Catch the Turtle 🐢

An interactive, "whack-a-mole" style arcade game built entirely using Python's built-in turtle library. This project is designed to be a clear and educational example of object-oriented programming (OOP) principles, state management, and event-driven programming in a simple game environment.

You can check out the video demo in my tweet or you can click on the pic below and watch the demo on youtube.

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Features

• Dynamic Gameplay: A turtle randomly appears at different locations, and your goal is to click it to score points.

• Customizable Settings: At startup, you can set the screen dimensions, the overall game duration, and the speed at which the turtle moves.

• Real-time Scoreboard: A dedicated class manages and displays the player's score and a live countdown timer.

• Responsive Game State: The turtle's movement and the timer stop automatically when the game ends.

• Object-Oriented Design: The code is cleanly separated into different classes, each with a specific responsibility, making it easy to read and extend.

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How to Run the Game

1. Prerequisites

Make sure you have Python installed on your computer. This game uses the built-in turtle and time libraries, so you don't need to install any external packages.

2. File Structure

Ensure all your .py files are in the same directory:

/your_project_folder
|-- main.py
|-- game.py
|-- scoreboard.py
|-- target.py
|-- ascii.py  

3. Execution Open your terminal or command prompt, navigate to the project folder, and run the main.py file:

python main.py

The game window will appear and you'll be prompted to enter your game settings directly in the console.

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How It Works

The game's functionality is broken down into several classes for clean and organized code:

• main.py: The main entry point of the game. It handles user input, initializes all the other classes, and starts the game loop.

• Game.py: The central manager. It starts the game, sets a timer for when the game should end, and tells the other classes what to do (e.g., to stop moving or display the final score) when the time runs out.

• Scoreboard.py: Manages all the information displayed to the player, including the current score and the real-time countdown timer.

• Target.py: Represents the clickable turtle. It controls the turtle's random movements and appearance, and it detects when the player clicks on it.

Project Structure & Design

The project is built using an object-oriented approach, where each part of the game is its own class. This separation of concerns makes the code modular and easy to manage.

• main.py The main entry point of the program. It handles all initial setup, including getting user input, creating the screen, and instantiating the core objects of the game (Game, Scoreboard, and Target). It then starts the entire process by calling the game_manager.start_game() method.

• game.py The central game manager. This class acts as a coordinator, connecting the other objects and managing the overall game state. It is responsible for starting the game loops for the timer and target, and more importantly, it sets a one-time "game over" timer. When this timer triggers, the game_over() method is called, which then commands the Scoreboard and Target to stop their loops.

• scoreboard.py This class's sole responsibility is to manage the display of the score and the timer. It uses two separate Turtle objects to write the score and time on the screen. The countdown is handled by a self-scheduling loop using ontimer().

• target.py This class represents the interactive game object. It controls the turtle's random movements and appearance. It also contains the logic to detect a mouse click, update the score by communicating with the Scoreboard, and stop its own movement loop when commanded by the Game manager.

Customization

The game is easy to customize. Simply open the relevant .py file and change the values to alter the game's appearance and behavior.

• Change Colors & Shapes: In target.py, you can change the shape and color variables in the __init__ method.
• Adjust Fonts: In scoreboard.py, you can modify the font parameter in the write() methods to change the text style.
• Modify Game Logic:
  • Change the game's duration in main.py by altering the game_timer_seconds input.
  • Adjust the turtle's appearance speed by changing the user_timer input.
  • Change the hit radius for a click in target.py by modifying the distance_from_target < 20 check.