Bulls and Cows

16 Oct 2015

When I started learning C programming back in 2003, the first big program I wrote was Bulls and Cows. I didn't even know the game back then and my neighbor mentioned it to me a good starting exercise. I did it and was exalted and I spent the next week playing it hundres of times. Programming exercise aside, I still think it's a very good game and I play it once in a while when I want to jerk my analytical skills in motion. This time though, instead of downloading one of the existing games from the Play Store, I decided to try my hand at writing the game again - as a webapp.

My intentions were different this time around. I did not want to learn to program the logic behind the game. I wanted to use this as a way to learn to develop mobile ready web based games. Finally, after spending a couple of nights on it, I have the beta version out.

I am still testing it on all my friends' devices who would let me install it. It looks pretty decent - I think - on my phone. I've been adding features to the basic game to make it a bit interesting. Currently it supports:

• Three different number lengths: 4, 5 and 6.
• Four different levels based on maximum guesses.

I am planning to add more features as I find time. The planned features are:

• Ability to use 0 in the numbers (and allow 0 in starting position).
• A timed game mode with limited time and unlimited guesses.

Entire source code is available under the MIT license on GitHub. The user interface and the game modes still need some heavy testing. Once that is done, I should be able to publish it on the Google Play Store.