Playing the Game

The game can be run in two modes: as a text-based game or using a graphical user interface (GUI). The game logic is the same in either case, but the GUI enforces a turn time limit that makes playing the game more exciting. The text-based interface is provided for debugging and development.

The files are separated according to these two modes. ants.py knows nothing of graphics or turn time limits.

To start a text-based game, run

python ants_text.py

To start a graphical game, run

python gui.py

or

python ants_gui.py

When you start the graphical version, a new window should appear. In the starter implementation, you have unlimited food and your ants can only throw leaves at bees in their current Place.

Before you complete Problem 2, the GUI may crash since it doesn't have a full conception of what a Place is yet! Try playing the game anyway! You'll need to place a lot of ThrowerAnts (the second type) in order to keep the bees from reaching your queen.

The game has several options that you will use throughout the project, which you can view with python3 ants_text.py --help.

usage: ants_text.py [-h] [-d DIFFICULTY] [-w] [--food FOOD]

Play Ants vs. SomeBees

optional arguments:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  -d DIFFICULTY  sets difficulty of game (test/easy/normal/hard/extra-hard)
  -w, --water    loads a full layout with water
  --food FOOD    number of food to start with when testing