to show that I've learned Python?

I'm following up from this question.

I was thinking about what utilities to write over the past couple of days, but struggled to come up with any ideas.

I was thinking about a text adventure game, it isn't so much about the game, but to show what I learned in Python. As I said, I want to use my Github as a portfolio to show projects I've done in my spare time. I knew concepts such as methods, classes, threading, etc.. before Python, I just learned how to do those things in Python. I learned C# and Java in school, but Python I learned on my own.

This one warranted a conference talk:

http://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2012/adventure/

Something that could show off data structures in a more obvious way might be Star Trek:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_T...971_video_game)

Or maybe you could mix it with something like Taipan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipan!

You don't have to port those games, just take inspiration from them.

Basically, the way Star Trek works is that you have a short range scan instead of a real time changing map. You enter the command for a short range scan, and it shows you an 8x8 grid of the local sector. This is suitable for you, since you just want to use a simple text interface rather than dealing with ncurses or a full blown GUI interface.

In Star Trek, your interactions are limited to moving around and shooting Klingon starships, though. You could resupply at starbases, but again...limited interaction.

Instead of just going around shooting Klingons, though, you could do a trading game. The focus isn't mainly on combat with pirates, it's about going from port to port trading goods. You try to buy low, sell high. And you also have to deal with pirates.

The point is, you can use different classes for ports, starships, etc, and you have something more interesting going on with prices and goods.

"Text adventure games" have re-christened themselves Interactive Fiction, and by-the-way they are still alive and well. Even today, I continue to enjoy them.

I think the star trek link is dead, this one seems to work.

Issue 64 (Dec 2017) of MagPi has an article about writing adventure programs in Python. It's on pages 62 through 73. That issue is on the newsstands at the moment.

If you're looking for really old material, there was the Eamon series for the Apple ][ and Apple ][+ written in AppleSoft BASIC. Ideas could be borrowed, but it may be too primitive technologically.

You've probably already seen the announcement by ESR regarding the original adventure, Colossal Cave, becoming officially open source in its C re-implementation:
https://gitlab.com/esr/open-adventure
http://www.catb.org/~esr/open-adventure/history.html

I never expected to see text adventure games make a come back like this! Or maybe they were never really gone . Seems interesting. I'm going to search around to get an idea of what that article says. Wait it's free?!?!

I wonder what makes text adventures so popular? My guess, no need for high end hardware to run, and easy to get into (entering text command rather than a key combo to shoot).

Being a Star Trek fan, I'm ashamed to say I never knew they made a text adventure game!.

It was a fan-made game, the TV series had long since entered the re-run phase. However, running the game on the mainframes which were the only things available back in the day was quite expensive. Every real minute cost something plus extra for just about every CPU cycle. Rates were cheaper usually in the evening and late during the night. Cheaper still if you used someone else's account. That last bit lead to quite a bit of trouble at a lot of universities. Though if it was a matter of smaller numbers, the missing time was usually ignored. If I recall it went mostly by the name "trek"

Continuing on the theme, there was an article about Nethack a year or two ago in Linux Voice, too. Despite the name it is not a networked game. It would have been even more addictive if it had been multiplayer.

Finally, speaking of addictive, there would be quite a bit of programming skill in implementing something MOO or MUD related using Python. Those caused lots of people bad grades or even to drop out for a term or two. Perhaps consider making a client? Though doing that you'd end up play testing and not everyone can do that...

While Super Star Trek may have gotten its start on mainframes, it really ballooned in popularity after 8 bit home computers made it affordable. It was published as a type in BASIC game in BASIC Computer Games and Creative Computing, making the game accessible to a lot more people than most games.