The world's first MMO strategy for programmers launched

Why the first? Because before there were games for programmers, and there were strategic MMO games. But before us, no one has ever made a game that is at the same time an MMO with a single permanent world, and at the same time is entirely focused on programmers.

In November last year, we launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, the funds raised from which allowed us to modify the prototype to a full-fledged product. All June and July invited players tested the Early Preview version. And now, we are announcing the public launch of this unusual project. Meet the Screeps !


')
Under the cut a short description, reviews and technical details of the project.

Screeps (from the words scripts and creeps ) is a real-time online strategy game. From the point of view of game mechanics, this is a rather classic game: there is a map, resources, base, units, development and interaction with other players. Only here the control over the units is not just "indirect", but entirely consists in writing the scripts AI. You write code on full-fledged JavaScript (but it is also possible to use compilers from other languages ​​in JavaScript, of which there are many ) that is executed on the server in the game cycle, giving commands to units and buildings, and watching what is happening in real time. The only way to directly influence what is happening on the screen is to set flags and designate construction sites.

Facts about the game:

• Your game code runs on the server continuously, even when you are offline .
• The world of Screeps is permanent, uniform for all players and develops in real time, unlike other programmer games based on one-off matches between players.
• The world is generated procedurally and, although the players are provided with limited space for settlement, it can increase indefinitely as necessary. Currently generated 1600 game rooms.
• The game has a simulation mode in which scripts are executed in the browser, and not on the server. This mode is available without registering on the site.
• Game scripts can be written using the in-game editor, or using an external IDE , using the tools to commit the scripts to the game.
• Scripts are executed on the server through a full-fledged iojs virtual machine , some ES6 features are available.
• The execution of the script of each player in the virtual machine is limited in time , so you need to think about optimization.
• Each player is provided with 2 MB of memory for permanent storage of an arbitrary JSON data structure.
• In the future, a client-server API is planned to connect to the calculation of the game situation of its own servers in any language.
• Another thing that is planned in the future: the release of the entire game engine as a separate npm-package , so that it is possible to freely run the game simulation on a local machine for any purpose.

Few reviews:

I predict http://t.co/h8LW33FFKK to the next big thing in the world of games.

- Adriaan (@AdriaandeJongh) November 21, 2014

The game’s subscription fee model, the player pays CPU time to execute its scripts. A special Twitter Promo will be available soon, with which once a month it will be possible to get CPU credits free of charge for the minimum required server resource limit.

Related Links:

• Home page
• Step by step tutorial on the game (does not require registration), here is the simulation mode
• Documentation , game description and API, community forum
• More about payment

Good Friday everyone!