CPPND: Capstone Snake Game Example

This is a my Capstone project in the Udacity C++ Nanodegree Program. The code for this repo was inspired by this excellent StackOverflow post and set of responses.

Work summary

In my project, I made food randomly update its location so the game gets more exciting. To achieve this, I add Food class which manages its location and performs random location update by using a thread.

Work in detail

• main.cpp: Made it to write result to a file, not only console.
• Snake: Added IsAlive() and PoisonPill() so we can observe if its alive and let it die without touching member vaiables directly.
• Food: As mentioned in summary, this is a representation of food, which manages its location and performs random location update by using a thread.
• Controller: Now you can terminate game by ESC key.

vs. Rubrics

README

• Has README which describes project and work.

Compiling and Testing

• It compiles.

Loops, Functions, I/O

• It writes result to a file.
• The project accepts arrow keys and ESC key.

Object Oriented Programming

• The project uses object oriented programming techniques.
• For Snake class, it encapsulates private members and provides clearer methods than having accessed members directly.

Memory Management

• The project uses smart pointer shared_ptr to share Snake object among Game and Food.

Concurrency

• The project uses thread inside Food to run random update of its location.
• For safe access to Food members from main game thread and thead inside Food, the project uses std::mutex and std::lock_guard.

Dependencies for Running Locally

• cmake >= 3.7
  • All OSes: click here for installation instructions
• make >= 4.1 (Linux, Mac), 3.81 (Windows)
  • Linux: make is installed by default on most Linux distros
  • Mac: install Xcode command line tools to get make
  • Windows: Click here for installation instructions
• SDL2 >= 2.0
  • All installation instructions can be found here
  • Note that for Linux, an apt or apt-get installation is preferred to building from source.
• gcc/g++ >= 5.4
  • Linux: gcc / g++ is installed by default on most Linux distros
  • Mac: same deal as make - install Xcode command line tools
  • Windows: recommend using MinGW

Basic Build Instructions

1. Clone this repo.
2. Make a build directory in the top level directory: mkdir build && cd build
3. Compile: cmake .. && make
4. Run it: ./SnakeGame.