My code so far

Unreal Courses Show
,
#1

Decided to do the newly released Bulls and Cows module and so far so good. Great introduction to the Unreal Editor Michael, I’ve learnt a lot!

Regarding the code, I decided to make the input interface a bit more robust by adding some user input checks and ignoring inappropriate input under certain conditions. I also added a ‘help’ request that can be called at any point and simply displays a basic description of the game.

Probably jumping the gun but it’s been a fun learning curve setting my own challenge and attempting to code a solution.

My additional instance scoped variables and a function definition added to BullCowCartridge.h shown below:

	// Your declarations go below!
	private:
		FString HiddenWord;
		FString CurrentWordGuess;
		bool bHelpCalled;
		bool bNewWord;
		bool bHasGuessed;

		void DisplayHelp();

and my modifications to the BullCowCartridge.cpp file:

#include "BullCowCartridge.h"

void UBullCowCartridge::DisplayHelp()
{
	ClearScreen();
	PrintLine(TEXT("The game is a guess the hidden word game."));
	PrintLine(TEXT("The hidden word will always be an ISOGRAM,"));
	PrintLine(TEXT("that is a word with no repeating letters."));
	PrintLine(TEXT("Any correct letters in the right position"));
	PrintLine(TEXT("will score you BULLS, any correct letters"));
	PrintLine(TEXT("in the wrong position will score you COWS"));
	PrintLine(TEXT("and any wrong letters score nothing."));
	PrintLine(TEXT("You will have so many tries in order to "));
	PrintLine(TEXT("guess the word correctly and win the game."));
	PrintLine(TEXT("Press Enter to return to the game."));
}

void UBullCowCartridge::BeginPlay() // Called by Unreal Engine when the game starts
{
	// Initialise variables
	HiddenWord = TEXT("Place");  // Always encose literal strings in a TEXT macro to ensure native Unicode encoding.
	bHelpCalled = false;
	bNewWord = true;
	bHasGuessed = false;

	Super::BeginPlay();

	PrintLine(TEXT("Welcome to the Bulls and Cows game\n"));
	PrintLine(TEXT("Press Enter to continue"));
}

void UBullCowCartridge::OnInput(const FString& Input) // When the player hits enter
{
	ClearScreen();

	PrintLine(TEXT("Type help and press Enter for a basic"));
	PrintLine(TEXT("description of the game and rules.\n"));
	PrintLine(TEXT("Otherwise guess the 5 letter word ..."));

	// If user previously called help then display the previously stored word guess
	if (bHelpCalled)
	{
		if (CurrentWordGuess != "")
		{
			PrintLine(CurrentWordGuess);
		}

		// Reset our global help called flag
		bHelpCalled = false;

		return;
	}
	else
	{
		// Has returned following Enter from guessing word correctly so just return.  Negates any other kbd entry at this point being evaluated
		if (bNewWord)
		{
			bNewWord = false;
			return;
		}
	}

	// If no characters input then ignore
	if (Input != "")
	{
		// Diplay the users latest guess
		PrintLine(Input);
		
		// If user requested help
		if (Input == TEXT("help"))
		{
			DisplayHelp();

			// Set our global help called flag 
			bHelpCalled = true;
		}
		else
		{
			// Store the current word guess incase the user subsequently requests help or just hits enter and we need to restore the guess
			CurrentWordGuess = Input;
			bHasGuessed = true;

			// Test to see if the guess is correct or not
			if (Input == HiddenWord)
			{
				PrintLine(TEXT("Correct.  You Win!\n"));
				PrintLine(TEXT("Press Enter to play again"));
				CurrentWordGuess = "";
				bNewWord = true;
				bHasGuessed = false;
			}
			else
			{
				PrintLine(TEXT("Incorrect.  Try again"));
			}
		}
	}
	else if (bHasGuessed)
	{
		// If the user has previously guessed but no current guess then print previous guess
		PrintLine(CurrentWordGuess);
	}
}

Privacy & Terms