Adding Games ~ Checkers User Stories

Checkers

Checkers Basics:

Once John begins a game of checkers, a checkers board of red and black squares is displayed. The board is 8 squares long and 8 squares tall. There are 24 checker pieces, 12 red and 12 black, on the black squares of the board. These pieces only occupy the top and bottom three rows of the board, with red pieces on one side and black pieces on the other. Because John has been randomly assigned to play with the red checkers for this game, the side of the board with the red checkers is closer to the bottom of his screen.

Opponent’s turn:

Once a game of checkers starts, John, playing the red checkers, cannot move any pieces because his opponent, Lee, who is playing with the black checkers, takes their turn first. As Lee takes his turn, John can see a timer counting down. If Lee doesn’t move by the time the timer reaches zero, Lee forfeits the game. However, Lee takes his turn, moving one of his checkers closer to John’s side of the board, before the timer runs out. Once he does, a sound effect is played, and both the starting and ending squares of Lee’s move are highlighted in a different color. John’s turn begins immediately.

Taking a turn:

Once John’s turn begins, he sees the turn timer counting down for his turn like it did for his opponent. John now has the option to click on any of his red pieces, which marks any of the spaces that piece can move to. According to Checkers' rules, these are the two tiles diagonally adjacent to the piece, on the side facing his opponent’s pieces. He still cannot move his opponent’s black pieces. Once John has decided where to move, he clicks on the piece he wants to move and then on the highlighted square he wants to move the piece to. Upon completing the move, John’s turn ends and his opponent’s begins, with a refreshed turn timer.

Capturing a Piece:

When John’s piece is diagonally adjacent to one of his opponent’s pieces, and the board space behind the opponent’s space is empty, he has the opportunity to capture his opponent’s piece by “jumping” over it to the space behind. This removes his opponent’s piece from the game.

Multi-Capturing:

After John’s piece captures one of his opponent’s pieces, if it lands in a position that would allow it to capture another piece on John’s next turn, he is instead given the opportunity to jump over that next piece. John is given the opportunity to continue jumping over and capturing enemy pieces until he has no valid jumps left. During this chain of captures, John can only ever move the piece that started the chain.

Creating a King:

When John’s piece makes it all the way to the edge of the board on his opponent’s side, it becomes a king. This piece can now move forwards and backwards, instead of just forwards, for the rest of the game.

Winning Checkers:

After many moves, John has captured most of his opponent’s pieces, and his opponent’s final piece cannot move. This means that John won this game. John’s screen displays a “you win!” message and displays buttons titled “menu”, “rematch”, and “new game”. John doesn’t want to play another game of Checkers, so he clicks the “menu” button and is brought back to the Chigame home page.