LLM Test: Snake

One of the common tests used by Mathew Berman is to make a snake game but there is no need for external libraries. Here’s an example (note that Python3 comes with the curses library):

# make a snake game using the curses library on python
# Model: claude-3-opus-20240229

import curses
import random
import time

def main(stdscr):
    curses.curs_set(0)  # Hide the cursor
    stdscr.nodelay(1)  # Don't wait for user input
    stdscr.timeout(100)  # Set a timeout for getch()

    # Initialize game variables
    snake = [(5, 5), (5, 4), (5, 3)]
    food = (10, 10)
    direction = curses.KEY_RIGHT

    while True:
        stdscr.clear()

        # Draw the snake
        for y, x in snake:
            stdscr.addstr(y, x, '#')

        # Draw the food
        stdscr.addstr(food[0], food[1], '*')

        # Get user input
        key = stdscr.getch()

        # Update the direction based on user input
        if key == curses.KEY_UP and direction != curses.KEY_DOWN:
            direction = curses.KEY_UP
        elif key == curses.KEY_DOWN and direction != curses.KEY_UP:
            direction = curses.KEY_DOWN
        elif key == curses.KEY_LEFT and direction != curses.KEY_RIGHT:
            direction = curses.KEY_LEFT
        elif key == curses.KEY_RIGHT and direction != curses.KEY_LEFT:
            direction = curses.KEY_RIGHT

        # Move the snake
        head = snake[0]
        if direction == curses.KEY_UP:
            new_head = (head[0] - 1, head[1])
        elif direction == curses.KEY_DOWN:
            new_head = (head[0] + 1, head[1])
        elif direction == curses.KEY_LEFT:
            new_head = (head[0], head[1] - 1)
        elif direction == curses.KEY_RIGHT:
            new_head = (head[0], head[1] + 1)

        # Check for collision with the walls
        if new_head[0] < 0 or new_head[0] >= stdscr.getmaxyx()[0] or new_head[1] < 0 or new_head[1] >= stdscr.getmaxyx()[1]:
            break

        # Check for collision with the snake itself
        if new_head in snake:
            break

        snake.insert(0, new_head)

        # Check if the snake ate the food
        if new_head == food:
            food = (random.randint(1, stdscr.getmaxyx()[0] - 2), random.randint(1, stdscr.getmaxyx()[1] - 2))
        else:
            snake.pop()

        time.sleep(0.1)

    stdscr.clear()
    stdscr.addstr(0, 0, "Game Over!")
    stdscr.refresh()
    time.sleep(2)

curses.wrapper(main)

This is a good excercize since LLMs can 0-shot (it’s usually undertood without exaamples) it.