Project Options 
Week 010
Introduction 
Please find below several options for your first week project. I will ask you to complete 
at least one of these projects to share with the rest of the class at the beginning of our 
next week. You may work with other students on this project: please let me know who 
you are working with via email as soon as you can. 
 
I will provide ideas to improve your project tomorrow or upon receipt of the completed 
thing. Let me know if you have any questions and as soon as you finish writing code! 
 
 
 

List of Projects 
1. Really Inefficient Calculator 
2. Guess the Number Game 
3. Caesar Cipher 
4. Rock, Paper, Scissors 
5. Text-Based Adventure 
   
Really Inefficient Calculator 
You can already treat the Python Compiler like a calculator. But, this project will make a 
much more inefficient and ugly calculator. It’s not practical, but it will help you work on 
your understanding of functions. It’s probably the easiest of the main quests I offer! 
 

Goal 
The purpose of this project is to create an application using Python that asks a user 
what mathematical function they want to use (addition, subtraction, etc…), asks them 
for two numbers, then performs that mathematical calculation on the two numbers. 
That’s it! 
 

Desired Output Example 

   
Guess the Number Game 
This is the first project I ever completed! I wrote this code on a TI-83 calculator. You will 
build a game using Python that generates a random number and asks the user to guess 
the value of the number.  

Goal 
Generate a random number between 1 and 100. Ask the user for input, determine if the 
guess is too low, too high, or correct, and let the user know if they are too low, too high, 
or correct! When the user guesses the correct number, tell them how many attempts 
they took.  

Desired Output Example 

   
Caesar Cipher 
One of the most well-known encryption algorithms is the “Caesar Cipher.” It takes the 
input text and changes every letter by a certain amount. If the “key” value is 2, for 
instance, then A would become C, B would become D, C would become E, and so on. 
You can read more about it here: ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher 

Goal 
Your code will do two things: encode text using a Caesar cipher of “key” value 3 and 
decode text using key value 3. You will likely need to use the functions “ord()” and 
“chr()” to tackle this: 

Desired Output Example 

I’ll update this later!   
Rock, Paper, Scissors 
Create a Python app that plays rock, paper, scissors with the user! 
 

Goal 
The program should randomly generate its response every time and ask the user for 
input. Then, the program will announce whether the computer or the player wins. To win: 
best 3 out of 5 rounds! 

Desired Output Example 

 
Text-Based Adventure 
Some of the first widely-distributed PC games had no graphics: they were just 
text-based adventures! Like reading a book, the user would be presented with a story 
and asked to choose between a few options every time they encountered a new 
scenario. See more here: ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_game 

Goal 
This project can get a little boring: there’s a lot of the same stuff over and over, so make 
sure your story is worth it! Don’t provide too many options up front or it’ll take forever to 
code and keep up with all the different storylines. Present the user with a story and ask 
them what they want to do! Tell them to press 0 for “attack the ogre” or press 1 to “get 
out of Shrek’s swamp.” It’s up to you! 
 

Desired Output Example 

To be provided later...