C++ Hangman Game

GitHub Repository

Hangman is a classic word-guessing game. In this version, the words come from an educational C++ themed dictionary (C++ keywords and concepts). The player tries to guess a hidden word one letter at a time; each wrong guess draws part of a hangman figure. If the player completes the word before the figure is finished, they win; otherwise they lose.

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Key Features:

• Difficulty Levels: The game supports Easy, Medium, and Hard words.
• Educational Dictionary: All words are C++ terms (from CSV/easy.csv, medium.csv, hard.csv) with short definitions.
• Add Custom Words: Users can add their own C++-related words and definitions via the GUI.
• Settings and Reset: Players can clear their custom word list or change difficulty from the settings page.
• Polished GUI: The Qt-based interface shows hangman images for each incorrect guess, and dialogs include custom icons as per code changes above).

Project logic and directory structure:

The diagram below illustrates how components interact: the MainWindow (UI) emits signals (e.g. beginNewGame, guessLetter) to the GameController, which in turn calls the GameLogic and updates the DataBase as needed.

flowchart TD
    subgraph GUI [" "]
        MainWindow["Main Window"]
        DifficultyDialog["Difficulty Window"]
        AddWordDialog["Add Word Window"]
    end


    Game["Game Logic"]

    Controller["Game Controller<br/>connection <br/>GUI <-> Logic <-> DB"]

    DBManager["DataBaseManager<br/>(singleton)"]
    hangmanDB["hangman.db<br/>(SQLite)"]
 
    %% --- zależności ---
    MainWindow <--> Controller
    DifficultyDialog <--> Controller
    AddWordDialog <-->  Controller

    Controller <--> Game
    Controller <--> DBManager

    DBManager --> hangmanDB

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• GUI/ – Qt UI code and forms (mainwindow, dialogs). Contains GUI/Source (the .cpp/.h implementation) and GUI/Forms (.ui files).
• GameLogic/ – Core game logic (Game.h/.cpp) that manages the secret word, current display, and win/loss conditions.
• GameController/ – GameController.h/.cpp ties together the UI and game logic. It handles starting new games, processing guesses, and communicating with the database.
• DataBase/ – DataBaseManager.h/.cpp manages the SQLite database of words and stats. Also includes the load_words.py script, which populates the database from CSV files.
• CSV/ – Contains easy.csv, medium.csv, and hard.csv with C++ keywords and definitions.
• Resources.qrc – Qt resource file listing images (hangman states, main menu background, etc.) that are embedded into the app.

HangMan/
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── README.md
├── Resources.qrc
│
├── GUI/
│   ├── Forms/
│   │   ├── MainWindow.ui
│   │   ├── DifficultyDialog.ui
│   │   └── AddWordDialog.ui
│   ├── Source/
│   │   ├── main.cpp
│   │   └── windows.cpp/h
│   └── Resources/
│
├── GameLogic/
│   ├── Game.h
│   └── Game.cpp
│
├── GameController/
│   ├── GameController.h
│   └── GameController.cpp
│
├── DataBase/
│   ├── DataBaseManager.h
│   ├── DataBaseManager.cpp
│   └── load_words.py          # one-time import CSV → SQLite
│
└── CSV/
    ├── easy.csv
    ├── medium.csv
    └── hard.csv

• Dictionary: The word list is based on C++ concepts. Each CSV has rows like word,definition,difficulty. For example, “lambda” might appear in medium.csv with a short definition. The game randomly selects a word of the current difficulty from the SQLite database (which was populated by the provided load_words.py script). If you add a custom word, it’s stored in the database with word_type='user'.

Game process:

The main menu of the Hangman game (custom GUI with Start, Settings, About, Exit). The game’s title is shown along with the hangman gallows drawing.

Gameplay view: hangman drawing, difficulty & attempts panel with hint and “Show Definition”, plus an on-screen keyboard where used letters are dimmed.

“Add Custom Word” dialog with fields for word, definition, difficulty (Easy / Medium / Hard) and Cancel / Add buttons.

Building and Running:

1. Qt Creator: Open the folder HangMan in Qt Creator (which will detect the CMakeLists.txt). Configure your kit (ensuring Qt6 and a C++20 compiler), then Build and Run normally. Qt Creator will handle generating build files and linking against Qt6 Widgets and Sql (for SQLite).

2. Command line (CMake): In a terminal, run:

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake .. 
   cmake --build .

This uses the provided CMakeLists.txt (which sets CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20 and includes Qt modules Qt6::Widgets, Qt6::Sql, etc.). On Windows, you may need to set -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to your Qt installation (see Qt docs for details). Once built, copy the hangman.db file to the executable directory (or adjust the path), then run the HangManQT executable.