Terminal Typing Game

Question

A few weeks ago, I developed a terminal game that increases your typing speed. The game is all about typing, providing difficulty levels from easy to hard. I feel like this terminal game won't become as popular as my others, so I need tips on how I could improve this code to make it shorter, easier to run, and more entertaining.

Here is the code developed by me, PYWPM:

import time
import random

logo = '''
  _____    __          _______  __  __ 
 |  __ \   \ \        / /  __ \|  \/  |
 | |__) |   \ \  /\  / /| |__) | \  / |
 |  ___/ | | \ \/  \/ / |  ___/| |\/| |
 | |   | |_| |\  /\  /  | |    | |  | |
 |_|    \__, | \/  \/   |_|    |_|  |_|
         __/ |                         
        |___/                          
'''
print(logo)
print(" ")
difficulty = input("Enter difficulty level (easy/hard): ")
if difficulty == "easy":
  openPlz = open('easywordbank.txt','r')
  readPlz = openPlz.read()
  wordBank = readPlz.split()
elif difficulty == "hard":
  openPlz = open('hardwordbank.txt','r')
  readPlz = openPlz.read()
  wordBank = readPlz.split()

open2 = open('highscore.txt','r+')
open2lst = open2.readlines()

stat = True
strike = 0
score = 0

def gameMain(wordBank):
    #Primary game loop. Returns a lst:
    #lst[0] = added points, lst[1] = added strikes
    lst = [0,0]
    start = time.time()
    wordQuiz = wordBank[random.randint(0,(len(wordBank)-1))]
    wordType = input('Enter the word, '+ wordQuiz + ' : ')
    if wordType == wordQuiz and time.time()-start < 3:
        lst[0] += 1
    elif time.time()-start >= 3:
        print('STRIKE! Too Slow! ')
        lst[1] += 1
    else:
        print('STRIKE! Watch your spelling. Be careful with strikes!')
        lst[1] += 1
    return lst

def highScore(name,score,highScoreLst,zFile):    
    for line in highScoreLst:
        if score >= int(line[-3:-1]): 
            highScoreLst.insert(highScoreLst.index(line),name+'-'+str(score)+'\n')
            highScoreLst.pop()
            zFile.seek(0,0)
            zFile.writelines(highScoreLst)
            break

def rsg():
    print('Ready?')
    time.sleep(1)
    print('Set?')
    time.sleep(1)
    print('Go!')
    time.sleep(1)

name = input('Enter a username for this session: ')
print("Type the word then press enter in under 3 seconds!")
time.sleep(2)
rsg()

#MainState

while stat == True:
    lst = gameMain(wordBank)
    score += lst[0]
    strike += lst[1]
    if strike == 3:
        time.sleep(.5)
        print('Game Over! The game has ended..!\n')
        time.sleep(2)
        print('Your Typing & Accuracy Score: ' + str(score))
        highScore(name,score,open2lst,open2)
        time.sleep(2)
        break
print('\nHighscores for PyWPM:')
time.sleep(2)
for line in open2lst:
    print(line, end='')
    time.sleep(1.5)
time.sleep(5)



openPlz.close()
open2.close()

1. Yes, this game includes a word bank that randomizes words.
2. The high scores aren't global.

How could I make this better?

Answer 1

I made some changes to your code, here's the description:

• Indentation correction;
• Removal of possible spaces in user input;
• Change of While stat ==. True for While stat. It's the same thing;
• PEP8 (and good practices) use 1 blank space after a comma and 2 line breaks before and after the functions;
• You can also simplify the import of packages by specifying exactly what you are going to use: I did it in the code below;
• Finally, the documentation always provides for an empty line break at the end of the code.

from time import time, sleep
from random import randint

logo = '''
  _____    __          _______  __  __ 
 |  __ \   \ \        / /  __ \|  \/  |
 | |__) |   \ \  /\  / /| |__) | \  / |
 |  ___/ | | \ \/  \/ / |  ___/| |\/| |
 | |   | |_| |\  /\  /  | |    | |  | |
 |_|    \__, | \/  \/   |_|    |_|  |_|
         __/ |                         
        |___/                          
'''
print(logo)
print(" ")
difficulty = input("Enter difficulty level (easy/hard): ").strip
if difficulty == "easy":
    openPlz = open('easywordbank.txt', 'r')
    readPlz = openPlz.read()
    wordBank = readPlz.split()
elif difficulty == "hard":
    openPlz = open('hardwordbank.txt', 'r')
    readPlz = openPlz.read()
    wordBank = readPlz.split()

open2 = open('highscore.txt', 'r+')
open2lst = open2.readlines()

stat = True
strike = 0
score = 0


def gameMain(wordBank):
    """
    Primary game loop. Returns a lst:
    #lst[0] = added points, lst[1] = added strikes
    :param wordBank:
    :return:
    """
    lst = [0, 0]
    start = time()
    wordQuiz = wordBank[randint(0,(len(wordBank)-1))]
    wordType = input('Enter the word, '+ wordQuiz + ' : ')
    if wordType == wordQuiz and time()-start < 3:
        lst[0] += 1
    elif time()-start >= 3:
        print('STRIKE! Too Slow! ')
        lst[1] += 1
    else:
        print('STRIKE! Watch your spelling. Be careful with strikes!')
        lst[1] += 1
    return lst


def highScore(name, score, highScoreLst, zFile):
    for line in highScoreLst:
        if score >= int(line[-3:-1]):
            highScoreLst.insert(highScoreLst.index(line), name+'-'+str(score)+'\n')
            highScoreLst.pop()
            zFile.seek(0, 0)
            zFile.writelines(highScoreLst)
            break


def rsg():
    print('Ready?')
    sleep(1)
    print('Set?')
    sleep(1)
    print('Go!')
    sleep(1)


name = input('Enter a username for this session: ')
print("Type the word then press enter in under 3 seconds!")
sleep(2)
rsg()

