Building Pacman Game with #AmazonQDeveloperCLI

#awschallenge #amazonqdevelopercli #gamedev

Building Pacman Game with Amazon Q Developer CLI

The exercise is on this
github.com/Oghenesuvwe-dev/PacMan-game-with-pygame-and-amazonqdevelopercli repository

After installation and aws configure of the #AmazonQDeveloperCLI
as on the installation doc link below.

docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/qdeveloper-ug/command-line-installing.html?.

I started with these steps below.

Step 1
Project Setup
Prompt:
"Initialize a new Python project for a Pacman game using Pygame. Create a folder structure with src, assets, and tests directories."

Install Dependencies 
Prompt:
"Installing Pygame in the project environment." Got the confirmation:
import pygame; print('Pygame installed successfully')

Greeted with/and

Hello from the pygame community, pygame.org/contribute

Step 2
Basic Game Window
Prompt:
"Write code to create a Pygame window titled 'Pacman' with a black background."

Maze Creation
Prompt:
"Generate a 2D array representing the Pacman maze layout." Prompt: "Draw the maze walls and paths on the screen using Pygame rectangles."

Running the game with

"parallels@parallels-Parallels-Virtual-Platform:~$ cd ~/Desktop/pacman-game && python3 main.py"

Pacman game is on!.

Step 3
Pacman Character
Prompt:
"Create a Pacman sprite that can move in four directions with keyboard input."

Pacman game Newly improved!.

Ghost Implementation
Prompt:
"Add ghost sprites with basic movement logic." Prompt: "Implement simple AI for ghosts to chase Pacman."

Pellets and Scoring System
Prompt:
"Place pellets throughout the maze and increase score when Pacman eats them."

Game Logic Implementation
Prompt:
"Detect collisions between Pacman, ghosts, and pellets.
" Prompt:
"End the game if Pacman collides with a ghost."

Improved!

The game now includes
1, Pellets & Scoring.
2, White pellets placed throughout the maze (value 2 in maze array).
3, Score increases by 10 points when Pacman eats a pellet.
4, Score displayed in top-left corner.

Collision Detection:
5, Pellet collision: Removes pellets when Pacman touches them.
6, Ghost collision: Ends game when Pacman gets too close to any ghost (distance < 25 pixels).

Game Logic:
7, Game over state when Pacman hits a ghost.
8, Press R to restart after game over.
9, Game continues until collision occurs.

User Interface Enhancement
Prompt:
"Display the current score and lives remaining on the screen."

Testing Implementation
Prompt:
"Write unit tests for Pacman movement and collision detection."

Testing fixes applied:

Removing the problematic WAV files from the assets/sounds directory
Simplifying the sound generation to create a single reliable beep sound
Using the same beep sound for all game events (chomp, death, start)

Polish Phase
Prompt:
"Add sound effects and improve graphics for Pacman and ghosts.
 Prompt:
"Implement a start screen and game over screen."

Polish Added: Sound Effects, Improved Graphics, Game Screens Improvements but the sound was not working.

Which brought Pacman-game to the image below...

The start Screen above and the main game screen below

Run and Debug
Prompt:
"Run the game and debug any issues found during playtesting."
Issues identified:
Improvement fixes:

Adding pause functionality and fixing ghost speed
Adding win condition when all pellets are collected.

Debugging fixes:
1, Fixing pellet collision detection to prevent multiple sounds when standing on a pellet

Agentic AI Prompts Used:
1 "Generate Pygame code for a Pacman character that moves with arrow keys."
2 "Create a function to draw a maze from a 2D list."
3 "Implement ghost AI that follows Pacman."
4 "Write code to detect when Pacman eats a pellet and update the score."
5 "Add a game over screen when Pacman is caught by a ghost."