Your Next Remote Team Building Activity

Why Battlesnake is the perfect fit

If you are anything like the Battlesnake team, you are coming up to your one-year anniversary of shifting your team to work fully remote. Now that we’ve all gotten really good at online party games and have exhausted the usual conversation in Friday afternoon Zoom social calls, you may be looking for a fresh online team bonding activity.

If you are not already familiar, Battlesnake, it is a multiplayer programming game where developers write code to control their own Battlesnake in the classic game of ‘Snake’. Developers of all skill levels can participate and have fun with friends, family and colleagues.

So why should Battlesnake be your next team building activity in 2021?

It’s practical and fun. Battlesnake has always been a great way to try out a new programming language, experiment with a new hosting service, or stretch the brain with machine learning. Battlesnake gives developers a space to explore something new in the technical realm, all wrapped up in the fun of Battlesnake. Working from home hasn’t changed that, and we can still enjoy those benefits through the online events.

You can mix real-time and asynchronous participation. Leagues run for 8–10 weeks, which means you can schedule participation at your own pace and convenience. Maybe that Friday community Zoom social becomes the perfect touch-point to discuss strategy and delegate improvements to be completed over the following week.

In between League events we also have Challenges and usually an active Arena or two for practice.

Battlesnake can fit in with dedicated ‘Hack Day’ or as an extracurricular activity. How much time you and your team put into Battlesnake is up to you, although we know once you start to climb the rankings, it’s hard to resist the desire to keep tweaking that code.

You compete alongside the existing Battlesnake community. Our global Battlesnake community provides both friendly competition and a support network with a wealth of knowledge. Join us in Discord, and who knows — you might find your next hire while discussing minmax pruning strategies or which Battlesnake customization gives the best competitive advantage.

Battlesnake Twitch Streams are built-in with Leagues. We are regularly broadcasting on Twitch, and will be live-casting the Tournaments at the end of every League. Get all the hype and benefits of an online community gathering without any extra organization on your part.

We might be a bit biased, but we think that entering your technical team into a Battlesnake League event is the fresh new activity you have been looking for.

Depending on your group, you might also be interested in participating as a Featured Organization. Featured Organizations are an optional paid feature intended for companies and organizations wishing to compete in an official capacity and show off their engineering expertise. Your logo would appear in the arena and tournament leaderboard and highlight your Battlesnake rank and rating, linking to additional information of your choosing (such as your website). This provides an opportunity to promote your business, recruit top-tier developers, celebrate your team, and engage in some friendly competitive banter. To sign up as a Featured Organization, you can register for Spring League and check off the option to ‘Feature my organization on the leaderboards’.

And to put some icing on the cake, if you want to participate as a Featured Organization in 2021, we’d be happy to send a Battlesnake Developer to run a video call orientation and tutorial session for your team and get them hyped and equipped with the knowledge they need to participate. If you are interested in any aspect of Featured Organizations, please get in touch.

There is still time to sign up for Spring League, which runs until April 17th. You can also keep an eye out for our next event, Summer League, scheduled to start at the beginning of June. You can read more about our 2021 Season in a previous post.

We hope to see you in the League!

The Battlesnake Team & Casting Crew
Brad, Chris, Noah, Aurora, Andrew, Joe, Rachel, Shannon, Kerri, Caster Curse Curtis, Aileen the Prize Queen, and Chris “Edible Socks” C.