Console Snake Game

Project roadmap

1. 01

   Set up ncurses and the game loop

   ~1.5h

   Install the ncurses development package and set up a CMake project linking it. Initialize ncurses (initscr, cbreak, noecho, keypad, curs_set(0) and nodelay so getch doesn't wait), draw a border for the play area, and write a loop that runs a fixed number of times per second using std::this_thread::sleep_for, always calling endwin on exit. Done when: the program shows a bordered area and exits cleanly with q.

2. 02

   Move the snake

   ~1.5h

   Store the snake as a std::deque of (row, column) positions, starting with 3 segments. Each tick, add a new head in the current direction and remove the tail. Change direction with the arrow keys, ignoring a reverse turn (going left while moving right). Draw the head and body with different characters. Done when: the snake moves smoothly and turns with the arrow keys.

3. 03

   Add food and growth

   ~1h

   Place food at a random empty position (never on the snake), using std::mt19937 seeded from the clock. When the head reaches the food, increase the score and skip removing the tail for that tick, so the snake grows, then place new food. Show the score above the play area. Done when: eating food grows the snake and increases the score.

4. 04

   Detect collisions

   ~1h

   End the game when the head hits the border or any part of the body. Show a game over message with the score, and offer to play again or quit. Handle the case where the snake fills the whole area (a win). Done when: hitting a wall or yourself ends the game, and restarting works.

5. 05

   Increase the difficulty

   ~1h

   Make the game speed up as the score grows (shortening the delay between ticks, down to a minimum), and save the best score to a file in the user's home folder, loading it at start and showing it on screen. Add p to pause. Done when: the game gets faster as you score, and the best score is kept between runs.

6. 06

   Test the game logic

   ~1.5h

   Separate the game rules (moving, growing, collisions and food placement) from the ncurses drawing into a class that doesn't use ncurses, and write tests for it (with doctest or Catch2): moving, not reversing direction, growing, wall and self collisions, and food never placed on the snake. Done when: the tests pass.

Resources

• DocsNCURSES Programming HOWTO
• Docsncurses man pages
• Docsstd::deque (cppreference)
• Docsstd::mersenne_twister_engine (cppreference)
• Docsdoctest