Tic-Tac-Toe Variants

Introduction

This project is a Python implementation of Tic-Tac-Toe and its various gameplay variants. It was developed as part of a group project, starting from an incomplete program provided by instructors. The goal was to create a functional Tic-Tac-Toe game playable in both terminal and graphical interfaces using the pygame module. This is a two-player game, and there is no AI opponent available.

Features

• Standard Tic-Tac-Toe: Classic three-in-a-row win condition.
• Counter Mode: The winner is determined by the number of three-in-a-row alignments.
• Moveable Mode: After placing all pieces, players can move their stones.
  • Middle Variant: The game starts with the first move in the center.
  • Adjacent Variant: Pieces can only be moved to adjacent empty spaces.
• Misery Mode: The player who aligns three stones first loses.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository_url>
   cd tic-tac-toe-variants

2. Install dependencies:

   pip install pygame

Usage

Run the game in either terminal or GUI mode:

python main_txt.py  # Terminal version
python main_gui.py  # Pygame version

At the start, players can select which variant to play and the board size using interactive input prompts.

• In main_txt.py: Players place pieces by typing x y, where x and y are within the range [0, board_size]. x represents the position on the x-axis, and y represents the position on the y-axis.
• In main_gui.py: Players place pieces by clicking directly on the corresponding position on the board.

Code Structure

• main_txt.py: Terminal-based version of the game.
• main_gui.py: Graphical version using Pygame.
• constants.py: Contains game constants and settings.
• Variant scripts:
  • default.py: Standard Tic-Tac-Toe
  • counter.py: Counts alignments to determine the winner
  • moveable.py: Allows stone movement
  • misery.py: Reverse win condition

Development Process

• Initial research involved studying Tic-Tac-Toe implementations online.
• A basic terminal version was created first.
• The graphical version was implemented using pygame.
• Variants were added incrementally, refining game logic.
• Debugging was done using print statements to track errors and logic flaws.

Future Improvements

• Improve GUI with animations and better graphics.
• Implement AI for single-player mode.
• Add an online multiplayer mode.

Authors

• Zhihao Chen & Pengcheng Chen