Program Ideas

Below are some popular games that you may find fun to make. Not only will this kill time, it will hopefully advance your skills in programming. None of these are made and ready to download; they are just ideas for you to build upon. They are in order of easiest to hardest.

Beginner

Guessing Game

Write a guessing game with these features:

  • Randomly generate a number (any range you want).
  • allow for user input of numbers.
  • Provide an interface for the user (can just be "Guess?" or more complicated if you want).
  • Provide feedback to the user (whether they were right or wrong, and if you want if they were too high or too low).

Once you successfully complete one of these, feel temporarily pleased and move onto one of the next projects.

Experienced

Tic Tac Toe

Create a Tic-Tac-Toe game with the following features:

  • Graphical interface for user to see what's going on
  • Way for user input
  • 2 player mode, switching between players each time.
  • Possibility of AI.
    • Different difficulty settings.
  • Checking for wins and ties.
  • Record the games won/lost by each player.

Snake/Tron

Create a Snake or Tron game with the following features:

  • Speed! That's what makes it better than a version in BASIC.
  • AI in Tron, possibly in Snake
  • Different Difficulties?
  • Checking for wins
  • Pause Function?

Once you successfully complete one of these, feel temporarily pleased and move onto one of the next projects.

Skilled

Battleship

Create a battleship-type game, implementing these features:

  • A tilemap for the playing field
    • Can be animated or not animated
  • Allow for user inputs through a scrolling cursor
  • Create animated sprites for hits and misses, etc.
  • Create a custom theme (ex. Star Wars, WWII, Water-Balloon War)
    • Implement special features for this theme (Have aircraft deploy from carriers)

Cave

Cave is a game where you are a spaceship/snake and you travel through a tunnel avoiding the walls that continuously narrow down. It requires accurate gravity and narrowing walls.
Features

  • Sprites
  • Gravity
  • Randomized walls
  • Narrowing walls
  • High score List

Once you successfully complete one of these, feel temporarily pleased and move onto one of the next projects.

Master

Shooter

A shooter game is one where you fly a ship and shoot at enemies. They can be moving (flying/land units), and/or stationary (anti-air). They are harder to make than they first appear.
Features:

  • Sprites
  • Scrolling background
  • Bosses and multiple levels
  • High scores list
  • Lives and or hull health
  • Upgrades
    • Stronger weapons
    • Stronger armor
    • Unique power (stop time, get an ally, etc.)

Platformer

A very common type of game.
Features:

  • Realistic gravity
  • Weapons/Powerups
  • Original Enemies
  • Multiple stages?
  • High scores?
  • Lives?

While I will not list more ideas under this category, some examples of such works are (Desolate, 3DMaze, Chess (with greyscale, AI, rules, saves) etc.). A good game must have originality! However, if you cannot come up with your own, you can borrow from Nintendo or others. Make sure you properly cite them as a source.

If you successfully create this game then props to you. This is the last project in this list, so now it's your turn. Come up with ideas for any kind of program, whether it be a quadratic solver (please don't, there are too many!), a periodic table, a game that already exists or one you thought of entirely yourself, or anything else.


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