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Course: Intro to computer science - Python > Unit 4
Lesson 5: Designing levelsInstructions: Timed typer
Apply functions to design a set of engaging game levels for a speed typing game.
How do games keep our attention?
Great games have just the right balance of challenge and reward. Many of them manage this pacing with levels. Levels give players an immediate goal to work toward and keep players at their edge, with each level just a bit more challenging than the last.
In this project, you’ll design the leveling system for a speed typing game.
The basic game
First, get to know the basic mechanics of the game. We’ve provided an example of a single-level game with three rounds. Each round, the player is presented with a word or phrase to type and a time limit. If they correctly spell the words within the time limit, they pass!
Take a look at the function definitions in
typer.py. These are the building blocks you’ll have available to design your levels.Gathering requirements
Start your design by thinking about your audience. Are they typing on a physical keyboard or a phone? Are they just learning to type, practicing their spelling, or looking to be entertained? Consider how your target audience might influence what the right rule set and challenge threshold is.
Then, decide how the difficulty will progress from level to level. You can vary the combination of word length, number of words, time limit, and number of rounds, or you can imagine an entirely new set of mechanics!
- Design at least five unique game levels that increase in difficulty.
Write down your plan for each level as you go. This will guide how you organize your code.
Game over
Finally, think about how a player wins, loses, or completes the game.
- Design a way to end the game that provides some indication of the player’s progress.
The game might end as soon as a player misses a round, printing out the number of levels they completed, or the game might continue to the end of the last level, printing out an overall accuracy score. You decide!
Function breakdown
Plan out what functions you want, what parameters they need, and what value they return. Each function should handle one specific task, like calculating a score, determining a time limit, or playing a bonus level. Then, assemble the functions to build the final game logic!
- Add at least three new function definitions to
typer.pyto support your leveling system. - Use the functions to build your game logic in
main.py.
Remember to test your game as you go, thinking through any edge cases.
More to explore
Imagine players are taken to a menu screen when they first open the game. Add a prompt that asks the user to select between multiple game options, and then use that option to adapt the gameplay. For example, players might choose between overall difficulty modes, like easy, medium, and hard, that shift the difficulty of all levels.
Playtest your game with friends and family. Observe where they’re getting stuck or which levels they’re winning too easily. How can you adjust the balance of challenge and reward in your game to better keep them motivated and engaged?
Want to join the conversation?
Is it just that this course is recent that there is barely any comments here?(3 votes)
Yes, it was added only a month ago.(4 votes)
can you teach me how to make a walking animation and flying animation and make the backdrop be smooth.(3 votes)
If you're willing to do that, Python isn't the answer you're looking for. You can do this with JavaScript though. There's a course here on Khan which takes through everything about Javascript, animating, etc.(2 votes)
- How do you import time in the game?(2 votes)
Add the line 'import time' to include the time library. However, the time library is already being imported into 'typer.py', so you shouldn't need to import it again for this project.(3 votes)
I'm having trouble with the "Challenge: Physics engine." I'm stuck on step two. My code seems to make the ball move correctly, but I'm getting this pop-up message "Modify the move() function body to stop the ball at the right wall."
This is the ball.py that I have:
'
"""Simulates a ball's movement and collision with the edges of a screen."""
def maybe_bounce(position, speed, right_wall):
"""Returns the ball's new speed, which stays the same unless the ball
bounces off of a wall.
"""
if position >= right_wall:
# Reverses direction and loses a bit of speed.
speed *= -0.75
return speed
else:
return speed
def move(position, speed, right_wall):
"""Returns the ball's new position after one time step.
The ball moves in straight line at the given speed.
"""
ball_speed = maybe_bounce(position, speed, right_wall)
new_position = position + ball_speed
if new_position >=right_wall:
return right_wall
else:
return new_position
'
The console isn't giving me an error code, and shows the ball moving to the right wall and bouncing off it several times.(1 vote)
When I run your code, it looks to me like the ball almost 'dribbles' down the right wall - it's supposed to bounce all the way back to the left wall. Themovefunction doesn't need to worry about the ball bouncing or not, it simply needs to worry about the ball stopping at the wall. It looks like you've overcomplicated the function a bit.
We can check if the ball has reached the right wall by checking thatposition(which is passed in as an argument) plus the balls currentspeed(also an argument) is greater than the position of the right wall. If it is, then we want to return the position of the right wall - stop at the wall, don't travel past it. Similarly, we can check the left wall if the position plus speed is less than the position of the left wall, which in this case is simply 0. If neither of these are true, then we know that the ball won't be affected by anything in the next timestep and we can simply return it's future position, which will beposition + speed.
I will also note, since the syntax of Python requires whitespace, I would suggest formatting your questions/responses differently. Including your whole message in italics can make it harder to read, and you can create a codeblock by typing three backticks (`), a line break, the code you wish to share, another line break, and three more backticks. Click the 'Show Preview' option to show what your post will look like when it's shared.(1 vote)