README.md

Pass The Blocks

A fun 2D terminal game built with C++.

Description

The game is basically all about ducking the incoming blocks or obstacles. The player (indicated by '*') is spawned at the bottom of the playground or board. Obstacles would generate on top of the board and would start to come down to hit the player. Each obstacle would have some gaps. Player would have to take advantage of the gaps by pressing the Arrow Keys and duck the obstacles.

Each obstacle player ducks score increases by 1. With increasing score game would grow more difficult with faster obstacle and smaller gaps. I dare anyone making a score 40. My personal best is 32! :)

Dependency

This project has dependency on ncurses library for visual representation and cmake for compiling and running the project.

Setting configuration

Game board or boundary is modifiable from the config.txt file. Below are the things to remember while updating the config file.

1. width/length ratio = 2 : 1. If width = 70, length = 35.
2. 100 ≥ width ≥ 30

Instructions to run

1. Navigate to project directory and run mkdir build && cd build on terminal.
2. Run cmake .. && make. This will generate an executable inside build folder named PassTheBlocks
3. Run ./PassTheBlocks
4. A display will appear as below
5. Press 'S' (not case-sensitive) to get in action or any key to terminate the program.

Note

Once there's a collision everything halts. Please press any of the Arrow Keys to get to the next screen.

Deep dive

• Top level investigation

  Below is the upper level breakdown of classes.

• Class & Method level investigation

  • class Reader
    • parse_file()
      • A virtual method for file reading
  • class File_Reader
    • parse_file()
      • Implementation of the virtual method. Reads a file at a given url and stores the dimensions in a std::vector
    • get_file_data()
      • Returns the std::vector holding the dimension
  • class Config_Parser
    • parse_and_store_data()
      • Uses File_Reader to provide file url and get the dimensions and save them in a public unordered map
  • class Board_Generator
    • draw_board()
      • Draws the board initially in terminal
    • update_cell(int, int, int, int, int)
      • Updates an individual cell in the terminal, specially changes player position
    • update_cell(int, vector<int>&, int)
      • Updates range of cells in the terminal, specially changes obstacle position
  • class Game
    • load_game(): Initializes inner matrix of the board without placing player or obstacle
    • launch_game():
      • Draws the board in the terminal initially.
      • Initiates a thread for obstacle generation and moving them
      • Initiates a player/vehicle thread for user interaction
      • This is the main cockpit for the overall game
    • move_my_vehicle()
      • Responsible for launching a player thread
      • Spawns the player and updates board
      • Detects user key press and take action accordingly
      • Takes a std::unique_lock and provides obstacle thread a go-ahead by notifying
    • generate_obstacle()
      • Responsible for launching an obstacle thread
      • Once player/vehicle is created this thread starts its job
      • Randomly generates gap start index and modify matrix and board in terminal
      • Moves the obstacle downward and checks for collision
      • Keeps track of player score
    • check_collision_from_obstacle()
      • Checks if collision occured once an obstacle has moved
    • check_collision_from_vehicle()
      • Checks if collision occured once player has moved
    • get_obstacle_delay()
      • Sets obstacle moving delay based on user score. The less the delay, game gets more difficult
    • get_obstacle_gap()
      • Sets obstacle gap based on user score. The less the gap, game gets more difficult
    • stop_game()
      • Uses a locking mechanism as either player or obstacle thread might want to reach it. Whoever reaches first stops the game.
    • change_inner_board_value()
      • Both the player and obstacle thread use this method to modify inner matrix data. So it was made thread-safe by locking.
    • get_inner_board_cell()
      • For reading inner matrix data
    • post_game_over()
      • Display screen after game is over