Snake Game for learning C++

Abstract

A simple snake game, with terminal GUI implemented using ncurses library. Taken from Vissa Moutafis LINK and heavily modified.

Required Knowledge:

This project is meant for those with a little programming experience in any other language or a general overview of programming concepts. If you can tell the terms "Object" and "Class" apart, know what a function is, know basic git and have used a command line before, then this project will teach you through exploring and solving challenges by yourself how to program C++. If you don't know these terms but can take a big challenge, then this is still a good starting point. Just try to figure out what is going on and you will learn a lot.

Resources:

• cppreference for information on all elements of the language, quite detailed and might be overwhelming for beginners
• Cherno C++ Playlist for an overview of all components of the language in a very beginner-friendly format
• stackoverflow when you have a problem, most of the time, someone else has encountered it too, and you will find help and examples when web-searching and clicking on links to this site
• Tetris for Windows code-along tetris video for the windows command line with good and beginner-friendly explanations

Controls:

• Up-Arrow to go up.
• Down-Arrow to go down.
• Left-Arrow to go left.
• Right-Arrow to go right.
• q to exit game.

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Prerequisities

You need to install the following packages:

• ncurses : Terminal User Interface Library "ncurses"
• cmake and make : Build Tools
• gcc or clang : C/C++ Compiler

If you use MacOS then you must install homebrew for access to the packages. On Windows you must install and set up WSL to get a Linux command line. Open up a terminal and type the folllowing commands:

# Most Linux distributions and WSL under Windows
~$ sudo apt-get install gcc make cmake libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev
# On MacOS
~$ brew install clang make cmake ncurses
# Or for FreeBSD
~$ sudo apt-get install clang make cmake ncurses

Now you are ready to use the repo.

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Downloading, Instalation and Running the Program

Now we will install and run the program, but first let's download the repo:

~$ git clone https://git.constantin-fuerst.com/constantin/snake
# cd in the directory
~$ cd snake
# select the correct branch for learning
~$ git checkout lessons
# or cheat and look at the solution / see what you will achieve with
~$ git checkout master
# run the helper script to build and execute
~$ bash build-and-run.sh

and begin your journey through C++!

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How to learn

• Perform Setup like above
• Run the game on master branch
• Explore the code
  • set up a development environment for c++ on your computer - see the Cherno Playlist first few videos for help
  • try to figure out what's going on in the components and game subfolders
  • find out what a preprocessor, compiler and linker do - see the Cherno Playlist first few videos for help
  • check out the CMakeLists.txt and build-and-run.sh files and the created build folder and try to understand how they lead to the application going from code to executable
• Change to branch lessons
• Move to LESSONS.md for further tasks