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Snake-Master

You're going to build a little game of Snake.

Don't freak out, we're going to go slow.

  • Fork this repository
  • Clone your fork on your pc
  • COMMIT AFTER EACH STEP

Goals

  • Understand time-based programming
  • Capture user input
  • Be able to test and formulate problems
  • Competencies:
    • Timers
    • Real-time graphics manipulation
    • Randomness
    • Formulate Systems
    • Game Design
    • Canvas

Recommendations

You will find a lot of tutorials online. You are very much invited to follow them, however, you will then implement your own following the steps described below.

Specifically, every tutorial you'll find uses canvas. In this exercise, you'll move DOM elements.

Step 1 - Movement

In the beginning, we want to make sure we know how to make things move.

  • create a snake.js file
  • create an index.html file that uses the Javascript file.
  • create a div, give it some styling so you can see it. This will be the stage. Something like width:500px; height:500px; background:grey;
  • create a div, give it some styling so you can see it. This will be our snake. Something like width:50px; height:50px; background:red;
  • make it so this div advances of 50px to the right every second. To do that, you will need:
    • to target the div in Javascript (getElementById or querySelector)
    • give the square some positioning that allows you to place it precisely (css position property)
    • make a function that moves it (using left or transform)
    • then run this function every second
  • commit

Step 2 - Control

  • create a button
  • target this button in Javascript
  • when the user clicks it, change the direction of the Snake
  • add 3 other buttons and make them control the 4 directions
  • congrats, you can move the square!
  • optional: capture the keyboard keys to move the square with the keyboard
  • commit

Step 3 - Game States

  • In the beginning, the square should be stopped
  • When the user clicks a button / presses spacebar or enter, the game starts
  • commit

Step 4 - Randomness

  • make a function that places an apple on the stage. This is also a square div, but green
  • Place it anywhere on the stage, randomly
  • Once this works, perfect the function and make sure the apple is placed:
    • At grid intersections (that is, in intervals of 50px)
    • Never placed where the Snake is
  • commit

Step 5 - Collisions

  • When the Snake hits a wall, stop the game
  • Add a counter. When the snake hits an apple, place a new apple anywhere (using the same function you created before), and add 1 to the score
  • commit

Step 6 - Game implementation

  • Make it so when the snake picks an apple, the tail grows by 1 (create an additional div)
  • take your time, this part isn't always immediately intuitive
  • commit

Step 7 - UX Niceties

  • Make it so the snake cannot go back on itself (i.e, it cannot go immediately down if it was going up)
  • Make the snake faster with each apple
  • Make the snake able to collide with its own tail. Stop the game if the snake hits its tail
  • commit

Step 8 - Screens

  • Add a game over screen
  • Add a "start game" screen
  • commit

Step 9 - Finishing touches

  • add animations, commit
  • make it look good, commit
  • add sounds, commit

Step 10 - Canvas

  • Without changing most of your code, make it work with canvas
  • commit