Build a Python Snake Game with LLM

Lately, I have been trying lots of prompting with large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to build apps in Python and JavaScript (Next.js) using OpenAI API, and all I can say is it's producing unimaginable possibilities.

Some of these products you can achieve are:

• Text-to-speech: Converting texts to speech
• Speech to text
• Image generation: Generate or manipulate images with text using DALL-E API
• Producing captions for your images. Check out this Caption Image app

This guide shows you how to use prompts to build a snake game in Python, iterate the responses (the output), and test the code result. If the result doesn't meet your requirements, you prompt again till you get the desired output. Learning prompt engineering skills will help you avoid constant iteration because it'll help ensure the output is the best it can be for the first time.

Let's get started!

Prerequisites

For this tutorial, you do not need to know Python since the generated code will be produced by ChatGPT. Therefore, you only need an account ChatGPT.

Using the free version of ChatGPT is unlikely to get accurate results for your snake game because the free version of ChatGPT uses an older, less capable LLM (GPT-3.5) that is not very good with code. You should upgrade to ChatGPT Plus if you can afford to subscribe.

Another good LLM option to use apart from ChatGPT is the lmarena.

Visit the link and do the following:

• Select "Direct Chat" along the menu bar at the top
• Under the "Choose any model to chat" from the dropdown, select "chatgpt-4o-latest" or "laude-3-opus-20240229".

Creating the Snake Game

For you to have a working game, provide your chosen LLM with the prompt (input) with definitive instructions on the action it should carry out.

Here are the steps to follow to have a working game:

First prompt

I want to create a snake game using Python, what steps do I need to do that?

This prompt will outline the step-by-step guide for you to follow from installing the library, pygame, setting up the game environment, running the game, debugging and optimizing (testing the game and checking for code performance).

Another prompt worth trying out to compile the code is this:

Provide the code for the snake game in Python. The code should include all the details and features described above.

In addition, you can define a prompt to change the background color to make the app prettier, highlight the session in the code, and another prompt to adjust the snake's speed.

For the complete source code, check this gist.

Conclusion

Prompting is a skill that involves the practice of giving the LLM
instructions and context provided to an AI for a certain task.

This guide demonstrated how to program an app in a natural (human) language to get a functioning working application.

Kindly share your results.

Happy coding!!!