Python Program for word Guessing Game

A word guessing game is a project that demonstrates the use of random selection, loops, conditional statements and string manipulation. In this game, the program randomly selects a word and the player must guess its characters within a limited number of attempts.

Word Guessing Game in Python

The game begins by randomly choosing a word from a predefined list and hiding its characters. The player then guesses letters one at a time, with correct guesses revealing matching characters and incorrect guesses reducing the available attempts. The game ends when the word is fully revealed or all chances are exhausted.

1. Create a list of words and randomly select one.
2. Initialize variables to store guessed characters and remaining attempts.
3. Display the word using underscores for unguessed characters.
4. Accept a character from the user.
5. Check whether the character exists in the word.
6. Continue until the word is guessed or all attempts are exhausted.
7. Display the result.

1. Importing the Random Module

import random

2. Getting the User's Name, and Greeting the User

The program asks the user for their name using the input() function. This name is stored in the variable name.

name = input("What is your name? ")
print("Good Luck ! ", name)

3. List of Words and Choosing a Random Word

A list of possible words for the guessing game is defined. These words are strings stored in a list called words. Also, the program selects a random word from the words list using random.choice(). The selected word is stored in the variable word.

words = ['rainbow', 'computer', 'science', 'programming',
'python', 'mathematics', 'player', 'condition',
'reverse', 'water', 'board', 'geeks']
word = random.choice(words)

4. Prompting the User to Guess

The program prompts the user to start guessing the characters of the randomly chosen word.

print("Guess the characters")

5. Initializing Guesses and Turns

• guesses: An empty string that will hold all the characters guessed by the user.
• turns: The number of attempts the user has to guess the word. Initially set to 12.

guesses = ''
turns = 12

6. The Main Game Loop

This while loop runs as long as the user has remaining turns. Inside the loop, the user will be prompted to guess characters.

while turns > 0:

6.1. Checking Each Character in the Word

• failed = 0: A counter for the number of characters that have not been correctly guessed.
• The for loop iterates through each character in the word.
• If the character has been guessed (i.e., it is in guesses), it is displayed.
• If the character has not been guessed, an underscore (_) is displayed, and failed is incremented.

failed = 0
for char in word:
if char in guesses:
print(char, end=" ")
else:
print("_")
failed += 1

6.2. Checking if the User Has Won

If failed is 0, it means all characters in the word have been guessed correctly. The user wins, and the correct word is displayed. The game ends with a break statement.

if failed == 0:
print("You Win")
print("The word is: ", word)
break

6.3. Prompting for the Next Guess

• The user is prompted to guess a character.
• The guessed character is added to the guesses string.

guess = input("Guess a character: ")

if len(guess) != 1:
print("Please enter a single character.")
continue

guesses += guess

6.4. Handling Incorrect Guesses

• If the guessed character is not in the word, the number of turns decreases by 1.
• A "Wrong" message is displayed, along with the number of remaining guesses.

if guess not in word:
turns -= 1
print("Wrong")
print("You have", + turns, 'more guesses')

6.5. Checking if the User Has Lost

If the user runs out of turns, the game ends with a "You Lose" message.

if turns == 0:
print("You Lose")

7. Ending the Game

• The game loop will end either when the user guesses the word correctly (all characters are guessed) or when the user runs out of turns.

Complete Code

import random

# Get user's name
name = input("What is your name? ")
print("Good Luck!", name)

# List of words
words = [
    'rainbow', 'computer', 'science', 'programming',
    'python', 'mathematics', 'player', 'condition',
    'reverse', 'water', 'board', 'geeks'
]

# Select a random word
word = random.choice(words)

print("\nGuess the characters")

# Store guessed characters
guesses = ''

# Number of attempts
turns = 12

# Main game loop
while turns > 0:

    failed = 0

    # Display guessed characters and hidden letters
    for char in word:
        if char in guesses:
            print(char, end=" ")
        else:
            print("_", end=" ")
            failed += 1

    print()

    # Check if the word has been guessed
    if failed == 0:
        print("You Win")
        print("The word is:", word)
        break

    # Get user input
    guess = input("Guess a character: ").lower()

    # Validate input length
    if len(guess) != 1:
        print("Please enter a single character.")
        continue

    # Check for duplicate guesses
    if guess in guesses:
        print("You already guessed that character.")
        continue

    # Store the guess
    guesses += guess

    # Handle incorrect guesses
    if guess not in word:
        turns -= 1
        print("Wrong")
        print("You have", turns, "more guesses")

        # Check if user has lost
        if turns == 0:
            print("You Lose")
            print("The word was:", word)

Output

What is your name? Kevin
Good Luck! Kevin

Guess the characters
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Guess a character: a
Wrong
You have 11 more guesses
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Guess a character: g

g _ _ _ _
Guess a character: e

g e e _ _
Guess a character: k

g e e k _
Guess a character: s

g e e k s
You Win
The word is: geeks

Time Complexity Analysis

• Time Complexity: O(n × t), where n is the length of the word and t is the number of guesses.
• Space Complexity: O(t) for storing guessed characters.

Related Article

• Python
• Random Module