[Python Text RPG 0] Setting Up Shop

When I first taught myself how to program, the first project suggested to me was to make a text-based RPG from scratch (no third-party libraries). At the time, I was learning Java so I could program my school’s FRC robot so naturally the RPG was written in Java. The goal of this blog mini-series is to make yet another text-based RPG, but now in Python. For this tutorial series, I’ll be saying what to do, then show what I typed at the end if I think you can figure it out.

Command Line: A Primer

For this tutorial series, we will be using the command line for as many things as possible. This is because it is can be a difficult skill for many, while using a GUI is not and relatively intuitive. With that in mind, here is a VERY brief intro to using the command line. For now, it will be for Linux (I’ll write Mac and Windows instructions later when I’m not as lazy).

Opening the Command Line

This can vary based on what Linux distro you’re using. For Ubuntu, you can use the shortcut Ctrl-Alt-t.

Basic Operations

Here are some commands to get you started:

• cd type/a/directory/here: Changes directory to the one you specify
• ls: Prints the contents of your current directory
• mkdir: Makes a directory
• touch file-to.create: Creates an empty file
• rm file-to.delete: Deletes the file you specify. You can delete entire folders like: rm -r type/a/directory/here.

Installing Some Software

You need to install the following software for this tutorial series to get started. We’ll add more software as it all becomes relevant.

• Git: sudo apt-get install git
• Make: sudo apt-get install build-essential
• Pip: sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Most Linux distros come with Python already installed.

Setting Up GitHub

The first step to take (and one I didn’t know back then) is to set up version control for your project. So create a GitHub account and make a new repository. I’m naming the repo “Dungeon-Crawler-2”. Leave it public since that’s free.

Feel free to initialise the repo with a README, .gitignore, and LICENSE. I am choosing “Python” for the .gitignore and “GNU General Public License v3.0” for the license.

Next, you’ll want to clone your repository. This just means downloading a local copy that you can upload back to GitHub with your new changes later. Because we aren’t scrubs, we’ll be downloading the command-line tool.

Once it is installed, type the following git clone https://github.com/<TYPE YOUR USErNAME HERE>/<TYPE YOUR REPO NAME HERE>.git

Don’t copy and paste the above command, type it out and fill in the areas where it tells you to type stuff.

You should now have a directory on your computer named the same as your GitHub repo name.

Setting Up An Incomplete Project Skeleton

First, change your directory to your git repo you just made. The following is an adaptation of this structure guide.

Next, you need to make the following directories:

• docs
• dungeoncrawler2
• tests

Now make the following files:

• setup.py
• requirements.txt
• Makefile
• dungeoncrawler2/init.py
• dungeoncrawler2/dungeoncrawler2.py
• docs/conf.py
• docs/index.rst
• tests/test_dungeoncrawler2.py

Add every new file for tracking with git add --all.

Then make a commit for the series of changes you made with git commit -am "Initial commit".

Finally, push your changes with git push.

That’s it for this first tutorial. Next tutorial, we’ll be filling in the files in our project skeleton and setting up our development environment!

Cheats

• Changing directory to your git repo: cd <TYPE YOUR REPO NAME HERE>
• Making the directories (just the first one, you should be able to figure it out from there: mkdir docs