# MainState
while stat:
    lst = gameMain(wordBank)
    score += lst[0]
    strike += lst[1]
    if strike == 3:
        sleep(.5)
        print('Game Over! The game has ended..!\n')
        sleep(2)
        print('Your Typing & Accuracy Score: ' + str(score))
        highScore(name, score, open2lst, open2)
        sleep(2)
        break
print('\nHighscores for PyWPM:')
sleep(2)
for line in open2lst:
    print(line, end='')
    sleep(1.5)
sleep(5)

openPlz.close()
open2.close()

Answer 2

There's a lot.

• logo should be LOGO since it's a constant. The other global code, such as acquiring the difficulty, should be moved into functions
• Consider generating the difficulty list based off of a file glob from your actual dictionaries
• openPlz is not a great variable name; consider word_bank_file
• stat is wholly unneeded and you only need a while True; or better yet a loop whose predicate checks the number of strikes
• Use monotonic instead of time; the latter will fail in weird and wonderful ways on some time edge cases
• Save 3 to a global constant
• Consider adding a maximum number of saved high scores
• Doing a simple sort will reduce complexity in highScore
• highScore should be named high_score by PEP8
• rsg is a poor function name; consider countdown
• Do not return a list from gameMain; instead return a tuple of two integers, which is more standard
• Call random.choice instead of juggling list indices

Suggested

from time import sleep, monotonic
import random
from pathlib import Path
from typing import List, Tuple, TextIO, Iterable, Sequence

LOGO = '''
  _____    __          _______  __  __ 
 |  __ \   \ \        / /  __ \|  \/  |
 | |__) |   \ \  /\  / /| |__) | \  / |
 |  ___/ | | \ \/  \/ / |  ___/| |\/| |
 | |   | |_| |\  /\  /  | |    | |  | |
 |_|    \__, | \/  \/   |_|    |_|  |_|
         __/ |                         
        |___/                          

'''

TIMEOUT = 3
MAX_SCORES = 10


def load_words(bank_dir: Path) -> List[str]:
    """
    Pulled from:
    https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_1000_basic_words
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dwyl/english-words/master/words.txt
    """
    paths = tuple(bank_dir.glob('*-word-bank.txt'))
    stems = {p.stem.split('-', 1)[0].lower(): p for p in paths}
    diffs = '/'.join(stems.keys())
    prompt = f'Enter difficulty level ({diffs}): '

    while True:
        diff = input(prompt)
        path = stems.get(diff.lower())
        if path is None:
            print('Invalid difficulty')
        else:
            break

    with path.open() as f:
        return [line.rstrip() for line in f]


def countdown() -> None:
    for msg in ('Ready?', 'Set?', 'Go!'):
        sleep(1)
        print(msg, end=' ')
    print()


def game_main(word_bank: Sequence[str]) -> Tuple[
    int,  # added points
    int,  # added strikes
]:
    start = monotonic()
    request = random.choice(word_bank)
    answer = input(f'Enter the word - {request} : ')

    if monotonic() - start >= TIMEOUT:
        print('STRIKE! Too Slow!')
        return 0, 1
    if request == answer:
        return 1, 0

    print('STRIKE! Watch your spelling. Be careful with strikes!')
    return 0, 1


def update_high_scores(name: str, score: int, file: TextIO) -> List[Tuple[int, str]]:
    file.seek(0)
    scores = [(score, name)]
    for line in file:
        name, score = line.rsplit(' - ', 1)
        scores.append((int(score), name))

    scores.sort(reverse=True)
    scores = scores[:MAX_SCORES]
    file.truncate(0)
    for score, name in scores:
        file.write(f'{name} - {score}\n')

    return scores


def print_high_scores(scores: Iterable[Tuple[int, str]]) -> None:
    print('Highscores for PyWPM:')
    for score, name in scores:
        print(f'{name} - {score}')
        sleep(0.5)


def main() -> None:
    print(LOGO)

    word_bank = load_words(Path('.'))

    name = input('Enter a username for this session: ')
    print(f"Type the word then press enter in under {TIMEOUT} seconds!")
    countdown()

    strike, score = 0, 0
    while strike < 3:
        score_addend, strike_addend = game_main(word_bank)
        score += score_addend
        strike += strike_addend

    print(
        'Game Over! The game has ended..!\n'
        f'Your Typing & Accuracy Score: {score}'
    )
    with open('highscore.txt', 'a+') as highscore_file:
        scores = update_high_scores(name, score, highscore_file)

    print_high_scores(scores)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()