Snake Game - Build Instructions

A classic Snake game built with Python and Pygame.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher
• uv package manager

Installing uv

If you don't have uv installed, install it using one of these methods:

macOS and Linux:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Windows:

powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Using pip:

pip install uv

Setup and Run

Option 1: Quick Run (Recommended)

Use uv to automatically create a virtual environment and install dependencies:

uv run snake_game.py

This command will:

• Create a virtual environment (if needed)
• Install all dependencies from requirements.txt
• Run the game

Option 2: Manual Setup

1. Create a virtual environment and install dependencies:

   uv venv
   source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
   uv pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Run the game:

   python snake_game.py

Option 3: Using uv sync (for project management)

If you want to manage this as a proper project:

1. Initialize a project (creates pyproject.toml):

   uv init --name snake-game

2. Add dependencies:

   uv add pygame

3. Run the game:

   uv run snake_game.py

How to Play

• Movement Controls:

  • Arrow keys or WASD to move the snake
  • UP/W: Move up
  • DOWN/S: Move down
  • LEFT/A: Move left
  • RIGHT/D: Move right

• Objective: Eat the red food items to grow your snake and increase your score

• Game Over: The game ends if you hit a wall or run into yourself

• After Game Over:

  • Press 'R' to restart
  • Press 'Q' to quit

Features

• Score tracking
• High score persistence (saved to highscore.txt)
• Increasing difficulty (speed increases as snake grows)
• Collision detection for walls and self
• Clean, grid-based movement

Troubleshooting

Issue: pygame not found

uv pip install pygame --break-system-packages

Issue: Display not working on Linux

You may need to install SDL dependencies:

sudo apt-get install python3-pygame
# or
sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev

Issue: uv command not found

Make sure uv is in your PATH. After installation, you may need to restart your terminal or run:

source ~/.cargo/env  # On macOS/Linux

File Structure

.
├── snake_game.py       # Main game file
├── requirements.txt    # Python dependencies
├── highscore.txt      # High score storage (created on first run)
├── LICENSE            # MIT License
└── README.md          # This file

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author: Gourav Shah, School of Devops