Terminal Application - Daniel Waldow

Overview:

• The schoolyard classic, 'Scissors, Paper, Rock' was a great past-time before the smartphone era
• Kids used to engage with each other in a simple game of wits, fist-pumping the air for a chance at victory

Problem:

• With the introduction of smartphones and their ubiquitous adoption in moden schoolyards, a legacy is at risk of becoming antique
• To combat this, I have undertaken arguably one of the most important tasks in gaming history... to digitise 'Scissors, Paper, Rock'
• This alone won't be enough, however. To succeed, I have made the executive decision to rebrand the classic to appeal to a younger audience
• I give you: 'Sith-Lord, Jedi, Ewok'

Target Audience:

• 'Sith-Lord, Jedi, Ewok' is a game targeting younger audiences who may not have grown up playing 'Scissors, Paper, Rock', but will also more broadly appeal to fans of the Star Wars franchise

Usage:

• Users of 'Sith-Lord, Jedi, Ewok' will be given the option to play the rebranded classic against a computer player (AI) and save highscores for bragging rights amongst their friends

Note: The term 'user' refers to anyone interacting with any part of the application excluding the 'Play Game' functionality. In this mode, 'users' are referred to as 'players'.

Features:

• Main Menu:

  • The opening screen for the application includes a weclome banner with Ascii art and 4 options for the user to choose from by using the up and down arrows and enter to select
  • All text in the application is coloured!
  • Every new menu is displayed on a fresh screen with system('clear')

• Play Game:

  • From the Main Menu, users can choose the 'Play Game' option
  • Once selected, players play rounds of 'Sith-Lord, Jedi, Ewok' against computer player until they lose
  • During each round the following are printed to the screen:
    • Round Number
    • Player choice
    • Computer choice
  • The end of each round includes a unique Star Wars sound byte for each of the 3 possible results (win, lose, draw)
  • Once a player loses a round to the computer they enter their name to save their score to the Leaderboard
  • The computer player makes choices based on a random number generator, which maps to each of the three factions (Sith, Jedi or Ewok)
  • The computer choice is then compared with the player choice to determine the result of the round

• View Leaderboard:

  • If the user chooses the 'View Leaderboard' option from the main menu, the app will display the top 10 highest scores for previously played games
  • These scores are saved to an external YAML file, which allows players to save the high scores of their games to the Leaderboard, which persists between sessions
  • If there are no previous scores available, the error message, "No scores on the leaderboard to show!" will be displayed to the user

• Show Rules:

  • A list of rules for the game are displayed including an explanation of the scoring system

• Sub-Options Menu:

  • At the end of each 'Play Game', 'View Leaderboard' and 'Show Rules' screens the player is prompted to press any key to continue, followed by:
    • A randomly selected Star Wars quote is printed to the screen and the quote sound byte is played (if there is a corresponding sound byte available)
      • There is a DEMO mode which can be activated in the 'quote_generator' file in the code base to ensure only quotes with sound bytes are selected to enhance the demo experience
    • One of 2 options to select from: 'Play New Game' or 'Exit to Main Menu'

• Exit

  • Finally, when players are ready to leave and select the 'Exit' option from the Main Menu, they are asked if they are sure they want to leave, and prompted to stay in the app with a sound byte of Luke Skywalker

Note: The term 'user' refers to anyone interacting with any part of the application excluding the 'Play Game' functionality. In this mode, 'users' are referred to as 'players'.

Main Menu:

• Upon launch, users will see a welcome screen which serves as the Main Menu
• Undeneath the heading banner users are asked what they would like to do
• Next to this is highlighted help text describing how to access each of the menu options (Press ↑/↓ arrow to move and Enter to select)
• The user is presented with 4 options in the Main Menu:
  • Play Game
  • Read Rules
  • View Leaderboard
  • Exit

Start New Game:

• When a player chooses the 'Play Game' option they will be presented with a new game, which displays:
  • Round number
  • Instruction for player to choose a faction to start a new match
  • Faction options: Jedi, Sith or Ewok
• After every match, the player will be presented with the results:
  • Win:
    • "You won!" message displayed
    • "Round saved successfully" message displayed
    • Player is then prompted to press any key to start a new round
  • Draw:
    • "You drew" message displayed
    • "Round saved successfully" message displayed
    • Player is then prompted to press any key to start a new round
  • Loss:
    • "You lost" message displayed
    • "Round saved successfully" message displayed
    • Player is prompted to press any key to continue
    • Player is then prompted to enter their name (this will be used to display their score in the Leaderboard)
      • If the player enters a name with non-alphanumeric characters they will be presented with the error message, "Please enter a valid name (no special characters)". This message is part of a loop which will be displayed every time a user enters an invalid name until they enter a valid name (the validation allows for numbers so players can use aliases).
    • Thanks for playing message displayed, followed by score successfully saved message
• Once the game is finished due to a loss, the player will then be presented with the Options Sub-Menu, displaying:
  • Iconic Star Wars quote
  • Options menu with the following options:
    • Start New Game (same as choosing Play Game from the Main Menu)
    • Exit to Main Menu

Read Rules:

• When a player chooses the 'Read Rules' option they will be presented with a description of the rules for 'Sith-Lord, Jedi, Ewok'
• The user is then presented with the Options Sub-Menu (see 'Start New Game', section 3)

View Leaderboard:

• When a user chooses the 'View Leaderboard' option they will be presented with:

  • A table showing a list of scores for previously played games OR
  • If there are no scores to display, the error message "No scores on the leaderboard to show!" will be displayed to the user
  • The user is then presented with the Options Sub-Menu (see 'Start New Game', section 3)

• Exit:

  • When a user chooses the 'Exit' option they will be presented with message asking if they are sure they want to exit the application:
    • Yes: Exits the application
    • No: Returns to the Main Menu

https://trello.com/b/jzbxsG9I/terminal-application

Installation:

To download 'Sith-Lord, Jedi, Ewok' as a gem, you can find it at RubyGems.org here: https://rubygems.org/gems/Sith-Lord_Jedi_Ewok

NB! The above installation currently contains pathing errors when running the gem. To run the application, download source code from https://github.com/waldowred5/T1A3-Terminal-App, and then run the following command

sith_jedi_ewok in terminal from the following directory:

/Users/[user_name]/T1A3-Terminal-App/src/sith_jedi_ewok

To download all dependencies, run bundle install in the same directory.

If importing to your own application, add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'Sith-Lord_Jedi_Ewok'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install Sith-Lord_Jedi_Ewok

• Dependencies:
  • Rake: v12.0
  • Rspec: v3.9
  • TTY-Table: v0.12
  • TTY-Prompt: v0.22.0
  • Colorize: v0.8.1
  • Artii: v2.1
  • Ruby 2D: 0.9.2
• System/Requirements
  • Mac: Install listed dependencies
  • Windows/Linux: The Ruby 2D gem requires that the MSYS2 devkit has been installed
    • More info at: https://rubyinstaller.org/add-ons/devkit.html

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.