Hangman (Part 1)

Write an application that allows the user to play Hangman.

In the game Hangman, the player tries to guess a word or phrase (we will just be doing words) one letter at a time. The player has a finite number (we will use 7) of wrong guesses before they lose the game. If they guess the word in less than 7 guesses, they win.

For this lab, we will begin to program the game. Your next programming assignment will be to finish the game. No graphics are needed for this lab.

You will need the following controls to complete today's lab:

• A textbox to enter each guess.
• A label to output the word to be guessed. You should display a "-" for each letter that has not been guessed yet.
• A label to output the letters that have been guessed wrong already.
• A label to output how many wrong guesses left.
• A label to announce the player won or lost at the end of the game.
• A button to submit a guess after the player has typed a letter in the textbox.

Example Layout (yours can look much nicer of course)

You do not need the submit word button, the textbox above it, or the reset button to get full credit for this lab. They are covered in the bonus section and will be part of Programming Assignment 3.

You will need the following variables to complete today's lab:

• A String variable to hold the word to be guessed. For this lab, to make the program easier, you can hardcode or initialize this variable with any word so that every time the game is played it will be the same word. Choose a word that does not have the same letter twice for now.
• A String variable to hold the guessed word. This variable should be initialized to all "-"'s for each letter in the word to be guessed. We will change this variable's value as each correct letter is guessed.
• A String variable to hold the one letter guess entered by the user in the textbox.
• A Integer variable to hold the number of guesses left. Initialize this variable to 7.
• A Integer variable to hold the position of a correct guess in the word to be guessed.

For today's lab, you should put all code in the button's click event function.

Algorithm for the button's click event function:

   if the length of the guess is not 1 (use the Len function)
      Output error message in a MsgBox
   else
      Get position of guess in word (use InStr function)
      if position = 0 (incorrect guess)
         decrement guesses left
         Output incorrect guess to label (use &= so you don't lose previous wrong guesses)
      else
         update guessed word variable (use Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left and .Mid functions) (see below)
         Output new guessed word to label
      end if
   end if
   if guessed word equals word to be guessed
      Output Player Wins
   else if guesses left = 0
      Output Player Loses
   end if

Updating guessed word variable:

To add the guess to the guessed word variable on a correct guess you will need to concatenate 3 strings to together.

The 3 strings:

1. The portion of the guessed word to the left of the guess position.
2. The guessed letter.
3. The portion of the guessed word to the right of the guess position.

For example:

• The word is "vader"
• The current guessed word is "---e-"
• The current guess is "d"
• So, the position is 3.
• You must concatenate the following 3 strings to get the new guessed word
  1. "--" (use Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left)
  2. "d" (this is the guess)
  3. "e-" (use Microsoft.VisualBasic.Mid)

Bonus: Up to 30% possible (10% for each item)

• (10%)Add a reset button that allows the game to start over without restarting the application. It should reset all appropriate labels, variables, and textbox to their starting values.
• (10%)Allow words with multiples of the same letter. If the word has 2 e's for example, you need to add both e's to the guessed word if the player guesses e. You will need a loop to do this.
• (10%)Add a textbox and button to allow a user to input the word to be guessed. Because the word can be any size, you now have to initialize the guessed word to the correct number of "-"'s.

These bonus items will be part of the final program turned in as Programming Assignment 3, so you will also have less to do for that if you complete one or more of these.