Pythons Project for beginners - Post 16: Tic-Tac-Toe Game

Let's build a classic Tic-Tac-Toe Game. This project is a fantastic next step as it requires more complex logic, including representing a game board, checking multiple win conditions, and managing player turns.

First, here is the explanation of how the project is built.

How the "Tic-Tac-Toe Game" is Made

1. The Core Idea: The goal is to create a two-player, text-based Tic-Tac-Toe game. Players 'X' and 'O' will take turns marking spaces on a 3x3 grid. The first player to get three of their marks in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) wins.

2. Representing the Board: A simple and effective way to represent the 3x3 board is with a single list of 9 elements. Each element corresponds to a space on the board, initially filled with a placeholder like a space character ' ' or a number 1-9.

3. Displaying the Board: We need a dedicated function to print the board in a user-friendly 3x3 grid format after every turn. This function will take the current board list and print it with dividers (like | and -) to create a visual grid in the console.

4. Managing Player Turns: We'll use a variable, current_player, which will start as 'X'. After each valid move, this variable will be switched to 'O', and then back to 'X', and so on. This ensures players alternate turns correctly.

5. Getting and Validating Player Input:

   • The program will ask the current player to choose a spot (e.g., a number from 1 to 9).

   • We need to validate this input. First, we use a try-except block to make sure they entered a number. Then, we check if the number is within the valid range (1-9).

   • Most importantly, we must check if the chosen spot on the board is already taken. If it is, we inform the player and ask them to choose another spot.

6. Checking for a Winner: This is the most logical part of the game. We'll create a function that checks for all 8 possible winning combinations after every move:

   • Three horizontal rows.

   • Three vertical columns.

   • Two diagonals. If any of these combinations consist of three identical marks ('X' or 'O'), that player is declared the winner.

7. Checking for a Tie: A tie occurs if all 9 spots on the board are filled, and no player has won. After each turn, if there is no winner, we'll check if the board is full. If it is, the game ends in a tie.

8. The Main Game Loop: The entire game is controlled by a while True loop. This loop continues running, asking for moves and switching players, until the check_winner() function finds a winner or the board is full, at which point we use break to exit the loop and end the game.