It seems like many people enjoy tutorials about making games. Well, let me make one too! Today we are going to be implementing the legendary "Noughts and Crosses" game in 69 lines of Python code! I am not going to overcomplicate matters with OOP and all that... a few functions will do.
First, let's create 2 global variables:
# GLOBAL VARIABLES
M = [
['_','_','_'],
['_','_','_'],
['_','_','_']
]
S = True
C = 0
M stores our game's 3 x 3 field. Classic. It is a 2D matrix, so I called it M. S holds the side: when S = True, it's X's turn and vice versa. C holds the number of moves made.
Now, let's write the main function. I called it xo() for simplicity. It has to:
Show an empty board
Start a while loop that will repeat itself until C == 9
Inside the loop, it has to
Ask user to make a move
Check if either of the two players won and if yes, break itself
If the while loop doesn't encounter a break on its way, it means that the 9 moves are made, yet no one won, so it must be a tie!
# MAIN
def xo():
board_show() # FUNCTION NOT YET IMPLEMENTED!
while C < 9:
turn() # FUNCTION NOT YET IMPLEMENTED!
if big_check(): # FUNCTION NOT YET IMPLEMENTED!
print(f"{'X' if not S else 'O'} wins!", end="\n\n")
break
else: # if break not encountered, it must be a tie!
print("It's a tie!", end="\n\n")
The easiest function to implement is board_show(). Just print out our little matrix M. Don't forget to put some empty prints for spacing purposes!
def board_show():
print()
for y in range(3):
print(" ", end="")
for x in range(3):
print(M[y][x], end=" ")
print()
print()
Now, the turn() function is a bit trickier, yet not too complicated either. We want to:
Ask player where he/she wants to place his/her mark
Check if the selected square is free, and if it is, put X or O into it, change the State, and board_show() to demonstrate the result
If it's not empty, we want to let the user know that the move was invalid and make him repeat it
def turn():
global S, C # allows us to reference S that is not assigned in this scope
pos = [ ( int(i) - 1 ) for i in input("Your move: ").split() ]
# this produces a list of two int values X and Y
# it reduces each one by 1 since computer (unlike human) starts counting from 0
x, y = pos[0], pos[1] # save x and y separately for clearance
if M[y][x] == '_':
M[y][x] = 'X' if S else 'O'
S = not S
C += 1 # increment move counter C by 1 only if the move is valid
board_show()
else:
print("Invalid move!")
Now that we have our turn() function nice and shining, we only need the big_check() function, only it's not so easy. The big_check() isn't called big for no reason -- it consists of three other functions:
check_hr(y) check yth row
check_vr(x) check xth column
check_dig() check both diagonals
But these are fairly simple and you will see why in a second. The only thing we need to do is to check whether all three positions have the same chr in them that is not '_' the default one.
Now, let's get to the big_check(). What it does essentially is it checks every row, column, and diagonal using the functions we've just written and if at least one of those function returns True, the whole big_check() function must return True!
def big_check():
win = False
for i in range(3):
if check_hr(i) or check_vr(i):
win = True
if check_dig():
win = True
return win
"Now we have everything! It's complete!" -- a newbie would say, but no, it's actually not. There is one last bit to it that will finally make it work -- the 69th line:
@timmy_i_chen In my repls I now have Noughts & Crosses (Web) repo in which you'll find the same game but in HTML format. No need to calculate coordinates! Go check it out.
It seems like many people enjoy tutorials about making games. Well, let me make one too! Today we are going to be implementing the legendary "Noughts and Crosses" game in 69 lines of Python code! I am not going to overcomplicate matters with OOP and all that... a few functions will do.
First, let's create 2 global variables:
M
stores our game's 3 x 3 field. Classic. It is a 2D matrix, so I called itM
.S
holds the side: whenS = True
, it's X's turn and vice versa.C
holds the number of moves made.Now, let's write the main function. I called it
xo()
for simplicity. It has to:while
loop that will repeat itself untilC == 9
break
itselfwhile
loop doesn't encounter abreak
on its way, it means that the 9 moves are made, yet no one won, so it must be a tie!The easiest function to implement is
board_show()
. Just print out our little matrixM
. Don't forget to put some emptyprint
s for spacing purposes!Now, the
turn()
function is a bit trickier, yet not too complicated either. We want to:S
tate, andboard_show()
to demonstrate the resultNow that we have our
turn()
function nice and shining, we only need thebig_check()
function, only it's not so easy. Thebig_check()
isn't called big for no reason -- it consists of three other functions:check_hr(y)
checky
th rowcheck_vr(x)
checkx
th columncheck_dig()
check both diagonalsBut these are fairly simple and you will see why in a second. The only thing we need to do is to check whether all three positions have the same
chr
in them that is not'_'
the default one.Now, let's get to the
big_check()
. What it does essentially is it checks every row, column, and diagonal using the functions we've just written and if at least one of those function returnsTrue
, the wholebig_check()
function must returnTrue
!"Now we have everything! It's complete!" -- a newbie would say, but no, it's actually not. There is one last bit to it that will finally make it work -- the 69th line:
@timmy_i_chen In my repls I now have Noughts & Crosses (Web) repo in which you'll find the same game but in HTML format. No need to calculate coordinates! Go check it out.