flappy-bird-ai's Introduction

flappy-bird-ai

Create an ai for the popular game flappy bird to learn neural networks and basic reinforcement learning with games.

We'll be expanding on what we've learned from Hassan in this slideshow on the Introduction to Machine Learning: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ySxGJUtw_h__lznZO3IgjoEH2n5dlvtBip-fLgNjAFw/edit?usp=sharing

Development:

Setting Up a Python Virtual Environment

Create a Python virtual environment by typing python3 -m venv venv
- You may need to use a different command instead of python3 such as python or py (this can be tested by simply typing this command alone and seeing if it opens the Python interpreter which says your Python version and includes >>> at the bottom to indicate where you're supposed to code)
- the last term in this command venv can be changed to whichever name you'd like to give it
To activate this virtual environment:
- Type source venv/bin/activate on a UNIX system such as MacOS or Linux
- Type venv\Scripts\activate on Windows
Once you'd like to deactivate it, type venv\Scripts\deactivate on Windows or deactivate on a UNIX-based OS

Create Game:

Chrome dinosaur game in pygame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcC-jiCuDnQ (first video in a series)

We can extrapolate from this video and others about making pygames to make Flappy Bird rather than copying directly so we learn more from this experience.

Create canvas using pygame
Create Player class for the flappy bird (Jump)
Create pipes (paired up, move to the left from the right)
- Use coordinates of the pipes and the bird to check collisions
Add a score
Add the game over sequence

Try not to use videos of this exact project because then you're not trying to apply something you've learned, you're just copying.