HW1

Othello Arena

In this homework, you will design your Othello strategy to compete with the built-in agents in Othello-Arena. (Deadline: Mar 23 11:59pm, Estimated time to complete: 10-30 hrs including implementation, testing, and write-up)

Assignment Overview

Build a JavaScript-based Othello agent that can compete against provided baseline strategies
Experiment with different evaluation approaches and search techniques
Document your design choices and their effectiveness

Testing Your Agent

Test your agent here: Othello-Arena
The arena provides:
- A visual game board to see your strategy in action
- Multiple built-in AI opponents (Random, Greedy, Corner-focused, Position-based)
- The ability to save and load custom strategies
- A game log that shows move history and results
Key features to use:
- Select different opponents from the dropdown menus
- Save multiple strategy versions to compare their performance
- Upload strategy files via the file upload button
- Examine the move-by-move game log to debug your strategy
(Updated at 3/17) Here is the updated arena that support tournaments among your agents: Updated-Othello-Arena In tournament, each strategy should determine their move within 50ms.

Here’s a starter strategy that demonstrates important concepts:

First, open Developer Tools to see the environment and built-in strategies (F12 on Windows or Command+Option+I on Mac)
Use the following starter code as a foundation (When submitting inside an HTML box, only copy and paste the content inside the function definition):

function myStrategy(board, player) {
  // Write your custom Othello strategy here
  // Return an object with row and col properties, or null if no moves are possible
  // Example: return { row: 3, col: 4 } or return null

  // Available variables:
  // board: 8x8 array where 0=empty, 1=black, 2=white
  // player: 1 for black, 2 for white
  // getValidMoves(player): returns array of valid moves for player

  // Strategy: Find best move based on position value
  const validMoves = getValidMoves(player);
  if (validMoves.length === 0) return null;

  // Position weights - corners are best, edges next, avoid squares next to corners
  const positionWeights = [
      [90, -15, 10, 5, 5, 10, -15, 90],
      [-15, -25, -3, -3, -3, -3, -25, -15],
      [10, -3, 2, 1, 1, 2, -3, 10],
      [5, -3, 1, 1, 1, 1, -3, 5],
      [5, -3, 1, 1, 1, 1, -3, 5],
      [10, -3, 2, 1, 1, 2, -3, 10],
      [-15, -25, -3, -3, -3, -3, -25, -15],
      [90, -15, 10, 5, 5, 10, -15, 90]
  ];

  let bestMove = null;
  let bestScore = -Infinity;

  for (const move of validMoves) {
      // Score based on position
      const positionScore = positionWeights[move.row][move.col];
      
      if (positionScore > bestScore) {
          bestScore = positionScore;
          bestMove = move;
      }
  }

  return bestMove;
}

Your strategy will be packaged as a custom function for this othello-arena. Open the developer tool,check line 725 of the html file, to understand how it will work.

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Submission Guidelines

Submit your work at Gradescope by Mar 23 11:59pm (KST)
Your submission should be:
1. A short paper (PDF up to 4 page) using the overleaf template (Click).
  - Your strategic approach
  - Any algorithms or heuristics you implemented
  - How your agent performs against the built-in strategies
  - Challenges faced and future improvements
  - Downloadable link to your best strategy (javascript file) explained below
2. A JavaScript (.js) file containing your strategy function
  - The submitted function should be verified by you, to work in the web arena.
  - File name should follow this format: 20261135-HW1.js (Your ID-HW#.js)
  - Provide a downloadable link inside the PDF (Gradescope does not allow the .zip submission!)

Saving Your Strategy

Copy your strategy code into the code editor in the Othello Arena
Enter a name for your strategy in the “Strategy Name” field
Click “Save Strategy” to save it to your browser’s local storage
Test your strategy against the built-in AIs and other custom strategies
When you’re satisfied with your strategy, save the code as a .js file for submission

HW1 will take 15% of the overall grade, and the evaluation criteria of the PDF and the algorithm will be determined during grading.

References

For those interested in diving deeper into Othello and Games: