Snowboard Game
The snowboard project in highschool was for my final project in AP Computer Science Principles and was meant to represent all of what I learned throughout the school year. I decided to go with java as I had enough experience in it through another AP Computer Science course I took the same year. The game was basically a “SkiFree” clone that most people have played on windows XP at one point or another. I put my own twist on it as I chose to use a snowboard instead of skis and go with a simpler art style. I also didn’t include a yeti which I realise now was a missed oppritunity.
I worked alone on this project and this is probably where I really had my eyes opened to the power of programming. I realized while doing this project about how all of the pieces I had learned through the year clicked together. I realized I could use arrays as a storage for each proceedurally generated line and I also learned the importance of google while working on any project. A lot of googling was done but I was given a lengthy time frame to complete the project and a decent bit of help in class thanks to my teacher.
This is some of the code I wrote that ran the core of the game:
SwingWorker<Void, String> worker = new SwingWorker<Void, String>(){
@Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception{
boolean dead = false;
while(ingame == true)
{
String all = "";
//Moves character based on orientation
if(playerString.equals("\\")){
player++;
}
else if(playerString.equals("/")){
player--;
}
//Iterate through each row in the window in each iteration
for(int j = currentRow; j < windowRow +currentRow; j++)
{
String currentLine = "";
//Ierates through each column
for(int o = 0; o< windowCol; o++)
{
//If same location as player
if(j == center && o == player){
//if player is on rock tree or edge they die
if(env[j][o].equals("<span style=\"color:gray\">●</span>") || env[j][o].equals("<span style=\"color:green\">▲</span>") || env[j][o].equals("<span style=\"color:black\">!</span>")){
//sets character model to X and ends the game
currentLine = currentLine+"<span style=\"color:red\">X</span>";
dead = true;
ingame = false;
}
else{
//Setting player orientation to current location
currentLine = currentLine + "<span style=\"color:red\">"+playerString+"</span>";
}
}
else if(dead == true && j == (windowRow+currentRow-1)){
// Game over line set
currentLine = "<span style=\"color:black;font: bold 24px arial, sans-serif;\">Game Over</span>";
}
else{
//creates new line for current row
currentLine = currentLine + env[j][o];
}
}
//If you hit the final line, you win appears
if(j == 55){
currentLine = "<span style=\"color:black;font: bold 24px arial, sans-serif;\">You Win!</span>";
}
//Taking current line into a new line in the game string
all = all + "<br>"+currentLine;
}
//Increment the row and center up
currentRow++;
center++;
System.out.println("Row is "+currentRow);
//SwingWorker sends final string to publish class for UI updating
publish(all);
//Waits to allow gameplay
Thread.sleep(600);
//Ends game if finsish line is passed
if(currentRow == 50) ingame = false;
}
//Returns null since void
return null;
}