CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
Snake – 2020
OVERVIEW
In this assignment, you are going to design and develop a Snake game. The game is composed of 3
objects: a snake, a monster and food items represented by a set of numbers from 1 to 9. In the figure
shown above, the snake is represented by a sequence of squares where its head and its body are
displayed in red and black colors respectively, while the monster by a purple square. The numbers are
food items to be consumed by the snake.
The goal of the game is to maneuver the snake within the game area in four directions (up, down, left
and right), trying to consume all the food items while avoiding head-on collision with the monster. As
each food item is consumed, the snake grows with its body lengthened in size equal to the value of the
number being passed. While directing the movement of the snake you should avoid contact with the
monster. Furthermore the monster is also programmed to be motioned in the direction of the snake’s
head at a variable speed.
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
The following screens show the first display of the game (left) and the start of the game (right):
The following 2 screens show the snake with its extended tail after consumption of food items (7 & 8),
plus the monster actively chasing the snake’s head:
The following screen shows the ending of the game where the snake has consumed all the food items
with zero contact with the monster; shown on the title of the screen are the number of contacts with
the monster and the total elapsed game time in seconds:
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
The following screen shows the ending of the game where the snake collided head-on with the monster
and where some food items left unconsumed:
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
SCOPE
• Design the snake game using the standard module “turtle”, including the following components:
a. Game Area
b. A Snake
c. A Monster
d. Food Items
e. Game Status
f. Controls
g. Motion
• Game Area
a. Define the game area as 500 x 500 in dimension
• Food Items
a. Represented as numbers from 1 to 9, displayed within the game area in random, fixed
locations. These numbers will be kept visible all time until they are consumed by the
snake. When the head of the snake crosses one of these numbers, the crossed number
is considered consumed and it will be removed from the game area permanently. So,
any one food item can be consumed once.
• Snake
a. The snake is composed of a fixed size head with a tail which extends as it consumes any
food items.
b. Use different colors for the head (ex: red) and the tail (ex: black with blue border color);
choose a border color for the tail so that the length of the tail can be counted easily.
c. The tail extends as the snake moves, not at the point when the food item being
consumed; in other words, at the moment the snake crosses a food item, the snake
doesn’t change in size; as the snake moves the tail extends in the direction of the
movement as if the end of the tail sticks to the screen. The tail extension ends when the
length of the snake has grown in size equal to the value of the number being crossed.
d. As the tail is being extended, the movement of the snake will slow down. See “Timer”
below.
e. At the start of the game, the length of the tail is set to 5. One shape counts as one unit
length, so the tail will be composed of 5 identical shapes (ex: squares).
f. Use only simple, built-in shape “square” for both head and tail.
• Monster
a. A fixed size object to be programmed to move towards the snake, trying to make a
head-on collision.
b. On startup, place the monster on a random position with a fair distance from the snake.
c. The monster should move at a random rate, a rate that is slightly faster or slower than
that of the snake. See “Timer” below.
d. Use only simple, built-in shape such as “square” for the monster.
• Game Status
a. Keep track of body contact of the snake with the monster
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
b. Keep track of the total elapsed game time in seconds
c. Refresh current status on screen’s title on every motion of either the snake or the
monster
• Motion via Timer
a. “Timer” controls the frequency that a specific event to take place at a regular interval, in
this case the event is the movement of either the snake or the monster.
b. Use separate timers to manually refresh the movement of both snake and the monster
i. Turn off the built-in automatic screen refresh
c. Keep the timer rate no faster than 0.2 second.
d. On each timer event, advance the snake or the monster in a distance equals to the
length of the shape, in the last selected direction
e. Design the timers in such a way:
i. the monster should move in a random time range slightly above or lower than
that of the snake, while snake always move at a fixed rate.
ii. when the snake crosses a food item (a number) slow down its movement by
increasing its timer rate until its tail is fully extended, that is, the snake will
motion slower while the tail being extended
iii. furthermore, you don’t want the snake to move too fast that the monster will
never catch up with the snake, or vice versa. That is, you don’t want the
monster moves so quickly that it always catch the snake before it has a chance
to consume all the food items.
• Controls
a. Use the four arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, Right) to maneuver the snake
b. The motion will continue in the direction of the last key pressed.
c. Use “Space Bar” to pause or un-pause snake motion
d. Snake cannot move beyond the screen area
e. Snake can cross its body
• Game Termination
a. The game ends when the snake consumes all the food items, in this case “Winner” or
the monster catches the snake, in this case “Game Over”.
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
• Game Startup
a. On startup, show (1) the game area with a brief introduction to describe the game
objective and control, (2) the snake (in red) positioned at center and (3) the monster
(purple) at a random position far enough from the snake.
;
b. User mouse-click anywhere on the screen to start the game, all the food items will be
shown subsequently, user then moves the snake around using the 4 arrow keys
• Coding Styles
a. Ensure that your program follows the proper layout structure as discussed in class.
b. You might declare many global variables used for this assignment, ensure that a
consistent naming convention is in place to differentiate various variable scopes.
NOTE:
• Keep your entire source code in ONE SINGLE file.
• Use only standard python modules
• In your design stick ONLY to functions, in other words, no class objects of your own.
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
STARTUP OPTIONS
Not applicable
SKILLS
In this assignment, you will be trained on the use of the followings:
• Use built-in turtle module to design the snake program as per scope
• Use standard objects (strings, numbers & lists)
• Control statements to interact with users
• Variable Scope
• String formatting (method style)
• Functions for program structure and decomposition
DELIVERABLES
1. Design documentation (A1_School_StudentID_Design.doc/pdf)
2. Program source code (A1_School_StudentID_Source.py)
where School is SSE, SME, HSS, FE or LHS and StudentID is your 9-digit student ID.
