Create Board Game-like Grid in Python

Question

I am thinking of creating a board game in Python, one which will have a grid of spaces, each with different properties, and which may or may not have pieces resting on them.

Answer 1

Drawing a chessboard is pretty trivial with Tkinter. Here's a really simple example:

import Tkinter as tk
class GameBoard(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent, rows=8, columns=8, size=32, color1="white", color2="blue"):
        '''size is the size of a square, in pixels'''

        self.rows = rows
        self.columns = columns
        self.size = size
        self.color1 = color1
        self.color2 = color2
        self.pieces = {}

        canvas_width = columns * size
        canvas_height = rows * size

        tk.Frame.__init__(self, parent)
        self.canvas = tk.Canvas(self, borderwidth=0, highlightthickness=0,
                                width=canvas_width, height=canvas_height, background="bisque")
        self.canvas.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True, padx=2, pady=2)

        # this binding will cause a refresh if the user interactively
        # changes the window size
        self.canvas.bind("<Configure>", self.refresh)

    def addpiece(self, name, image, row=0, column=0):
        '''Add a piece to the playing board'''
        self.canvas.create_image(0,0, image=image, tags=(name, "piece"), anchor="c")
        self.placepiece(name, row, column)

    def placepiece(self, name, row, column):
        '''Place a piece at the given row/column'''
        self.pieces[name] = (row, column)
        x0 = (column * self.size) + int(self.size/2)
        y0 = (row * self.size) + int(self.size/2)
        self.canvas.coords(name, x0, y0)

    def refresh(self, event):
        '''Redraw the board, possibly in response to window being resized'''
        xsize = int((event.width-1) / self.columns)
        ysize = int((event.height-1) / self.rows)
        self.size = min(xsize, ysize)
        self.canvas.delete("square")
        color = self.color2
        for row in range(self.rows):
            color = self.color1 if color == self.color2 else self.color2
            for col in range(self.columns):
                x1 = (col * self.size)
                y1 = (row * self.size)
                x2 = x1 + self.size
                y2 = y1 + self.size
                self.canvas.create_rectangle(x1, y1, x2, y2, outline="black", fill=color, tags="square")
                color = self.color1 if color == self.color2 else self.color2
        for name in self.pieces:
            self.placepiece(name, self.pieces[name][0], self.pieces[name][1])
        self.canvas.tag_raise("piece")
        self.canvas.tag_lower("square")


# image comes from the silk icon set which is under a Creative Commons
# license. For more information see http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/
imagedata = '''
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    ANiSANuXAN2ZAN6aAN+bAOCcAOKeANCjKOShANKnK+imAOyrAN6qSNaxPfCwAOKyJOKyJvKyANW0
    R/S1APW2APW3APa4APe5APm7APm8APq8AO28Ke29LO2/LO2/L+7BM+7BNO6+Re7CMu7BOe7DNPHA
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    fvLOS/rNP/LPTvLOVe/LdfPRUfPRU/PSU/LPaPPTVPPUVfTUVvLPe/LScPTWWfTXW/TXXPTXX/XY
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    nvjio/nnhvfjovjmlvzlmvrmpvrrmfzpp/zqq/vqr/zssvvvp/vvqfvvuPvvuvvwvfzzwP//////
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    /////////////////////////////////////////////////////yH+FUNyZWF0ZWQgd2l0aCBU
    aGUgR0lNUAAh+QQBCgD/ACwAAAAAEAAQAAAIzAD/CRxIsKDBfydMlBhxcGAKNIkgPTLUpcPBJIUa
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    yxYYEAA7
'''



if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = tk.Tk()
    board = GameBoard(root)
    board.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand="true", padx=4, pady=4)
    player1 = tk.PhotoImage(data=imagedata)
    board.addpiece("player1", player1, 0,0)
    root.mainloop()

Answer 2

You can consider your underlying board implementation as different kind of datastructures.

1. List of lists - l1 = [[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]
2. Dict with values as list = d1 = {a:[1,2,3],b:[4,5,6],c:[7,8,9]}
3. Dict with keys are coordinates and values which you can assign.
4. As a Graph

Here is a design of an empty chessboard.

>>> chessboard = {}
>>> for row in range(8):
...     for col in range(8):
...             chessboard[(row,col)] = 0
... 
>>>

You can use any of these and design the logic of your game. For higher level elements you can tie these objects or elements within to spites of pygame