RobotFindsKitten

Defintion (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) - Robotfindskitten (rfk) is a "Zen simulation", originally written by Leonard Richardson for DOS.

Context

You embody a Robot (#) searching for a kitten (affectionately nicknamed Kitten) and examining each object on the grid until it finds Kitten (no time constraints, no life bar, no score, ...). The main objective is to have a good time contemplating the various non-kitten objects (Non-Kitten-Items) found in the level.

Original Game

The game is represented as an ASCII grid:

Each time the robot walks on an item that is not the kitten, a description of that item is displayed. Some examples:

• This is a tasty-looking banana creme pie.
• It’s a business plan for a new startup, kitten.net.
• An automated robot-liker. It smiles at you.
• A book with “Don’t Panic” in large friendly letters across the cover.

Each item on the grid has a fixed description randomly selected at the beginning of the game from a bank of Non-Kitten items descriptors. The game ends when the Robot finds Kitten.

A web version of the original game is available here: http://robotfindskitten.org/play/robotfindskitten/

Modified Game

I recreated this game by addng a few elements to spice it up:

• Instead of being one large open room, the game grid is divided into locked rooms.
• The robot can collect keys to open doors and move to the next room.
• Each room contains some Non-Kitten items and a key (represented by an apostrophe).
• One of the Non-Kitten items on the grid is a Teleporter, which allows the robot to move to a random position on the grid upon request.

How To Play

git clone https://github.com/dthierno/RobotFindsKitten.git RobotFindsKitten
cd RobotFindsKitten
javac RobotFindsKitten.java
java RobotFindsKitten

After running these commands, you should be greeted by a welcome message:

The game grid will then be generated semi-randomly:

• Walls (%) are placed around each room with a door in the middle (!) to move from one room to another.
• A key is placed on a randomly chosen cell in each room.
• Non-Kitten items and the Kitten are randomly placed on the grid (the representation of Non-Kitten-Items and the Kitten is randomly selected from a set of ASCII characters).
• In addition to the Non-Kitten items, a Teleporter is hidden somewhere on the game grid.

Once generated, the grid should look something like this:

The grid is displayed, and then a prompt asks the user to enter their move:

R.O.B  [0]>

The prompt represents the robot's status: {Robot's Name} [{number of keys in its possession}]

• The robot can explore the map by entering the commands w, a, s, or d, respectively, to move in the Up, Left, Down, or Right directions.
• When the robot picks up a key, it can use it to unlock one of the doors (which will remain unlocked for the rest of the game).
• If the robot has the teleporter, it can enter the command t to teleport to a random empty square on the grid. Additionally, a T is added to the end of the prompt to indicate that it can teleport:

R.O.B  [0]T>

• The grid is displayed, and the next move is requested until the robot finds Kitten. When the robot finds Kitten, the following message is displayed: You found kitten! Way to go, robot. Caramel <3 R.O.B. Where Caramel <3 R.O.B. corresponds to {Kitten's Name} <3 {Robot's Name} And the program ends.

Change from the original game

Note that unlike the original game, it is possible to walk on the Non-Kitten items. This will simplify the implementation and avoid cases where the robot could get stuck in its starting position.

License

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