# What would be a cool two player game for a programming project? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 13, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845 "2010-01-13T22:19:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/1 "2010-01-13T22:19:46Z")
A small programming project 🙂 I’m learning my way through XNA but I’m not a graphics designer so I need something that won’t require me to model complex 3d shapes. I was thinking of maybe a board game or a board game derivative. The purpose is mainly to learn, but also to play with my wife. My first thought was a card game, but we have cards aplenty, and it’s just easier to open a pack up and play while watching a TV show. I need something a little more complex, and interesting. Any ideas guys? Help a budding XNA dev out! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/2 "2010-01-13T22:42:50Z")
A tower war. The principle of a tower war is essentially this: a tower defense except each player sends the cannon fodder/enemies at the other player instead of it being computer driven. The ones I’ve played have can be boiled down to: you get money by killing mobs, but your income every \ seconds is increased by sending mobs, so you have to balance sending for income and defending your side by building towers. Each enemy and tower has a cost (duh), and possibly other prerequisites. For instance, to send the highest health unit you may need to have the ultimate tower, or to build a level 3 darkness tower you may have to have an income over 150 (or it can just be simulated by cost progression, either way works if done right). Tower defenses require almost no graphics knowledge, so long as you make good use of making different shapes and colors consistent and unique, i.e. all triangles are fast, red means it has a lot of health, circular towers do more damage but attack slowly etc. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/3 "2010-01-13T23:33:31Z")
And if you find a realtime game like that too far from your tastes or too difficult, there’s always the old programming project standby: Risk. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/4 "2010-01-13T23:37:15Z")
Ooooh tower strategy sounds like it might be fun to both work on and play. Turn based certianly would be easier to start with though. I thought of RISK or maybe even a table top war game like Warhammer, but I don’t think the wife would much like it. Thanks for the recommendations! ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/5 "2010-01-13T23:48:23Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > And if you find a realtime game like that too far from your tastes or too difficult, there’s always the old programming project standby: Risk. One cool thing about programming an existing board game like Risk is that the requirements/rules are already well-defined. You can focus on the programming without getting side-tracked designing the game. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/6 "2010-01-14T02:28:03Z")
Artillery-type games are always pretty good too. No one will ever get tired of playing Scorched Earth. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/7 "2010-01-14T03:00:01Z")
> [@Palooka](#): > > Artillery-type games are always pretty good too. No one will ever get tired of playing Scorched Earth. This is what I was going to suggest. And it should be fun to program, especially since you can start by programming it as a simple two-player game wit, say, a fixed terrain and the only inputs being angle of attack and power. Then you can add wind to the game. Then you can add random terrain. Then you can extend the weapons. Perhaps add movement, etc. Should be fun to do and easily extensible. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/8 "2010-01-14T12:30:17Z")
I had a friend in college that programmed up a Scorched Earth type game for a final project. I was also thinking something along the lines of the old Atari 2600 game “Combat” would be a fun thing to try. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/9 "2010-01-14T12:42:13Z")
> [@Hoopy\_Frood](#): > > I had a friend in college that programmed up a Scorched Earth type game for a final project. > > I was also thinking something along the lines of the old Atari 2600 game “Combat” would be a fun thing to try. That’s the one game my technophobic grandpa actually liked playing with me as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-a-cool-two-player-game-for-a-programming-project/524845/10 "2010-01-14T15:17:49Z")
A remake of _Jones in the Fast Lane_, an early 1990s game by Sierra.