Earl John Pulido

Posted on May 30

Prompting a Classic Snake Game using Amazon Q

#amazonqcli #python #gamedev

Remember the good old days of playing Snake on your Nokia phone? That simple yet addictive game where you guide a growing serpent around the screen, gobbling up food while avoiding your own tail? Well, I decided to recreate this classic using Amazon Q CLI - Amazon's AI-powered coding assistant that can help you build applications through natural language prompts.

In this post, I'll walk you through my journey of building a fully functional Snake game using nothing but conversational prompts with Amazon Q CLI. Spoiler alert: it was surprisingly smooth and educational!

What is Amazon Q CLI?

Amazon Q CLI is an AI coding assistant that lets you build applications through natural language conversations. Instead of writing code from scratch, you can describe what you want to build, and Q helps generate, modify, and debug code through an interactive chat interface.

The Challenge: Building Snake with Prompts

My goal was simple: create a playable Snake game using only prompts to Amazon Q CLI. No pre-written code, no copying from tutorials - just pure AI-assisted development through conversation.

Game Requirements:

A snake that moves continuously
Food that appears randomly on the screen
Score tracking
Game over when snake hits walls or itself
Smooth gameplay with proper frame rate

My Development Journey

Starting Simple: "Build me a Snake game"
My first prompt was straightforward:

"Help me create a Snake game in Python using PyGame. I want a basic version with a snake that moves around the screen and eats food."

Amazon Q immediately understood the request and provided a solid foundation with:

Basic PyGame setup
Snake movement mechanics
Food generation system
Collision detection

The initial code was surprisingly complete and functional!

Refining Through Conversation

What impressed me most was how I could iterate on the game through natural conversation:
Me: "The snake moves too fast, can you slow it down?"
Amazon Q: Adjusted the frame rate and movement timing
Me: **"Add a score display in the top-left corner"
**Amazon Q: Implemented score rendering with proper font handling
Me: "Make the food appear in different colors randomly"
Amazon Q: Enhanced the food system with color variation

Advanced Features Through Prompts

As I got more comfortable, I asked for more sophisticated features:

"Add sound effects when the snake eats food and when the game ends"
"Make the snake speed up slightly as it gets longer"
"Add a game over screen with restart functionality"
"Implement proper boundary collision detection"
Each request was handled smoothly, with Amazon Q explaining the changes and ensuring the code remained clean and well-structured.

Key Features Implemented

Here's what we built together:
Core Gameplay

Smooth Movement: Snake moves in grid-based steps
Food System: Randomly placed food items with color variation
Growth Mechanics: Snake grows when eating food
Collision Detection: Walls and self-collision end the game

User Experience

Score Display: Real-time score tracking
Progressive Difficulty: Speed increases with length
Game Over Screen: Clear end state with restart option
Visual Polish: Clean graphics with distinct colors

Technical Implementation

Efficient Rendering: Optimized drawing loops
Event Handling: Responsive keyboard controls
Game State Management: Proper game loop structure
Error Handling: Robust collision and boundary checking

Code Highlights

While I won't include the entire codebase here, here are some interesting snippets that Amazon Q helped create:

def game_over_screen(score):
    """Display game over screen with restart functionality"""
    game_over_sound.play()

    game_exit = False

    while not game_exit:
        game_display.fill(white)
{% embed  %}
        message("GAME OVER", dark_red, -50, "large")
        message(f"Final Score: {score}", black, 0)
        message("What would you like to do?", black, 50)

        # Create buttons
        restart = draw_button("Play Again", 150, 400, 200, 50, green, (0, 200, 0))
        quit_game = draw_button("Quit", 450, 400, 200, 50, red, dark_red)

        pygame.display.update()

        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                pygame.quit()
                quit()

        if restart:
            game_loop()
        if quit_game:
            pygame.quit()
            quit()

        clock.tick(15)

Try It Yourself!
Want to build your own Snake game or try other projects with Amazon Q CLI? Check out the "Build Games with Amazon Q CLI" campaign running until June 20, 2025. You might even earn a cool T-shirt while learning!
Campaign hashtag: #AmazonQCLI

Have you tried building games with AI assistance? Share your experiences in the comments below!

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