PyScrabble

A Scrabble® game implemented in Python.

Gameplay

See the video below for example gameplay.

gameplay720p30s.mov

Features

• A fully terminal-based user interface
• Uses websockets to enable playing with friends over a network.
• Includes a move generation algorithm that powers move validation and computer opponents.

Built with

• SocketIO - for client-server communication
• Redis - for storing game state and lobby data
• ncurses - for creating the terminal UI

How to Play

Create a lobby

1. Create a new game lobby by running python run_network_game.py <your_name>
2. Share the 4 digit room ID with other players (who have network access to your host machine)
3. Join an existing game lobby by running python run_network_game.py <your_name> -r <room_id> -a <host_address>. Host address defaults to localhost:5000 for running a networked game on localhost.
4. Start the game, closing the lobby to new players, once all players have joined

Enter moves

1. Enter the direction, location, and word to play when prompted
2. Moves will be rejected per the official game rules
   • If the word does not exist in the game's dictionary.txt
   • If the word does not connect to an existing tile
   • If the player's rack is missing required tiles to play a word
3. Moves are scored according to tile values and board multiplier squares

Run with Docker

Run the Docker application, which contains a Redis container and game server container, which are started automatically.

~ docker-compose up
[+] Running 2/0
 ⠿ Container pyscrabble-redis-1  Created    0.0s
 ⠿ Container pyscrabble-wss-1    Created    0.0s
Attaching to pyscrabble-redis-1, pyscrabble-wss-1

Launch the network game inside the game server container.

~ docker exec -it pyscrabble-wss-1 python run_network_game.py <your_name>

Development Setup

Use Python 3.7 or 3.8

Create a Python virtual environment, using venv or any alternative.

~ python -m venv pyscrabble
~ cd pyscrabble
~ source bin/activate

Next clone this repo and install the dependencies.

(pyscrabble) ~ git clone https://github.com/danesolberg/PyScrabble.git
(pyscrabble) ~ cd PyScrabble
(pyscrabble) ~ pip install -r requirements.txt

Install Redis (if required)

~ brew install redis
~ brew services start redis

Start the game server

(pyscrabble) ~ python start_server.py
 * Restarting with stat
 * Debugger is active!
 * Debugger PIN: 734-552-454
(pid) wsgi starting up on http://0.0.0.0:5000

Run unit tests

(pyscrabble) ~ pytest

Run games

Start local game

In development environment

(pyscrabble) ~ python run_local_game.py

In Docker container

~ docker exec -it pyscrabble-wss-1 python run_local_game.py

Network game

To launch a network game, first create a new game room.

(pyscrabble) ~ python run_network_game.py <your_name>

or

~ docker exec -it pyscrabble-wss-1 python run_network_game.py <your_name>

This will open a new game room and present a room id to share with up to three other players. The game server listens on port 5000 at the publically access address of the host running the server.

Players can join this game by appending the room id and host server address as arguments to run_network_game.py. In the image above, the room is is 4b82. host_address defaults to localhost, which enables running a networked game locally between terminals on the same machine (for testing).

(pyscrabble) ~ python run_network_game.py <your_name> -r <room_id> -a <host_address>

or

~ docker exec -it python run_network_game.py <your_name> -r <room_id> -a <host_address>

Host Address

By default the user running the PyScrabble game server, who is hosting the game, will run the server on localhost, which by default is only accessible to other processes on the same host machine. The user can expose their local PyScrabble websocket-based game server located at http://0.0.0.0:5000 to the internet using easy tools like ngrok or by establishing port forwarding / NAT on your router.