Tic Tac Toe

Learn creating a Tic Tac Toe game using Windows App SDK with this Tutorial

Tic Tac Toe shows how you can create the game also known as Noughts and Crosses displayed with emoji and with a toolkit from NuGet using the Windows App SDK.

Step 1

Follow Setup and Start on how to get Setup and Install what you need for Visual Studio 2022 and Windows App SDK.

In Windows 11 choose Start and then find or search for Visual Studio 2022 and then select it.

Once Visual Studio 2022 has started select Create a new project.

Then choose the Blank App, Packages (WinUI in Desktop) and then select Next.

After that in Configure your new project type in the Project name as TicTacToe, then select a Location and then select Create to start a new Solution.

Step 2

Then in Visual Studio within Solution Explorer for the Solution, right click on the Project shown below the Solution and then select Manage NuGet Packages...

Manage NuGet Packages

Step 3

Then in the NuGet Package Manager from the Browse tab search for Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk and then select Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk by Comentsys as indicated and select Install

NuGet Package Manager Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk

This will add the package for Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk to your Project. If you get the Preview Changes screen saying Visual Studio is about to make changes to this solution. Click OK to proceed with the changes listed below. You can read the message and then select OK to Install the package.

Step 4

Then while still in the NuGet Package Manager from the Browse tab search for Comentsys.Assets.FluentEmoji and then select Comentsys.Assets.FluentEmoji by Comentsys as indicated and select Install

This will add the package for Comentsys.Assets.FluentEmoji to your Project. If you get the Preview Changes screen saying Visual Studio is about to make changes to this solution. Click OK to proceed with the changes listed below. You can read the message and then select OK to Install the package, then you can close the tab for Nuget: TicTacToe by selecting the x next to it.

Step 5

Then in Visual Studio within Solution Explorer for the Solution, right click on the Project shown below the Solution and then select Add then New Item…

Add New Item

Step 6

Then in Add New Item from the C# Items list, select Code and then select Code File from the list next to this, then type in the name of Library.cs and then Click on Add.

Add New Code File

Step 7

You will now be in the View for the Code of Library.cs, within this type the following Code:


using Comentsys.Assets.FluentEmoji;
using Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk;
using Microsoft.UI.Xaml;
using Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Controls;
using Windows.UI;

public class Library
{
    private const string title = "Tic Tac Toe";
    private const string blank = " ";
    private const string nought = "O";
    private const string cross = "X";
    private const int size = 3;
    private readonly string[,] _board = new string[size, size];
    private readonly Color _red = Color.FromArgb(255, 249, 47, 96);
    private readonly Color _blue = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 166, 237);
    private Dialog _dialog;
    private bool _won = false;
    private string _piece = string.Empty;

    // Winner & Drawn

    // Asset

    // Add

    // Layout & New
}

The Class that has been defined in so far Library.cs has using for the packages that were added of Comentsys.Assets.FluentEmoji and Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk amongst others needed. There are also some const and readonly values for parts of the game and to represent the board and some colours. Then there are some Variables including another control of Dialog which can be used to show messages.

Step 8

Still in the Class for Library.cs after the Comment of // Winner & Drawn type the following Methods:


private bool Winner() =>
(_board[0, 0] == _piece && _board[0, 1] ==
_piece && _board[0, 2] == _piece) ||
(_board[1, 0] == _piece && _board[1, 1] ==
_piece && _board[1, 2] == _piece) ||
(_board[2, 0] == _piece && _board[2, 1] ==
_piece && _board[2, 2] == _piece) ||
(_board[0, 0] == _piece && _board[1, 0] ==
_piece && _board[2, 0] == _piece) ||
(_board[0, 1] == _piece && _board[1, 1] ==
_piece && _board[2, 1] == _piece) ||
(_board[0, 2] == _piece && _board[1, 2] ==
_piece && _board[2, 2] == _piece) ||
(_board[0, 0] == _piece && _board[1, 1] ==
_piece && _board[2, 2] == _piece) ||
(_board[0, 2] == _piece && _board[1, 1] ==
_piece && _board[2, 0] == _piece);

private bool Drawn() =>
_board[0, 0] != blank && _board[0, 1] !=
blank && _board[0, 2] != blank &&
_board[1, 0] != blank && _board[1, 1] !=
blank && _board[1, 2] != blank &&
_board[2, 0] != blank && _board[2, 1] !=
blank && _board[2, 2] != blank;

Winner will work out the winning positions the _piece is in and will be true if the positions result in a complete set of either noughts or crosses or false and Drawn will be used to check if the game is a draw.

