Christmas Elves

The annual Christmas Elves game server and client

Python North East December brings you the Christmas Elf Challenge. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to manage the Christmas Tree selling business.

Running your Game

This part of the guide will give you the instructions to set up the game so you can start trying to set a high score!

Installation

Make sure you have Python installed - if you have Windows, check out the Beginner's Guide of the Xmas Elves document.

Once you're ready, you can get the client code running:

pyvenv venv
. venv/bin/activate
pip install pyne-xmas-elves

Building your Bot

Create your game file, called game.py:

from pyne_xmas_elves.client import BaseGame


class Game(BaseGame):
    PLAYER_NAME = 'Father Christmas'

    def turn(self, elves):
        woods = elves // 2
        forest = (elves - woods) // 2
        mountain = elves - woods - forest
        return woods, forest, mountains

Helper Attributes

While taking a turn, you can access the following attributes on self:

• amount_raised - total money raised
• current_turn - the current turn number
• last_turn - the last turn number
• previous_weather - the weather on the previous day

Run the game

After creating your bot, you can run the game:

elves game

Running the Server (optional)

Installing Dependencies

The server is self-contained with an SQLite database, so just install the requirements:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Running

We're using Django Channels, so running the server is as easy as:

python server/manage.py runserver

The API

To interact with the server session, we use a simple REST API to send new data into the server. The full API docs can be found by running a server and navigating to /docs/.

Starting a New Session

To start a new session, send a POST request with a name variable form-encoded to https://<host>/sessions/:

curl https://example.com/sessions/ -X POST -d player_name="Scott"

and you'll get a simple JSON object back with a session URL that you post your turns against.

Taking a Turn

To take a turn, make a POST request against the day endpoint of a session.

Instructions and Rules

See the attached Google Doc for the rules and any of the latest tips and tricks.