Game Concept

The following section provides an overview of the overall concepts of the Microservice Dungeon.

tl;dr

The Microservice Dungeon (MSD for short) is a game where players compete against each other to achieve the highest possible score. Each player service controls a swarm of robots. Robots move across the game board, collect mined resources, purchase upgrades, and battle each other. All of these actions earn points for the player.

The notable difference to a “regular” multiplayer game is that the players are not persons but microservices, implemented by a developer (or developer team). The robot swarm is usually not controlled manually¹ but by an algorithm implemented in the player service.

The map is a 2-dimensional grid of planets. Resources are distributed across it. They can be mined, picked up by robots, and sold at space stations. Space stations are also placed on the map and serve as a kind of home base and safe zone. There, robots can sell resources and purchase upgrades, and they regenerate faster. Combat is not allowed on space stations.

Each player has a bank account, and starts the game with an initial amount of money. This can be used to purchase new robots. New robots always start at the player’s allocated space station. Selling resources and killing robots increase a player’s account balance. With more money, a player can buy additional robots or upgrade existing ones.

In the next subsections, we will look deeper into the rules for several aspects of the game.