Step 9

While still in the Class for Library.cs after the Comment of // Asset type in the following Method:


private Viewbox Asset() => new()
{
    Child = new Asset
    {
        AssetResource = 
        _piece switch
        {
            nought => FlatFluentEmoji.Get(
                FluentEmojiType.HollowRedCircle, 
                _red.AsDrawingColor(), 
                _blue.AsDrawingColor()),
            _ => FlatFluentEmoji.Get(
                FluentEmojiType.CrossMark)
        }
    }
};

Step 10

While still in the Class for Library.cs after the Comment of // Add type the following Method:


private void Add(Grid grid, int row, int column)
{
    Button button = new()
    {
        Width = 75,
        Height = 75,
        Margin = new Thickness(10)
    };
    button.Click += (object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) =>
    {
        if (!_won)
        {
            button = (Button)sender;
            if (button.Content == null)
            {
                button.Content = Asset();
                _board[(int)button.GetValue(Grid.RowProperty),
                (int)button.GetValue(Grid.ColumnProperty)] = _piece;
            }
            if (Winner())
            {
                _won = true;
                _dialog.Show($"{_piece} wins!");
            }
            else if (Drawn())
            {
                _dialog.Show("Draw!");
            }
            else
            {
                // Swap Players
                _piece = _piece == cross ? nought : cross;
            }
        }
        else
        {
            _dialog.Show("Game Over!");
        }
    };
    button.SetValue(Grid.ColumnProperty, column);
    button.SetValue(Grid.RowProperty, row);
    grid.Children.Add(button);
}

Add will be used to create a Button which will have Event Handler of Click set which will use Asset to set the Content to the nought with Hollow Red Circle which has been modified to be blue instead of red or the Red Cross Mark for cross. This Method will also check if the game has been won with Winner or Drawn and will display a message if the game is over.

Step 11

While still in the Class for Library.cs after the Comment of // Layout & New type the following Methods:


private void Layout(Grid grid)
{
    grid.Children.Clear();
    grid.RowDefinitions.Clear();
    grid.ColumnDefinitions.Clear();
    // Setup Grid
    for (int index = 0; index < size; index++)
    {
        grid.RowDefinitions.Add(new RowDefinition());
        grid.ColumnDefinitions.Add(new ColumnDefinition());
    }
    // Setup Board
    for (int row = 0; row < size; row++)
    {
        for (int column = 0; column < size; column++)
        {
            Add(grid, row, column);
            _board[row, column] = blank;
        }
    }
}

public async void New(Grid grid)
{
    _won = false;
    _dialog = new Dialog(grid.XamlRoot, title);
    _piece = await _dialog.ConfirmAsync("Who goes First?", nought, cross) ?
        nought : cross;
    Layout(grid);
}

Layout will be used with Add to setup what the game will look like and New will start a game, it will setup the Dialog and will show a message to choose which player should go first and then uses Layout.

Step 12

Within Solution Explorer for the Solution double-click on MainWindow.xaml to see the XAML for the Main Window.

Step 13

In the XAML for MainWindow.xaml there will be some XAML for a StackPanel, this should be Removed:


<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" 
HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center">
    <Button x:Name="myButton" Click="myButton_Click">Click Me</Button>
</StackPanel>

Step 14

While still in the XAML for MainWindow.xaml above </Window>, type in the following XAML:


<Grid>
    <Viewbox>
        <Grid Margin="50" Name="Display" 
        HorizontalAlignment="Center" 
        VerticalAlignment="Center" Loaded="New"/>
    </Viewbox>
    <CommandBar VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
        <AppBarButton Icon="Page2" Label="New" Click="New"/>
    </CommandBar>
</Grid>

This XAML contains a Grid with a Viewbox which will Scale a Grid. It has a Loaded event handler for New which is also shared by the AppBarButton.

Step 15

Within Solution Explorer for the Solution select the arrow next to MainWindow.xaml then double-click on MainWindow.xaml.cs to see the Code for the Main Window.

Step 16

In the Code for MainWindow.xaml.cs there be a Method of myButton_Click(...) this should be Removed by removing the following:


private void myButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    myButton.Content = "Clicked";
}

Step 17

Once myButton_Click(...) has been removed, within the Constructor of public MainWindow() { ... } and below the line of this.InitializeComponent(); type in the following Code:


private readonly Library _library = new();

private void New(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) =>
    _library.New(Display);

Here an Instance of Library is created then below this is the Method of New that will be used with Event Handler from the XAML, this Method uses Arrow Syntax with the => for an expression body which is useful when a Method only has one line.

Step 18

That completes the Windows App SDK application. In Visual Studio 2022 from the Toolbar select TicTacToe (Package) to Start the application.

Step 19

Once running you should see a Message asking Who goes First? You can then choose X or O then Click on any Button to take your turn in the game, with three noughts or crosses in any horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction to win the game! You can restart the game by selecting New.

Tic Tac Toe Running and Output

Step 20

To Exit the Windows App SDK application, select the Close button from the top right of the application as that concludes this Tutorial for Windows App SDK from tutorialr.com!

Tic Tac Toe PDF