🎮 Hangman Game Backend

📖 Introduction

This repository contains the backend code for a Hangman game - a classic word guessing game. The application provides APIs to create game sessions, track player progress, and handle game logic for the Hangman experience.

✨ Key Features

• 🎲 Game session management (create and play sessions)
• 🔤 Random word selection from a database
• ✅ Letter guessing validation
• 📊 Game state tracking (lives, guessed letters, masked word)
• 🏁 Game completion detection (win or lose)
• 📈 Player progress tracking

💻 Technical Stack

• 📦 Node.js
• 🚂 Express.js
• 🗃️ Sequelize ORM
• 🗄️ SQLite database
• 🔌 CORS support for frontend integration

🧩 Project Structure

• app.js - Main application entry point
• models/ - Database models for Word and GameSession
• routes/ - API endpoints for game sessions
• services/ - Business logic for game sessions
• serializers/ - Data transformation for API responses

🔌 API Endpoints

Create a new game session

• POST /api/sessions
• Request body: { "name": "player_name" }
• Creates a new game session with a randomly selected word

Play a letter in a game session

• POST /api/sessions/:id/play
• Request body: { "letter": "a" }
• Adds a guessed letter to the session and updates game state

🎯 Game Logic

The game implements the classic Hangman rules:

• 💖 Player gets 6 lives (attempts) to guess the word
• ❌ Each incorrect guess reduces the remaining lives
• ✅ Correct guesses reveal the corresponding letters in the word
• 🎬 Game ends when either:
  1. 🏆 Player correctly guesses all letters (win)
  2. 💀 Player runs out of lives (lose)

📚 Data Models

Word

• 📝 title - The word to be guessed

GameSession

• 👤 playerName - Name of the player
• 🔤 playedLetters - Letters that have been guessed
• 🕒 startedAt - When the game session started
• 🏁 finishedAt - When the game ended (null if still in progress)
• 🔗 Associated with a Word to be guessed

🔧 Setup and Installation

1. 📥 Clone the repository
2. 📦 Install dependencies: npm install
3. 🚀 Start the server: node app.js
4. 🌐 The server will run at http://localhost:3000

🚀 Future Enhancements

• 🔐 User authentication and profiles
• 🏆 Score tracking and leaderboards
• 🌡️ Multiple difficulty levels
• 🗂️ Categories for words
• ⏱️ Time-based challenges
• 👥 Multiplayer support