete a move action.

Action Classes

Advolition has eight pre-defined Action class extensions that the robot can use to describe it's next move. These classes are as follows:

Attack(target: Vector)

The Attack class is used to create an object that instructs the Game Engine to attack a robot at the target Vector using all of its equipped weapons.

Drop(item: string)

The Drop class creates an object that tells the Game Engine to drop the named item from the robot's inventory.

Equip(item: string)

The Equip class creates a JavaScript object that tells the the Game Engine to equip the specified item from the robot's inventory.

Move(target: Vector)

The move class can be used to create a JavaScript object that tells the game engine to move the robot to the adjacent tile that is closest to the target vector.

Say(message: string)

The Say class produces an object that causes the Game Engine to post the indicated message to the event log that is displayed to the players.

Scan()

The Scan class creates an object that instructs the robot to scan its surroundings using any equipped scanners.

Take(item: string)

The Take class allows the player to create an object that announces the robot's intention to pick up an item from the ground.

Unequip(item: string)

The Unequip class is used to create an object that tells the Game Engine to unequip the named object.