🎓 Building "Exam Hunters" with Amazon Q CLI — A Game Born from Student Struggles

"Even under pressure, every decision can bring you closer to the person you're meant to be."

This is the story of how I built my very first game using Amazon Q CLI. It’s called Exam Hunters, and it’s inspired by something every student knows all too well: the chaos and clarity that comes right before exams.

💡Why I Made Exam Hunters
I am a student myself and I experienced those few days before the exams, those inner dialogues of conscience or anticipation, that never-ending game between health, studies, and social life.
I wanted to focus that kind of intensity on a simple game, the kind of game that does not explain what is “right” but illustrates what your decisions say about you. A text game about survival with no high scores, no stylish effects, just three days, six actions per day and the stress of having to decide what you want to become when it ends.

🧠 AI as a Co-Creator: Prompting with Purpose
I used Amazon Q CLI for the challenge, and it quickly became more than a tool—it was my pair-programmer. Here are some of the techniques that worked really well:

• Contextual prompting: Telling Q what the game should feel like, not just what the function should do, gave better results—especially for narrative flow.
• Iterative layering: I built logic and design layer by layer, refining earlier outputs instead of starting over each time.
• Creative role prompting: Asking Q to “think like a game narrative designer” or “help me balance game mechanics” unlocked smarter, more intuitive ideas.

🔄 Blending Logic with Emotion
What was one of the most useful things Q did? It assisted in isolating and structuring the technical and non-technical divisions of the game. For example:

• It defined function-based gameplay logic structures.
• Simultaneously, it assisted in brainstorming emotionally charged status updates and closings.
• This concern allowed me to remain in the context of the game, rather than syntax.

🐞 Debugging with Backup
While testing, I hit some import errors and dependency mix-ups (especially on Ubuntu with Python environments). I asked Q for help—and it guided me through troubleshooting paths. From flagging mismatched Python versions to environment resets, having Q felt like having a calm senior developer walk me through it all.
💬 Continuing the Conversation with Q CLI
One really handy feature of Amazon Q CLI is that you can save your session to pick up right where you left off. This was super helpful during game development—I didn’t need to start a fresh chat every time I reopened the terminal.

🧘‍♀️ Final Thoughts
It challenged me to think about how pressure reveals personality, and how games can become empathy machines when designed with intention.

"Every project teaches us something—this one reminded me how much AI can enhance creativity. If you’re working on something that excites you, keep pushing forward!"

GitHub repo link:
https://github.com/Maryam-Ikhlaq-24/Exam_Hunters_Version-1.1.git