The desktop arcade-style game board for Battlesnake 🐍

About • Features • Download and Install • Managing Snakes • Game Setup • How to Play • Development Tools • Configuration • Known Issues • Troubleshooting • Credits • License

About

Mojave is a desktop game board and development / debugging tool for Battlesnake. It aims to bring an immersive "arcade" style experience to the game, with crisp neon visuals, an electrifying soundtrack, and a high amount of customizability.

Don't know Battlesnake? It's an online programming game played by developers from all over the world! Build a snake "bot" and be the last one slithering on the game board to win. You can use any language or technology that implements a web server. For more information on how to write your snake, and on the rules of the game, take a look at the Battlesnake docs.

Battlesnake's mission is to make programming fun and accessible for everyone! With Mojave, we hope to make your Battlesnake experience even better!

Features

• Customizable visuals for the ultimate sensory experience including a bloom filter, vignette and animations
• Supports all Battlesnake API versions from 2017 and up, simultaneously in one game - try your snake out against the best snakes from years past!
  • Note: Snakes built on API versions earlier than v1 can only play in Standard rules games
• Play with different sets of rules including Royale, Squads, Constrictor, and Wrapped
• Pause, step forward and backward through games to debug your snake's behaviour
• Dump the JSON request/response being sent to/from your snake at any turn
• Includes the Robosnake as a built-in opponent to test your snake against
• Play as a human against your Battlesnake or play solo for that classic Snake experience!

Download and Install

Mac OS

For Mac users, the minimum OS requirement is 10.14 (also called Mojave ... hey Apple, I used the name first!)

Apple Silicon users: Mojave has not been tested on the M1. It won't work natively due to the use of shared libraries that will need to be recompiled - but it should run correctly under Rosetta emulation. Let me know if you've tried it!

Mac OS Standard Installation

• Download the latest version of Mojave from the Releases page and extract the zip file into your Applications folder.
• The first time you run Mojave, you need to right-click on the application icon and select the Open option from the contextual menu. You will be presented with a warning dialog that the application cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified. Click Cancel.
• Then, repeat the previous step. This time you will have an option to Open from the warning dialog. Click Open and Mojave will launch. You should only have to do this once per update.

Unfortunately, with each new Mac OS update, Apple makes it increasingly difficult to install and run software that has not been code signed by a member of their developer program. If you still have trouble launching the game despite following the above instructions, you can try running it using LÖVE 11.3 directly via the alternate installation instructions below:

Mac OS Alternate Installation

• You will then need to download and install LÖVE 11.3 for Mac OS.
  • DO NOT USE LOVE 11.4 OR GREATER, IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE AND THE GAME WILL CRASH
• Once you have installed that, you can download the latest version of Mojave from the Releases page and extract the zip file somewhere on your computer. Download the Linux version, not the Mac OS version!
• Open the Mojave-x.y.z.love file to start playing!

Windows

• For Windows users, the minimum requirement is Windows Vista. A 64-bit version of Windows is required.
• You will need to download and install the Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable package from Microsoft if you don't already have it installed on your computer. Get it here.
• Once you have installed that, you can download the latest version of Mojave from the Releases page and extract the zip file somewhere on your computer.
• Open the Mojave.exe application to start playing!

Linux

• For Linux users, any recent distribution should work.
• First, you will need to install the libcurl development package for your distribution:
  • For Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev
  • For Fedora/Centos: sudo yum install libcurl-devel
• You will then need to download and install LÖVE 11.3 for your Linux distribution. You can do this via your package manager, or download a package directly from the LÖVE web site.
  • DO NOT USE LOVE 11.4 OR GREATER, IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE AND THE GAME WILL CRASH
• Once you have installed that, you can download the latest version of Mojave from the Releases page and extract the zip file somewhere on your computer.
• Open the Mojave-x.y.z.love file to start playing!

Building from Source

• Clone this repository to somewhere on your computer, or use the latest "Source Code" download from the Releases page.
• Navigate to the packager directory: cd mojave/packager
• Run the command ./lp-build.sh from the packager directory.
• This will create a new folder inside the packager directory, builds, containing zipped binaries for Windows and Mac OS, and a zipped .love file for Linux.

Managing Snakes

To get started, you'll need to add at least one snake. Click the Manage Snakes button on the menu to get to the snake management screen. You will need to select the kind of snake that you would like to add, and press the Add Snake button to add it. Mojave supports four kinds of snakes:

• Battlesnake API - Select this option to add a snake that uses the modern "V" Battlesnake API which was launched with the Global Arena. The version will be automatically be detected - snakes using V1 will have a preview rendered.
• Old Battlesnake API - Select this option to add a snake that uses the legacy Battlesnake API which changed from year to year and corresponded to a Victoria Live event. You will need to select the API year, 2017 and 2018 are suspported.
• Robosnake - The Robosnake is a tough computer-controlled snake built-in to Mojave. Use it as an opponent for testing your snake against! You can add as many as you would like, and will need to select its' color and head/tail types.
• Human - Add a Human snake if you would like to play, as a human, against one or more battlesnakes (or even just by yourself for the plain old Snake experience). You can control these snakes by using the arrow keys.

Game Setup

To start a new game, click the Create Game button on the menu to get to the game setup screen. You will need to select the rules to play under (see the "How to Play" section below for a description of the different rules), the board size, and which of your snakes you would like to add to this game. If you select the Royale game mode, you will also need to specify how quickly hazards should advance. For both the Royale and Custom game modes, you will need to specify how much damage to take when entering a hazard.

Note that there are a few restrictions on game creation:

• Only snakes using the modern Battlesnake API, or Human snakes may play using the Royale, Squads, Constrictor, Wrapped, and Custom game modes.
• The Royale, Constrictor, Wrapped, and Custom game modes require a minimum of two snakes to play.
• The Squads game mode requires a minimum of two squads to play.
• Only one Human snake may participate in a game.

How to Play

For full game rules, see the official Battlesnake Rules, the following is an abridged version:

Standard

Under Standard rules, snakes may freely roam the game board, and lose some health on each turn. Food will spawn periodically on the game board. Eating food will restore a snake to full health, but will cause it to grow by one tile. A snake will die if it runs out of health, runs into a wall, or into the body of itself or another snake. If two snakes have a head-on-head collision, the smaller snake will be killed (and both will be killed if they are the same size).

Royale

Under Royale rules, the edges of the board will slowly fill with hazards. If the head of a snake enters a hazard, that snake will take damage at an increased rate.

Squads

Under Squads rules, all snakes are assigned to one of up to four squads. Snakes that belong to the same squad will share health and length, and may pass through each other's bodies without dying. However, if a snake dies, all other snakes on that squad will die as well.

Constrictor

Under Constrictor rules, there is no food on the board. Instead, snakes will grow on every turn, with their tail locked to their starting position. This is also known as a Tron game.

Wrapped

Under Wrapped rules, if a snake crosses the edge of the board, instead of being killed, it will re-enter the board from the opposite edge.

Custom

Custom games make use of a pre-set template to pre-place food, hazards, and snakes at the start of the game. They are played using Standard rules, however, hazard damage can be customized in a manner similar to Royale games.

Development Tools

You can use the playback controls at the top right of the game window, while a game is taking place, to debug your snake:
(these controls can also be accessed by using the function keys on your keyboard)

• The "First" button (or F6) will jump to the first turn of the game.
• The "Rewind" button (or F7) will step back one turn.
• The "Play/Pause" button (or F8) will pause and resume game playback (do note that pausing will only pause the UI, the game will continue to run in the background).
• The "Fast Forward" button (or F9) will step forward one turn.
• The "Last" button (or F10) will jump to the last turn of the game.
• The "Rematch" button (or F11) will end the current game and start a new game with the same options.
• The "Close" button (or F12) will end the current game and return to the main menu.

The "Debug" button located above each snake preview will copy the JSON data that was sent to that snake on the last turn, and that snake's response, to the clipboard.

You can also hover over a snake's preview image to see their latency for the current turn, and a graph of their latency over the course of the game.

Configuration

Appearance

• Tile Primary Color / Tile Secondary Color
  • This changes the color of background tiles on the game board.
• Food Color
  • This changes the color of food tiles on the game board.
• Hazard Color
  • This changes the color of hazard tiles on the game board (note: you cannot set the transparancy value because these tiles fade in and out).
• Fullscreen
  • This toggles fullscreen mode. Fullscreen mode can also be toggled by using the F5 key on your keyboard.
• Vignette
  • This enables a vignette, which shades the background at the cost of performance.
  • The radius, opacity, softness, and color of the vignette can be adjusted.
• Bloom Effect
  • This enables a bloom effect, which brightens and blurs snakes at the cost of performance.
• Animations
  • This enables animations, specifically, making food spin and hazards fade in and out. They can be disabled for a small performance boost.
• Fade Tails
  • This fades out snake tails rather than have every square of the snake be opaque. Looks nice and doesn't affect performance, but can make it hard to tell living and dead snakes apart.
• Curve on Turns
  • This will draw snake bodies using curves when they make turns on the game board. Doesn't impact performance.

Audio

Note: Audio can be quickly toggled by using the F4 key. This will toggle both the SFX and the music at once.

• Enable Music
  • When enabled, plays background music on the menu and during the game.
• Enable SFX
  • When enabled, plays sound effects when snakes collect food or die.

Gameplay

• API Timeout
  • How long to wait for API-based snakes to respond to a request. Defaults to 500ms.
• Human Timeout
  • How long to wait for human players to input a move. Defaults to 500ms.
• Game Speed
  • How long in seconds to wait between each tick of the game loop.
• Food Spawn Chance
  • The percent chance that a food will randomly spawn on the game board.
• Minimum Food
  • The minimum amount of food that will be present on the game board at all times.
• Maximum Health
  • The maximum amount of health that snakes can have.
• Start Size
  • The starting length of each snake.

Squads

• Allow Body Collisions
  • If true, snakes on the same squad can pass through each other's bodies without penalty.
• Shared Elimination
  • If true, all snakes on the same squad will die if any of them die.
• Shared Health
  • If true, all snakes on the same squad will heal if any of them eat.
• Shared Length
  • If true, all snakes on the same squad will grow if any of them eat.
• Squad 1/2/3/4 Color
  • Sets the color for snakes that belong to a particular squad.

Robosnake

• Max Aggression Snakes
  • The maximum number of snakes that can be on the board for Robo to be aggressive. If there are more than this many living snakes in play, Robo will become passive and only target food.
• Recursion Depth
  • How many turns Robo is allowed to predict ahead. Higher numbers make for a much tougher opponent, but will slow the game down.
• Hunger Threshold
  • When Robo's health dips to this value (or below) it will start looking for food.
• Low Food Threshold
  • If the food on the game board is at this number or lower, Robo will use a less aggressive heuristic and prioritize food.

Known Issues

• Not all heads and tails are available. They are sourced from the Battlesnake Exporter which is providing PNGs under the AGPL license, unfortunately they do not provide all the heads and tails at this time.
• Robosnake cannot be used with non-standard game rules.
• The Debug button copies JSON data from the previous turn, not the current turn. This is non-intuitive but correct (it's showing the request/response, using the previous turn as input, to generate the current turn).
• Many snakes expect a square game board and their code will crash when using Mojave's default 17x12 board size. If you download a snake and find that it doesn't work, try using one of the "standard" square board sizes, i.e. 11x11.
• Under MacOS 12 (Monterey), single clicks may not be recognized. If this happens, exit and re-launch the game a few times which will usually fix it.
• Under Ubuntu Linux, the game may launch at the incorrect resolution. This can be fixed by resizing the game window to the desired resolution, or by pressing F5 to enter fullscreen mode. This issue does not seem to occur on other Linux distributions.

Troubleshooting

In the event the application experiences errors, you can reset the configuration and snakes by removing the data directory. This directory will be recreated the next time the application is launched.

On Mac OS, the data directory can be found at /Users/<USER_NAME>/Library/Application Support/mojave3/ if you used the standard installation, or /Users/<USER_NAME>/Library/Application Support/LOVE/mojave3/ if you used the alternate installation.

On Windows, the data directory can be found at C:\Users\<USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\mojave3\

On Linux, the data directory can be found at /home/<USER_NAME>/.local/share/love/mojave3/

For questions or support, you can use the #mojave-questions channel on the Battlesnake Discord!

Credits

Special thanks to the following third-party software, for whom without Mojave would not be possible:

Battlesnake concept, assets, and rules
Copyright ©2015-2018 Techdrop Labs, Inc. (d/b/a Dyspatch)
Copyright ©2018-2022 Battlesnake Inc.
License: AGPL 3.0
https://www.battlesnake.com
https://github.com/BattlesnakeOfficial/exporter/tree/master/render/assets https://github.com/BattlesnakeOfficial/rules

Atmospheric Interaction Sound Pack
License: Public Domain
https://opengameart.org/content/atmospheric-interaction-sound-pack

Bloom Shader
Copyright ©2011 slime
License: Public Domain
https://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3733&start=20#p38666

Dear ImGui
Copyright ©2014-2022 Omar Cornut
License: MIT
https://github.com/ocornut/imgui

DKJson
Copyright ©2010-2013 David Heiko Kolf
License: MIT
http://dkolf.de/src/dkjson-lua.fsl

Kenney Game Icons
License: Public Domain
https://opengameart.org/content/game-icons

libcurl
Copyright ©1996-2022 Daniel Stenberg
License: MIT
https://curl.se/libcurl/

libcurl Lua Bindings
Copyright ©2020 Cosmin Apreutesei
License: Public Domain
https://luapower.com/libcurl

LÖVE
Copyright ©2006-2022 LÖVE Development Team
License: ZLIB
https://love2d.org

LÖVE-ImGui
Copyright ©2016 slages
License: MIT
https://github.com/apicici/love-imgui/

LovePackaging
Copyright ©2014-2016 Paul Liverman III
License: MIT
https://github.com/TangentFoxy/LovePackaging

Monoton Font
Copyright ©2011 Vernon Adams
License: OFL
https://www.fontspace.com/monoton-font-f11955

Moonshine
Copyright ©2017 Matthias Richter
License: MIT
https://github.com/vrld/moonshine

"Nebula Boss Fight"
Copyright ©2017 TeknoAXE
License: CC BY 4.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRRhVNwM6sc

Robosnake Mk. III
Copyright ©2017-2018 Redbrick Technologies, Inc.
Copyright ©2019 Scott Small
License: MIT
https://github.com/smallsco/robosnake

Space Laser
License: Public Domain
https://opengameart.org/content/space-laser

Splashes
Copyright ©2016 love-community members
License: ZLIB
https://github.com/love2d-community/splashes

"Synthwave C"
Copyright ©2017 TeknoAXE
License: CC BY 4.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WYJ1Jh2kuI

Extra special thanks to:
Erika Wiedemann - for her assistance in getting imgui working on Linux
Tyler Sebastian - for his early work on multithreading

License

Mojave
Copyright ©2017-2022 Scott Small and contributors

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Why the name?

Because Rattlesnakes roam the Mojave desert, so it makes sense that Battlesnakes would roam in a virtual-Mojave :)