Google AI Challenge: Planet Wars

The Google AI Challenge: Planet Wars was an international artificial intelligence programming contest held in Fall 2010. Participants developed self-contained AI bots to play a simple yet challenging two-player real-time strategy game called Planet Wars. The bots competed against each other on a server, with rankings determined by a Trueskill algorithm. Submissions were typically source code in various languages (Python, Java, C++, Ruby, Perl, Scheme, Haskell, and C#), which were then run in a Docker environment. My involvement was twofold: as a developer, I actively participated in the tournament, ranking 4th among thousands of entrants with my custom-built AI bot. Simultaneously, I volunteered to support the contest by maintaining an auxiliary matchmaking arena instance, ensuring smooth operation and providing additional testing opportunities for participants. This experience provided deep insights into game AI development, algorithmic optimization, and real-time system management.