FT_2048

(Rush #8 of the 42 Common Core)

objective:

Recreate the 2048 game as a terminal game using C and the ncurses library.

ncurses library:

Allows writing text-based user interfaces in terminal. Can create windows, panels, forms and menus. It is used by many popular text-based tools like Vim, top and other command-line utilities.

Key features:

Handling input (keypresses and mouse events)
Window Management: Create multiple windows and sub-windows.
Color Manipulation: Use color pairs to display text in various colors.
Screen Refreshing: Efficiently update the screen to reflect changes.

game analysis:

the game is played on a 4*4 grid.
the grid is represented by a 2-dimensional integer array (int [rows][cols], where rows=cols=4)
each square on the grid either contains a single number (power of 2) or nothing
the goal of the game is to create a square that contains the number 2048
at game start 2 numbers (either 2 or 4) each spawn in a random (empty) square
a player move consists of pressing one of the arrow keys (left, right, up, down) or the ESC key
after a direction is read from player input, all the values in the grid "slide" over to the neighboring square in the given direction (if possible). That means:
- for up: the row-index is decreased by one
- for down: the row-index is increased by one
- for left: the col-index is decreased by one
- for right: the col-index is increased by one
a move is only valid if at least one number in the grid can actually slide
number merging: if after the sliding, 2 adjacent squares have the same number, they merge into one square with the new number having double the original value (2-2 -> 4; 8-8 -> 16;...)
the merging only happens if the neighboring direction matches the sliding direction; for left right its horizontal and for updown its vertical.
per move and row/col only 1 merge can happen (?) (No mutilpe merges can happen)
if after sliding, more than 2 adjacent squares have the same number, only the 2 "furthest away" in the sliding direction will merge
after a valid move one new random number spawns in a random empty square
throughout the game the chances for a 2 to appear are 90% compared to 10% for 4
there are 2 conditions for the game to be over:
- there are no valid moves left (clean_up and quit game)
- one square has reached the value 2048 (or some lower power of 2 which can be defined in a enum: enum e_const{ WIN_VALUE = 2048};) in this case show a messagebox "Congratulations! You made it to 2048. Want to keep going? y/n"
  - if y: clear the messagebox and continue the game (game_draw(), game_read_input())
  - else: clean_up and quit game
the ESC key will show a messagebox ("Do you really want to quit? y/n")
- then the game waits for input (only y/n possible).
  - if y: clean_up and quit game
  - else: clear the messagebox and continue the game (game_draw(), game_read_input())

Bonus:

colors: work with color pairs for each square (function square_draw).
- dark grey for empty square
- grey for 2
- light grey for 4
- 8+: shades of red getting more intens...
- the color of the numbers is black for 2 and 4 and white for the rest
game menu:
- (1) new game (4x4)
- (2) new game (5x5)
- (3) quit game
- if there is a game in progress and the ESC button has been pressed, the menu will show with the following options:
- (1) resume game
- (2)
- (3) quit game
ascii art for colors in function square_draw
show scores during the game: current scores & top 5 scores. store scores in a highscores.txt:
- TOM 42000
- LILLY 34000
- BOB 28000
- ...

technical specifications: