SoK - Midterm Update

My Season of KDE Journey: Midterm Update

The Season of KDE has been an incredible experience so far! It has been a journey filled with learning, growth, and challenges as I work on integrating Pallanguli into the Mancala engine.

So far, I’ve managed to integrate Pallanguli, this fascinating traditional Mancala game, into the engine. This involved digging deep into the rules, implementing the game logic, and making sure it all works smoothly with the existing framework. That said, there are still some bumps in the road. The move logic isn’t quite there yet—seeds occasionally get redistributed incorrectly, especially during multi-lap moves. And then there’s the game end detection, which sometimes just refuses to work properly, leading to some infinite loops.

Next on my to-do list: squash those bugs and make the gameplay rock-solid. I’m also planning to explore Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) as an alternative AI approach—it might handle Pallanguli’s complexity better than minimax. After that, it’ll be time for rigorous testing and detailed documentation so future contributors can build on this work easily.

Working on this project has been an eye-opener. It’s given me a deeper appreciation for open-source contributions and the incredible KDE community. I’ve learned so much about game engines, AI algorithms, and the importance of writing clean, modular code.

🔗 Branch: Pallanguli Integration

#KDE #SeasonOfKDE #GameDevelopment #Mancala