This is a submission for the Amazon Q Developer "Quack The Code" Challenge: That's Entertainment!
🔨 What I Built
My inspiration for this project is threefold: the classic PC game, Pong, Pickleball and the 80s sci-fi movie TRON. I wanted to combine the two games into one – using pickleball paddles and a pickleball ball as the main interactive elements and the gameplay of Pong. Finally, TRON is my inspiration for the UI.
I favor Visual Studio Code in my workflow, so I used Amazon Q Developer within Visual Studio Code as a chat buddy. I am letting Amazon Q Developer handle all the coding while I stepped into the director role, sipped my coffee and instructed the AI developer along the way.
🔗 Demo
🔗 Code Repository
🤖 How I Used Amazon Q Developer (Q)
Having Q in the driver seat allowed me to focus on the accuracy of the look and feel of the game. I was the subject matter expert of Pong, Tron and Pickleball, in this scenario, and I trusted Q to know how to code.
🚀 Collaborate, collaborate
It is very important to use clear prompts with Q. Example:
create a game that is like ping pong but using pickleball paddles and a pickleball instead
Q created something nearly perfect. However, the UI needed some help and wasn't very pretty to begin with:
🎬 Director's Chair
Knowing that I wanted the UI to resemble the retro world of Tron, I expanded on the original idea and told Q to:
create the UI as an 8-bit version with tron like elements
Output:
Much better! I wanted the playing field to resemble a pickleball court, so I had Q make a few more changes while I reassessed the color scheme and stepped into the editor's role for a little bit to update the visuals.
We worked side-by-side at the end, as final tweaks and edits were made.
🏅 Conclusion
This is my first step into pair programming with an AI assistant and this has been a truly fun experience. Thanks to Q, I got to spend more time on the exciting parts of bringing my idea to life. Using the Visual Studio Code chat extension felt like I was peering over the shoulder of another developer. Especially towards the end, when I started reviewing the code and making tweaks with Q.
💭 What's Next
I can easily see myself expanding on this game by adding more engaging visual elements such as sound, an audience and more information about the sport. This is a solid start, and I have found a new way to develop and deploy ideas much faster.