Due date: Monday, March 26, by 11:59pm

This is the first of three projects to build an online chess game. This project focuses on getting a representative chess board on the screen. Subsequent projects will develop the backend (AI and Networking) for this board.

Note: This project is to be done individually!

Description

You are to make a front-end (GUI) for a computer chess game. Some specifics include:

• Showing a traditional chess board representation, with a 8x8 board, with two different colored pieces (traditionally white and black).
• Taking input from a player to make legal chess moves. You are free to allow input in whatever way you see fit, but there should be clear feedback when illegal moves are made.
• Allowing two players to play a game of chess. This means chess pieces should be taken and removed from the board. Ideally, captured pieces are displayed.
• Consider showing time elapsed (perhaps by each player) and number of moves.
• End game conditions (ie- checkmate) should be detected.

You are free to implement your game in your choice of language (C/C++, Java, ...). You should use a language you are familiar with as you don't want to spend too much of your development effort fighting with the language. Consider using graphics libraries, but a game engine is probably not required.

For the graphics, you can use your choice of graphics libraries (OpenGL, DirectX, Ogre, Lightweight Java Game Library, curses, Game Maker...). Since the focus is on the technical aspects of game development, don't spend too much time on the art. Simple geometric shapes or letters are suitable for a working chess board.

Links

Some samples that may be useful:

• Curses (C/C++) (See also $&@#*! Curses for brief documentation that goes with the below samples)
  • walk.c - a sample program showing how to make a person "walk" around a box.
  • get-key.c - a sample program showing how to capture keyboard input.
  • bounce.c - a sample program showing a ball bouncing around a screen.
  • curses.tar - all the curses samples, with a Makefile
• Java
  • shapes.zip - a sample program showing how to draw a window with basic shapes.
  • keyDemo.java - a sample program showing how to capture keyboard input.
  • MouseEventDemo.java - a sample program showing how to capture mouse input.

Chess:

• How to setup a chess board
• Rules
  • Castling
  • Promoting a Pawn

All assignments are to be submitted electronically via turnin by 11:59pm on the day the assignment is due. Turnin of code should include all the support files to allow your game to be built. Include a README with detailed instructions on platform, libraries, etc.

The easiest way to submit your game is to zip the files, including the sub-directory. For ease of grading, call the sub-directory your_last_name-proj1 (ie- claypool-proj1), creating a proj1.zip file.

You will need to upload the file you are turning in to your CCC account on one of the CCC machines (ccc1 to ccc10). While logged into a CCC machine, you will need to enter the directory where these files are stored and execute the following:

  /cs/bin/turnin submit <course> <assignment> <file1> <file2> ...

where in our case, <course> is imgd4000, <assignment> is project1, and <file1>, etc. are the files to be turned in. So for example, you might enter:

  /cs/bin/turnin submit imgd4000 project1 proj1.zip

Following this, you should verify that your files have been entered into turnin by executing the following command:

  /cs/bin/turnin verify imgd4000 project1

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Send all project questions to the TA mailing list (imgd4000-ta at cs.wpi.edu).