AI-Snake-Game/ROADMAP.md

Snake Game Development Roadmap

This is a living document that tracks the development progress of the AI Snake Game project.

Current Status

Last Updated: [Control and Menu Improvements]

• Fixed menu interaction issues:
  • Added proper mouse click handling
  • Fixed menu item highlighting
  • Improved keyboard and mouse navigation
• Improved snake movement system:
  • Implemented input buffer for direction changes
  • Fixed rapid direction change issues
  • Improved responsiveness while maintaining safety
• Previous updates:
  • Added settings menu with game options
  • Added wrap-around mode toggle
  • Added speed increase toggle
  • Added main menu interface
  • Added game mode selection
  • Implemented menu navigation
  • Added game mode display
  • Added game restart functionality
  • Added Food class with spawning mechanics
  • Implemented basic scoring system

Phase 1: Project Setup and Basic Structure ✅

• Create project structure and virtual environment
• Initialize git repository
• Set up dependency management (requirements.txt)
• Create basic project documentation (README.md)
• Create living roadmap document

Phase 2: Core Game Development ✅

• Implement basic game window using Pygame
• Create Snake class with movement mechanics
  • Basic movement and collision
  • Input buffering for direction changes
  • Fix rapid direction change issues
  • Prevent 180-degree turns
• Implement food spawning system
  • Create Food class
  • Add random food placement
  • Add collision detection with food
• Add collision detection
  • Wall collisions
  • Self collisions
  • Add wrap-around mode option
• Implement scoring system
  • Add score display
  • Add high score tracking
• Add game over conditions
  • Implement game over state transition
  • Add restart functionality

Phase 3: Game Polish and UI ✅

• Add main menu interface
  • Create menu layout
  • Add game mode selection
  • Add settings menu
  • Fix menu interaction issues
    • Mouse click handling
    • Menu item highlighting
    • Keyboard/mouse navigation
• Implement pause functionality
• Add settings options
  • Wrap-around mode toggle
  • Speed increase toggle
• Add visual effects and animations
  • Snake movement animation
  • Food spawn animation
  • Score increase animation
• Include sound effects and background music
  • Add movement sounds
  • Add collision sounds
  • Add background music
  • Add menu sounds
• Display score and high score
• Add game over screen with restart option

Phase 4: AI Implementation 🔄

• Set up ML training environment
  • Create gym-like interface for the game
  • Define observation space (snake + food state)
  • Define action space (4 directions)
  • Implement reward system
• Implement ML infrastructure
  • Add ML dependencies (PyTorch/TensorFlow)
  • Create neural network architecture
  • Set up training pipeline
• Train AI models for different difficulties
  • Easy mode (basic food seeking)
  • Medium mode (balanced survival/food seeking)
  • Hard mode (optimal pathfinding)
• Create AI controller class
  • Model loading and inference
  • Real-time decision making
  • Performance optimization
• Create mode selection (Player vs AI)
• Add training utilities
  • Save/load model checkpoints
  • Training progress visualization
  • Model performance metrics

Phase 5: Final Polish

• Add configuration options
  • Game speed settings
  • Wrap-around option
  • Visual settings
  • Sound settings
• Implement save/load functionality for high scores
• Bug fixing and performance optimization
  • Fix menu interaction bugs
  • Fix movement control issues
  • Optimize input handling
• Code cleanup and documentation
  • Add docstrings
  • Create API documentation
  • Update README with final features

Resolved Issues

1. Menu Interaction

   • Issue: Menu items not responding to clicks
   • Solution: Added proper mouse click event handling in game loop
   • Solution: Fixed menu item highlighting and selection state

2. Snake Movement

   • Issue: Rapid direction changes causing self-collision
   • Issue: Missed inputs during quick turns
   • Solution: Implemented input buffer system
   • Solution: Process one direction change per grid movement
   • Solution: Store up to 2 pending direction changes

Next Steps

1. Implement AI snake movement
   • Set up ML training environment
   • Create neural network architecture
   • Train initial model
2. Add high score system
   • Implement score persistence
   • Add high score display
3. Add visual and sound effects
   • Implement basic animations
   • Add game sounds

Known Issues

• None reported

Future Considerations

• Multiplayer support
• Additional game modes
• Custom themes/skins
• Achievement system