Competition description and rules

The task

The competition task is to create a computer game bot which is indistinguishable from a human player. Those entries that pass this test will share the major prize of A$7,000 cash, and will also be offered a trip to 2K Australia's studio in Canberra. If the major prize is not won, a minor prize of A$2,000 plus a trip to the studio will be awarded.

The competition will be run in Copenhagen, Denmark at the 2010 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games.

To participate in the finals, one team member must register for and attend the conference.

The game used for the competition will be based on a modified version of the DeathMatch game type for the First-Person Shooter, Unreal Tournament 2004. This modified version provides a socket-based interface (called Gamebots) that allows control of bots from an external program. In addition, several extra modifications will be made especially for the competition:

  • Chatting will be disabled (this is not a chatbot competition!)
  • Some aspects of the game play will be modified to faciltate the competition.

To enter

Competitors must advise their intention to enter the competition on or before 15th June 2010, by email to the competition organisers. If there are a large number of entries, the organisers reserve the right to carry out qualification trials to select the entries to take part in the finals at the conference. In that case, competitors will be required to take part in these trials by a remote mechanism that has yet to be decided, at a date and time to be specified. If needed, these will probably be before 1st July. The programs for the trials need not be final versions.

Other conditions of entry are:

  • Individuals or teams may enter.
  • No-one can enter more than one bot (either as an individual or as part of a team).
  • No-one associated with 2K or with the organisation of the competition may enter.
  • Entrants must affirm that they have intellectual rights to their entry and that it and its components comply with all artistic licenses.
  • Entrants younger than 18 years of age must provide a written statement of permission by at least one parent or guardian.
  • Entrants must be willing to allow videos/mpegs of their entries in action at the competition to be published and become public domain.

Testing protocol --- THIS IS THE MAIN CHANGE FOR 2010

The precise details of judging for 2010 have yet to be finalised.

The organisers intend to set up an automated judging system, in which judging takes place during actual play. We have set up a server so that teams can test their bots in the same environment and using the same system that will be used for the final judging. Point your UT2004 client or your bots at the BotPrize server (195.242.237.18).

The system is based on a modification to the Link Gun. The primary fire mode of the Link Gun will be modified so that it kills a bot with a single hit, and scores 10 points for the shooter, whereas if a human is hit with the primary fire mode, the shooter instantly dies and loses 10 points. Contrariwise, the alternate fire mode kills a human with a single hit, and scores 10 points for the shooter, whereas if a bot is hit with the alternate fire mode, the shooter instantly dies and loses 10 points.

These effects only apply the first time that particular shooter hits that particular opponent. After this first hit, subsequent hits simply have no effect.

The idea of this change is that players will be able to win the game by making use of the Link Gun when they are confident that they have identified an opponent as either a bot or a human. If they are right, they will score 10 points (equivalent to 10 normal kills), while if they are wrong, they lose 10 points.

The game score will not be used as the judging criterion for the BotPrize though - for this we will collect data on how often the bots are incorrectly identified as being human. We will decide how to process the data to decide a winner after we have some experience of players and bots using the new system.

We hope that this new system will provide many advantages for entering teams as well as spectators, and of course, the organisers, and we beg your indulgence during the time we need to establish and refine the new system.

Regardless of the details of the final system, its intention is to measure how well the judges are able to distinguish bots from human players.

A member of the winning team (either major or minor) will be invited to visit 2K Australia's studio, at 2K Australia's expense, up to an amount of A$5,000, in addition to the cash prize.