https://github.com/ClementineOldfield/pokemon-terminal-app
In groups of 2 create a Ruby terminal application (app).
It can be something to entertain, to surprise, to solve a problem, to inform, to compute, etc.
With such a short time to complete this project, our timeline had to be condensed.
(Day 1 was technically only a half day as we were given our design brief in the afternoon. )
- Brainstorming and Ideation.
- Narrow down to three ideas. Explore each of the three ideas in more depth. Decide on a final idea & get green lit.
- Create user workflow diagram
- Write basic pseudocode
- Start app development if time permits
- App development.
- Adjusting scope of app to meet deadline.
We started off by brainstorming with a board on Trello
After this, we narrowed it down to three ideas:
- Scissors, Paper, Rock game
- Nutrition Tracking App
- Pokemon Battle Game
We drew some mindmaps to explore the pros and cons of each option.
We decided to go with the Pokemon app as it was something that we both found engaging and exciting to develop.
Our aim was to create a fun battle game that was quick and easy to play. It would include features from the 90s version of the game that would add elements of nostalgia.
- Option to choose a Pokemon from a list
- Option to choose a move from a unique list for each Pokemon
- HP stats for the user and the opponent that decrease with each attack
- Option for the user to play again after the battle has finished
- For the opponent to attack with a random move from its list of moves each round
- To have a user friendly graphical display
- To affect the damage of an attack by:
- The move's type vs the opponent Pokemon's type
- The attack stats of the attacking pokemon
- The defence stats of the defending pokemon
- To include ASCII sprites to show which Pokemon are currently fighting
- Saving the user's progress
Some example user stories...
- As a user, I am able to choose a pokemon and take part in battles with other pokemon.
- As a user, I am able to play multiple games in one session.
- As a user, I am able to use the different moves available to my chosen pokemon.
- stretch: As a user, I am able to save my progress and have my pokemon gain experience from battles
- Find title screen.
- Press enter to continue program.
- Identify Pokemon options.
- Type desired Pokemon options from options displayed.
- Press enter to confirm user Pokemon.
- Identify user Pokemon and opponent pokemon.
- Press enter to continue program.
- Identify health of user Pokemon and opponent Pokemon.
- Identify action options.
- Type "y" to attack or "n" to not attack.
- Identify attack and damage to user Pokemon health.
- Press enter to continue program.
- Identify attack and damage to opponent Pokemon health.
- Press enter to continue program.
- Identify health of both user Pokemon and opponent Pokemon.
- Repeat steps 9 to 15 till user Pokemon or opponent Pokemon health reach less than or equal 0
- Identify result.
- Identify play options.
- Type "y" to play again or "n" to end program.
To begin writing the code for our app, we sketched out some quick pseudocode. We knew we would need at least one class (for the pokemon objects) and two loops. One loop to begin the game itself, and one loop to begin the fight.
Create 'Pokemon' class {
core attributes: name, type, hp, moves
stretch attributes: level, attack, defence, pp, speed, inventory
method: attack(opponent, move)
stretch goal - method: use_item(item)
stretch goal - method: level_up
}
We had a few core functionality goals that were to be the primary objectives. And we added stretch goals that we would incorporate if time allowed.
variable: playing
Loop: While playing is true {
stretch - Start music
Ask user to choose a pokemon
assign choice to user/fighter
assign opposite to opponent
Stretch goal: create multiple levels of opponent. (eg. really difficult - mewtwo)
variable: fighting
Loop: while fighting is true {
stretch - Start battle music
Clear screen
Display own pokemon & opponent pokemon stats.
stretch TODO: Create graphic display with ASCII
Give option/s available to player
If player attacks {
Figure out math for damage to opponent/s health
Apply damage to opponent's health
}
stretch goal: elsif player uses item {
add points to user.pokemon's hp
}
Press any button to continue.
Opponent attacks automatically.
Figure out math for damage to opponent/s health
Apply damage to user's health
if user hp OR opponent hp <= 0, fighting is no longer true
}
If user hp > 0
You win!
else
Game over!
end
stretch: apply experience to winning pokemon
if experience is more than threshold, level up pokemon
Ask "would you like to play again?"
if no
playing = false
end
}
stretch goal - Write data to txt files to save progress
To communicate throughout the project, we used Slack for direct communication and Trello to delegate and keep track of tasks.
To optimise accessibility, our entire app is usable with a keyboard. We also chose to use white text on a black background to maximise readability.
Despite its level of separation from reality, according to Australian classifications, the concept of Pokemon often touches on some mild themes and violence. To prevent our app from offending or disturbing any users, we would limit its use to those over the age of 12. There would be a rating and a warning displayed upon launching the game. In this version we only had time to implement a very basic version of this feature.
There are some concerns of Pokemon being likened to promoting animal cruelty. As in the original version, we were sure to specify that the Pokemon "fainted" rather than was actually injured in any way. Although this does not mitigate the above concern entirely, it lessens the amount of violence potentially depicted in the final game.
Here is the method that we used to calculate damage within the Pokemon class for each attack made.
damage = rand(1..3) * move.power * @attack
The code takes an element of randomness and multiplies it by the attack stat of the Pokemon and the power stat of the move. This makes some Pokemon (and some moves) stronger than others.
We decided to add music to the gameplay in order to make the user experience (and also our presentation) more engaging. The simplest way we could find to do this was to use the inbuild afplay method in macosx terminal. Moving forward, we would ideally like to integrate this with other platforms also.
We attempted to incorporate two different tracks: One for the general game music and one that was triggered when a fight started but it seemed as though we would need a more sophistocated system in order to acheive this.
We would have loved to include the functionality of saving the user's progress but the time restrictions simply did not allow us to get that far.
We included the attribute of 'type' for each pokemon in order for some types to have advantages over others. To implement this in future versions, we would need to modify the attack method to consider these factors.
It would have been fun to include ASCII pictures of each of the pokemon on screen as they fight. This is definitely something that we will add to any future version of the app.
We kept a record of our bug testing in a spreadsheet (included in /docs/ and pictured below)
