Last Pencil Game

Welcome to the Last Pencil game! This is a simple text-based game where a player and a bot take turns removing pencils from a pile. The goal is to avoid being the one to take the last pencil.

How to Play

1. Run the game.py script to start the game.
2. Enter the number of pencils you want to use for the game.
3. Choose who goes first: the player or the bot.
4. Take turns with the bot to remove 1 to 3 pencils from the pile.
5. The one who takes the last pencil loses the game.

Bot Strategy

The bot has two strategies based on its position:

• In a losing position the bot either takes a random number of pencils or the last pencil.
• In a winning position (e.g., when there are 4, 8, 12... or 3, 7, 11... pencils left), the bot aims to force the opponent into a losing position.

Installation

1. Clone this repository to your local machine.
2. Ensure you have Python installed (the game was written in Python 3.11.4).
3. Run the game by executing python game.py in your terminal or your IDE of choice.

Example Gameplay

How many pencils would you like to use:
0
The number of pencils should be positive.
How many pencils would you like to use:
five
The number of pencils should be an integer.
How many pencils would you like to use:
5
Who will be the first (John, Bender):
Mary
Choose between John and Bender.
Who will be the first (John, Bender):
john
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John's turn:
6
Possible values: '1', '2' or '3'.
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John's turn:
1
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Bender's turn:
3
|
John's turn:
0
Possible values: '1', '2' or '3'.
|
John's turn:
1
Bender won!