Mancala AI: Python Tkinter UI (Part 2)

Welcome to the second part of our Mancala AI tutorial using Python Tkinter for the user interface. In this part, we will continue to work on the graphical user interface and the implementation of the Mancala game logic.

Implementing the Mancala game logic

In the previous part, we created the initial layout of the Mancala board using Python Tkinter. Now, let’s focus on implementing the game logic.

We will start by creating a class for the Mancala game board, which will handle the game state and the rules of the game. We will define methods for initializing the game board, making a move, and checking for a winner.

    
    class MancalaBoard:
    
        def __init__(self):
            # initialize the game board with the starting state
            self.board = [4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 0, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 0]
            self.turn = 0  # player 1 starts
            self.game_over = False
    
        def make_move(self, pit):
            # implement the logic for making a move in the game
            # ...
    
        def check_for_winner(self):
            # check if the game is over and determine the winner
            # ...
    
    

Updating the game board in the UI

Now that we have implemented the game logic, we need to update the graphical user interface to reflect the state of the game board. We will create a method to update the labels and buttons in the UI based on the current game state.

    
    def update_board(self):
        # update the labels and buttons in the UI based on the game state
        # ...
    
    

Handling user input

We also need to add event handlers to handle user input. When the player clicks on a pit, we will call the make_move method of the MancalaBoard class and update the UI accordingly.

    
    def on_pit_click(self, pit):
        # handle the user's click on a pit
        # ...
    
    

Conclusion

In this part, we continued our work on the Mancala AI using Python Tkinter for the UI. We implemented the game logic and updated the UI to reflect the game state. In the next part, we will work on adding a simple AI opponent for single-player mode.