AI-Powered Rock Paper Scissors Game with Amazon Q CLI: A Journey in AI-Assisted Game Development

#webdev #amazonqcli #programming #ai

Introduction
I'm excited to share my journey of creating an advanced Rock Paper Scissors game using Amazon Q CLI as part of the AWS Community Challenge. This project showcases how AI can assist in game development while creating an engaging gaming experience.

Why Rock Paper Scissors?
I chose Rock Paper Scissors because it offered the perfect balance of:

Simple core mechanics with room for complexity
Opportunity to implement various AI strategies
Potential for interesting player-AI interactions
Scope for adding engaging features

Key Features

Multiple AI Personalities
- Predictive AI that learns player patterns
- Random AI for unpredictable gameplay
- Aggressive AI that counters player strategies
Innovative Gameplay Elements
- Deception Rounds: Every 6th round, AI declares its move (but might be lying!)
- Time-Limited Gameplay: 5-second decision window
- Achievement System tracking player statistics
- Global Leaderboard using JSON persistence

Effective Prompting Techniques
Here are some key prompting strategies I discovered while working with Amazon Q CLI:

Breaking down complex features into smaller, manageable prompts
Using clear, specific requests for AI behavior implementation
Iterative refinement of generated code
Leveraging Amazon Q's context awareness

** Development Automation Wins**
Amazon Q CLI helped automate several aspects:

Boilerplate code generation
UI component creation
Game logic implementation
Error handling and input validation

Challenges and Solutions

Implementing AI Strategy
- How Amazon Q CLI helped design different AI personalities
- Balancing difficulty levels
UI Development
- Creating an intuitive interface
- Handling real-time updates

** Learning Outcomes**

Mastered Amazon Q CLI's capabilities for game development
Learned effective AI prompting techniques
Gained experience in Python game development
Understanding of AI decision-making implementation

Future Improvements

Online multiplayer support
More AI personalities
Additional game modes
Mobile version

Conclusion
This project demonstrates the power of AI-assisted game development using Amazon Q CLI. It shows how AI can help create complex, engaging games while maintaining clean, maintainable code.

code:

class MusicPlayer:
    """Handles background music for the game."""

    def __init__(self):
        self.is_playing = False

        if PYGAME_AVAILABLE:
            try:
                pygame.mixer.init()
                self.available = True
            except:
                self.available = False
        else:
            self.available = False

    def play_background_music(self):
        """Start playing background music if available."""
        if not self.available or self.is_playing:
            return

        try:
            if os.path.exists(MUSIC_FILE):
                pygame.mixer.music.load(MUSIC_FILE)
                pygame.mixer.music.play(-1)  # Loop indefinitely
                self.is_playing = True
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Error playing music: {e}")
            self.available = False

    def stop_background_music(self):
        """Stop the background music if it's playing."""
        if not self.available or not self.is_playing:
            return

        try:
            pygame.mixer.music.stop()
            self.is_playing = False
        except:
            pass

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