Hangman - Console Game - Java

A Java program for a user to play a simplistic game of Hangman in the IDE console.

Introduction

The aim of this project is to use Java to design a console-based Hangman Game.

Rules of the Game:

• Objective: Guess the secret word before the stick figure is fully drawn.
• Setup:
  • The user has 7 strikes to guess letters in the word - coinciding to the number of body parts in the stick figure: head, neck, left arm, right arm, torso, left leg, and right leg
  • The stick figure starts without any body parts drawn
• Gameplay:
  • Each turn, the user gets to guess 1 letter.
    • If the user guesses correctly, strikes remains the same, the stick figure does not further progress, and the letter appears on the word display area (eg; guessing 'A': _ _ _ A _)
    • If the user guesses incorrectly, a body part is added to the stick person, and strikes increases by 1. The word display area does not change.
  • If the user reaches 7 strikes, the game ends - LOSER
  • If the user guesses the entire word, the game ends - WINNER

Gameplay Sequence

Below we will play a mock-game. First, we see the Hangman start output:

Then, we guess 3 letters that are incorrect.
Strike 1:

Strike 2:

Strike 3:

But now, we guess correctly!
Guessing 'A':

Guessing 'M':

But unfortunately, we guess 4 more times, and strike out:
Guessing 'N':

Guessing 'W':

Guessing 'F':

Guessing 'Y':

But… In another game, we won! Take a look at the winning sequence:

Tools & Techniques

• Java
• Eclipse IDE

Implementation

An initialize() method controls the game setup at the beginning of each game. Inside this method, the hangman is initialized, the words are read in from the words.txt file, a random word is selected, for the game, an answer key array is created, and a wordChars array is created (to identify which letters have been successfully guessed so far).

The setHangman(int strikes) method sets the correct output of the hangman display, based on the number of strikes the user has.

The setWordSpaces(char guess) method controls the actions after a user places a guess. Inside this method, the wordChars array is updated to ! for any correctly guessed values, the strikes are increased if the user does not guess correctly, and if all values of the wordChars array are exclamation points, the win flag is set to true to signify that the user has won. The prompt message is updated and the setHangman(int strikes) is called to update the hangman output.

The displayWord() method displays the word prompt area to the user in the console. Inside this method, the wordChars exclamation mark values are used to determine what letters to output in the word display area. For example, if wordChars is ['J', '!', 'V', '!'], and the answer array is ['J', 'A', 'V', 'A'], this method would know to print the A’s in the word prompt area and ` _ ` for the rest of the un-guessed letters.

Java Classes utilized:

• java.io.BufferedReader –> For reading text in a buffered manner from a character-input stream
• java.io.FileReader –> To read the file
• java.util.ArrayList –> To hold the file words, and letters guessed by the user
• java.util.Scanner –> To accept console input from the user

Run

To execute the program, follow the instructions below:

1. Clone the git repo: https://github.com/erincameron11/hangman
2. Open up the files as a Java project in the IDE of your choice.
3. Run the HangmanBoard.java file and follow the commands in the console to play.