So, how did we come up with the idea of developing Codyfight?
The idea came up to our heads quite accidentally and randomly because we were just discussing it with each other, who are all software engineers. And we just felt an urge to play a competitive coding game to see who a better programmer is.
We knew that there are no such games that you could play online, or they are just educational games. So the people get to learn, but they do not get to play a real game. That was the trigger for realizing a need for such a game because that wasn’t the first time we talked with programmers.
We wanted to play this kind of game, but we never thought that could actually happen. We remember our project at Utrecht University in which we were doing an AI game with 2 robots navigators. There is a 2-dimensional map, and it’s elementary. Those robots must collaborate as much as possible to gather the most points.
But then we realized, what if we can make this game competitive where you do not collaborate with another player but compete against others. And that was the idea: To make the game competitive.
The project in the university I’m referring to is Malmo. It was an AI contest held by Microsoft, and it was very popular at that time. But it was a one-time event, and we felt that’s not enough to make such a game. From the participant’s perspective, it’s pretty sad because you start coding your robot, petting it. Still, it gets forgotten immediately after the contest, and we felt that.
There is a need for a game where players can code and constantly improve and adapt. Endlessly complex metagame in which you can play with others. The game should focus on player needs, not academic learning, not to force players to do something, but let players enjoy and receive entertainment.
That was the first concept of what Codyfight should be, and that’s what the name suggests. Codyfight. It’s a code fight. It’s an endless coding battle.
That was the initial thought, and then we realized that the game was made only for programmers, and that’s very limited. We didn’t want to restrict people, so we developed a graphical interface to add control or mobile touch.
That’s how AI and human competition actually emerged. We accept both parties: AI and Humans. And we want to blur the line between AI and humans. Let’s look into pretty much any other game. We can see that people are trying to make cheats with codes, automate their actions, and minimize or eventually eliminate grinding. The problem is, that’s always considered cheating. So they get banned, and they do not have such a place where such activity is legal.
We decided that our game is where people can do that officially. So when this activity is incentivized and AI is absolutely on equal terms with humans, that’s how Codyfight was born.
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