Zip all files above in a single file (A1_School_StudentID.zip) and submit the zip file by due date to the
corresponding assignment folder under “Assignment (submission)”
For instances, a SME student with student ID “119010001”:
• A2_SME_119010001.zip:
o A2_SME_119010001_Design.doc/pdf
o A2_SME_119010001_Source.py
5% will be deducted if any files are incorrectly named!!!
For the design document kindly refer to section “Design Documentation” for details.
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
DESIGN DOCUMENTATION
For the design document provide write-up for the following sections:
1. Design
a. Describe your thoughts and overall approach, including the breakdown of your logic into
sub components and how these sub components are related/connected (basically the
structure of your program)
b. Describe the data types that you use to develop your program for tracking the various
game objects (snake, monster and food items)
c. Describe the motion logic for both snake and monster.
d. Describe the expansion logic for the snake tail.
e. Describe the body contact logic between the monster and the snake.
2. Functions
a. Describe usage of all your newly defined functions, including details of parameter(s)
3. Output
a. Show samples of output (including status) from your program, including
i. Winner
ii. Game over
iii. 2 others showing various stages of the game:
1. With 0 food item consumed
2. With 3 food items consumed
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
TIPS & HINTS
• Follow the layout structure as mentioned in class (import, declarations, functions, main
process).
• Clearly name and comment your global variables.
• Refer to python website for program styles and naming convention (PEP 8).
• Use Turtle() as objects for the snake, monster and all food items.
• Use the shape() function to set the shape for your objects, or pass the shape as string to the
Turtle(). Note: use simple, built-in shape such as “square” for your snake and monster objects.
Complex shapes will slow down the screen refresh!!!!
• Use stamp() to make copy of the turtle shape at its current position; use clearstamp(idx) to
remove a specific stamp copy or clearstamps() to clear one or more stamp copies.
• Use “stampItems” of the Turtle object to return the list of turtle stamps
• Use write() to display a text on the screen.
• Remember to set the pen in “up” position to avoid line drawing.
• Use ontimer() to motion your snake and monster.
• Use Screen() to configure the game area and use onclick() to capture mouse-click event.
• Use tracer(0) to disable auto screen refresh and call update() to manually refresh the game area.
• Refer to https://docs.python.org/3/library/turtle.html for more information on Turtle Graphics.
SAMPLE OUTPUT
Refer to the Overview session.
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
MARKING CRITERIA
• Coding Styles – overall program structure including layout, comments, white spaces, naming
convention, variables, indentation, functions with appropriate parameters and return.
• Design Documentation
• Program Correctness – whether or the program works 100% as per Scope.
• User Interaction – how informative and accurate information is exchanged between your
program and the player.
• Readability counts – programs that are well structured and easy-to-follow using functions to
breakdown complex problems into smaller cleaner generalized functions are preferred over a
function embracing a complex logic with nested conditions and sub-functions! In other words, a
design with clean architecture with high readability is the predilection for the course objectives
over efficiency.
• KISS approach – Keep It Simple and Straightforward.
• Balance approach – you are not required to come up with a very optimized solution. However,
take a balance between readability and efficiency with good use of program constructs.
ITEMS PERCENTAGE REMARKS
DESIGN DOC 10%-15%
CODING STYLES 20%-25% 0% IF PROGRAM DOESN’T RUN
USER INTERFACE 15%-20% 0% IF PROGRAM DOESN’T RUN
FUNCTIONALITY >40% REFER TO SCOPE
DUE DATE
April 26th, 2020, 11:59:59PM
CSC1002 – Computational Laboratory
CSC1002 – 2020 Winter By Kinley Lam
OTHER IDEAS:
If you feel that you have the passion for programming, here’s list of other ideas that you could further
enhance your program by refactoring your existing logic.
1. Implement multiple monsters; start with one monster initially and then another one on every
fixed time interval, up to some numbers, say 3 (be cautious not to have too many monsters
suddenly). You need to ensure that each monster chases after the snake in a different ways.
Otherwise all monsters will merge into each other eventually and moved altogether.
2. Randomly hide and unhide any food items
3. Randomly shift any food items; shift food items in random direction (left, right, up or down), not
too much a shift, yet enough to confuse the player
4. Do not allow the snake to cross its body; block its movement
5. Implement surprise items; you can have reward or penalty items on screen for snake to
consume:
a. Reward: Increase game time limit (20 seconds)
b. Reward: Freeze motion of all monsters for a few seconds (10 seconds)
c. Penalty: generate another food item
d. Penalty: Hide all food items for a few seconds (10 seconds)
6. Add sound
7. Set aside the top portion of the game area for better status display (with larger text size and
different colors)
8. Set a time limit; player must finish the game within the time limit
9. Add prompt for a new game
Further challenges: After you submit your assignment, leave the program alone and wait until the end of
the school year, around end July, then start the development. You will see the value of refactoring and
decomposition. Share me your experiences on your development.
NOTE:
• Please DO NOT IMPLEMENT ANY OF THESE FEATURES with your assignment, do it
separately.
• No extra credit will be given
• Remember to show your game objectives, or include a readme.txt file
• Share your program to me by email if you want
• If you come up with other ideas share them with me as well
• Enjoy programming