🔖 Background Information
Tic-tac-toe is a game for two players who take turns marking the spaces in a three-by-three grid with an “X” or “O”. The player who puts three of their marks in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row is the winner. You can see a full writeup of the rules and a bit of game theory behind tic-tac-toe on its Wikipedia page (“Tic-Tac-Toe,” 2024).
🎯 Problem Statement
Add a new feature onto the existing game of tic-tac-toe that you wrote in Human vs Human. When a user starts a new game, they should have the option to include a “trap cell” on the board. If they decline, the game of tic-tac-toe proceeds like normal. However, if they accept, one random cell on the board should secretly be marked as a “trap” cell. The players should not know which cell is the trap. If either player takes the trap cell, they immediately lose their turn, and the cell remains unmarked.
✅ Acceptance Criteria
- The trap cell should be located in a new, random spot every time a new game is started.
- I should be able to choose if I want to play with or without a trap cell in the main menu.
- Computer players are affected by the trap cell, just like regular users.
- The computer players should not know the location of the trap cell. They should play as if they don’t know where it is located.
- A draw game means that every cell on the board is filled without a winner, not including the trap cell.
Your program should not crash from user input!
📋 Dev Notes
How might you go about unit testing the trap feature in your code? You can’t really test a random cell directly since it changes every time you start a new game. One idea you might consider is to fix the seed value in your tests and then write unit tests based on a single, unchanging location for the trap cell. Just be sure that your seed in your driver program is not fixed!
🖥️ Example Output
Welcome to Tic-Tac-Toe!
Would you like to include a trap cell in your game?
1. Yes
2. No
What is your selection? 1
Great! A trap has been hidden on the board.
1 | 2 | 3
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | 6
-----+-----+-----
7 | 8 | 9
What is your move? 1
X | 2 | 3
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | 6
-----+-----+-----
7 | 8 | 9
What is your move? 3
X | 2 | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | 6
-----+-----+-----
7 | 8 | 9
What is your move? 5
Oh no! You set off the trap! X loses their turn.
X | 2 | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | 6
-----+-----+-----
7 | 8 | 9
What is your move? 2
X | O | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | 6
-----+-----+-----
7 | 8 | 9
What is your move? 6
X | O | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | X
-----+-----+-----
7 | 8 | 9
What is your move? 7
X | O | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | X
-----+-----+-----
O | 8 | 9
What is your move? 8
X | O | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | X
-----+-----+-----
O | X | 9
What is your move? 5
Oh no! You set off the trap! O loses their turn.
X | O | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | X
-----+-----+-----
O | X | 9
What is your move? 9
X | O | O
-----+-----+-----
4 | 5 | X
-----+-----+-----
O | X | X
What is your move? 4
X | O | O
-----+-----+-----
O | 5 | X
-----+-----+-----
O | X | X
It's a draw...
Would you like to play again (yes/no)? no
Goodbye!