Screeps: MMO RTS sandbox for programmers

2 min read Original article ↗

It means "scripting creeps"

It's an open-source game for programmers, wherein the core mechanic is programming
your units' AI. You control your colony by writing JavaScript.

Play by

Scripting

Programmable

World

  • Huge persistent world consisting of 70,000 interconnected game rooms.
  • 40-server cluster (160 CPU cores) processing player scripts using Node.js.
  • Programmable world living a continuous life 24/7 in real-time even when you're offline.

Open Source

Sandbox

  • Engine released on GitHub as an open and moddable program platform.
  • You can change any aspect of game objects' behavior.
  • Contribute to the game engine development and earn in-game benefits.

Screeps is a fun game and has a unique angle to it. Using actual programming instead of a pseudo-language actually allows the players to focus on better coding habits and makes practice fun.

We use Screeps as a key part of our recruitment process at fleetster. Screeps is useful because it throws candidates into an unknown environment where the number of "right" solutions are very numerous.

It was fun while it lasted, and probably the best thing is that I really feel like my Javascript and Node fluency has gone through the roof compared to what it was.