My first small game with Python

Mohammad Al Najar — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:12:48 +0000

As a part of my computer science study at Codecademy, we have to build a terminal game.

The choice was not easy at all, but I decided to take one of the suggestions they gave us in the project description which was the (connect four game ^_^).

The game looks easy to build if I used Javascript which I am more familiar with, but using python was a really challenge for me.

Game description:

The game is called Connect Four:

The game is played on a grid that has six rows and seven columns.
It has two players, X and Y, who alternate turns.
Each player has a different color, Red and Green.
When a player drops a piece, it lands in the lowest available space in the column.
The next player continues until either four of the same pieces are connected vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
The game ends when either player has four in a row.
The game also ends when the board is full and neither player has four in a row.
When the game ends, the game can be restarted.

Win vertical:

Win diagonal:

The game has also validations:

The most tricky part was checking for diagonally win, but at the end was fixed using the following function:

def check_circles_in_row_angle(player):
    letters_list = ["A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G"]
    numbers_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
    global is_won
    is_won = False
    circles = player.circles
    circles.sort(key=lambda circle: circle.letter)  # sort circles by letter
    string_circles = [f"{circle.letter}{circle.number}" for circle in circles]
    if len(circles) >= 4:
        for circle in circles:
            letter = circle.letter
            number = circle.number
            global compare_one
            compare_one = True
            list_to_compare_1 = []
            list_to_compare_2 = []
            global letters_list_to_compare
            global numbers_list_to_compare
            if number < 4:
                numbers_list_to_compare = numbers_list[numbers_list.index(number) :]
            elif number >= 4:
                numbers_list_to_compare = numbers_list[::-1]
                numbers_list_to_compare = numbers_list_to_compare[
                    numbers_list_to_compare.index(number) :
                ]

            # === letter < D ======"
            if letter < "D":
                letters_list_to_compare = letters_list[letters_list.index(letter) :]

                i = 0
                while i < 4:
                    list_to_compare_1.append(
                        f"{letters_list_to_compare[i]}{numbers_list_to_compare[i]}"
                    )
                    i += 1
            # === letter > D ======
            if letter > "D":
                letters_list_to_compare = letters_list[::-1]
                letters_list_to_compare = letters_list_to_compare[
                    letters_list_to_compare.index(letter) :
                ]

                i = 0
                while i < 4:
                    list_to_compare_1.append(
                        f"{letters_list_to_compare[i]}{numbers_list_to_compare[i]}"
                    )
                    i += 1

            # === letter == D ======
            if letter == "D":

                letters_list_to_compare = letters_list[letters_list.index(letter) :]

                i = 0
                while i < 4:
                    list_to_compare_1.append(
                        f"{letters_list_to_compare[i]}{numbers_list_to_compare[i]}"
                    )
                    i += 1

                letters_list_to_compare = letters_list[::-1]
                letters_list_to_compare = letters_list_to_compare[
                    letters_list_to_compare.index(letter) :
                ]

                i = 0
                while i < 4:
                    list_to_compare_2.append(
                        f"{letters_list_to_compare[i]}{numbers_list_to_compare[i]}"
                    )
                    i += 1

            x = 0
            global all_in
            all_in = True
            while x < len(list_to_compare_1):
                if not list_to_compare_1[x] in string_circles:
                    all_in = False
                    break

                x += 1

            if all_in:
                is_won = True
                return is_won

            if len(list_to_compare_2) > 0:
                y = 0
                while y < len(list_to_compare_2):
                    if not list_to_compare_2[y] in string_circles:
                        all_in = False
                        break

                    y += 1

            if all_in:
                is_won = True
                return is_won
    return is_won

Conclusion:

Building this small game was really helpful for me to understand a lot of concepts in programming in addition to learning a lot of python.

Source code:
GitHub

DEV Community: Mohammad Al Najar

My first small game with Python

Game description:

Conclusion: