Creating a 9x9 Tic Tac Toe Game with Pygame

Welcome to this tutorial!

Today, we learn how to create an enhanced version of the classic Tic Tac Toe game. Instead of the traditional 3x3 grid, we will design a more challenging 9x9 version and use Pygame, a library in Python for game design.

Prerequisites:

1. Basic knowledge of Python.

2. Familiarity with Pygame would be beneficial but not necessary.

Steps to follow:

1. Setting Up Your Environment: Before you start coding, make sure you have installed pygame. You can install it using pip:

    pip install pygame
   

2. Initialize the Game: Start by importing the necessary modules and defining the constants for the game settings.

    import pygame
   
    # Constants
    BOARD_SIZE = 9
    CELL_SIZE = 45
    WIN_LENGTH = 3  
    WIDTH, HEIGHT = CELL_SIZE * (BOARD_SIZE + 3), CELL_SIZE * BOARD_SIZE
   

3. Create the TicTacToe Class: Our game will be encapsulated within a class called TicTacToe. The main functions in this class will be:

   • __init__ Initializes the game settings.

   • draw_main Draws the main game screen.

   • get_mouse_pos Gets the position of the mouse.

   • check_win Checks if there's a winner.

   • switch_turn Alternates between players.

   • play Handles the game loop.

4. Drawing the Board: The draw_main function will render our 9x9 grid:

    def draw_main(self):
        self.screen.fill((255, 255, 255))  # Filling screen with white
        for x in range(1, BOARD_SIZE):
            pygame.draw.line(self.screen, (128, 128, 128), (x * CELL_SIZE, 0), (x * CELL_SIZE, HEIGHT), 1)
            pygame.draw.line(self.screen, (128, 128, 128), (0, x * CELL_SIZE), (WIDTH - 3*CELL_SIZE, x * CELL_SIZE), 1)
   

5. Game Mechanics: Inside play , we'll handle user input and game mechanics. When a player clicks on a grid cell, their symbol ("X" or "O") is drawn on the board. After every move, the game checks for a win condition or switches turns.

6. Checking for a Win: check_win checks for a winning line of three identical symbols by iterating through the grid horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

7. Main Game Loop: Our game is managed by the main loop inside the play function. This loop constantly checks for events, updates the game state, and redraws the screen.

8. Executing the Game: Wrap up by initializing Pygame and running the game loop:

    if __name__ == "__main__":
        pygame.init()
        game = TicTacToe()
        game.play()
        pygame.quit()
   

Conclusion:

In this tutorial, we dove deep into creating a 9x9 Tic Tac Toe game using Pygame. We explored how to draw the game board, handle player input, check for win conditions, and manage the game loop. This version provides a fresh take on the classic game and offers a higher level of challenge.

Remember, game development is a vast field, and this is just a stepping stone. You can expand upon this game by adding features, such as player vs. computer mode, enhanced graphics, or even an AI opponent!

Happy coding!