ColorShapeLinks: A board game AI competition for educators and students

TL;DR

ColorShapeLinks is an accessible, open-source AI board game framework based on Simplexity, designed for educational use and capable of hosting competitions with graphical and text interfaces.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible, educational framework for AI competitions in board games, combining accessibility, extensibility, and industry-standard development practices.

Findings

Successfully used in AI classes and international competitions.

Provides a versatile platform for educators and students to develop and test AI agents.

Supports graphical and text-based interfaces for broad accessibility.

Abstract

ColorShapeLinks is an AI board game competition framework specially designed for students and educators in videogame development, with openness and accessibility in mind. The competition is based on an arbitrarily-sized version of the Simplexity board game, the motto of which, "simple to learn, complex to master", is curiously also applicable to AI agents. ColorShapeLinks offers graphical and text-based frontends and a completely open and documented development framework built using industry standard tools and following software engineering best practices. ColorShapeLinks is not only a competition, but both a game and a framework which educators and students can extend and use to host their own competitions. It has been successfully used for running internal competitions in AI classes, as well as for hosting an international AI competition at the IEEE Conference on Games.