🧩 How I Built a Maze Game with PyGame (Using Amazon Q)

Divakar Singh — Sun, 25 May 2025 13:48:03 +0000

Hey Devs! 👋

I recently built a maze game using PyGame—and the coolest part? I used Amazon Q to kickstart the project. The result: a fun, theme-customizable, AI-driven race through dynamic mazes. 🏁

In this post, I’ll walk you through how the game works, what tech powers it, and how you can build or customize your own.

🎮 What Is Maze Runner?

Maze Runner is a simple but engaging game where:

You race through a randomly generated maze.
You can choose a visual theme (like neon, classic, or retro).
You can pick your difficulty level.
And you compete against an AI bot that finds its way through the maze using pathfinding algorithms.

The player and the bot start at the same point—and it’s a race to the goal!

⚙️ Technologies Used

Here's the stack behind the magic:

🐍 Python 3 – The main language.
🕹 PyGame – To build the graphical game interface.
🧠 Pathfinding Algorithms – The AI uses BFS, DFS, or A* to navigate.
🤖 Amazon Q – I used this new tool to generate code templates and logic, which really accelerated development.

💡 Why Amazon Q?

Amazon Q is an AI coding assistant from AWS. It helped me quickly scaffold the game logic and handle routine tasks like:

Setting up the game loop
Structuring the file layout
Initializing the PyGame window
Even writing parts of the AI logic! It’s like having a second pair of (super-fast) hands writing Python alongside you.

🧠 The AI Bot

The bot was one of the most exciting features to build. Using classic algorithms like Breadth-First Search (BFS) or A*, the bot computes the shortest path to the goal.

Want a real challenge? Try beating the bot on hard difficulty—it’s fast!

🖼 Themes and Difficulty

The game supports different themes like:

🟩 Classic – Simple and clean, with a traditional green maze layout.
🌈 Neon – Vibrant and glowing, perfect for a retro arcade vibe.
🌲 Forest – Earthy tones with a natural, wooded atmosphere.
🌌 Midnight – Dark mode with starry or mysterious undertones. Maze complexity scales with the difficulty level (grid size, number of dead ends, etc.).

▶️ Try It Yourself

To run the game locally:

git clone https://github.com/divakar166/maze-game-q-cli.git
cd maze-game-q-cli
pip install -r requirements.txt
python maze_game.py

Pick your settings and race against the AI!

🔮 What’s Next?

Some ideas I’m planning to add:

Sound effects and background music
Score tracking and leaderboards
More advanced AI with multiple strategies
Multiplayer mode (Player vs Player)

👋 Wrapping Up

Building this game was a fun way to sharpen my PyGame and AI skills. Using Amazon Q made the process faster and more structured—I highly recommend trying it out for your next side project.
If you want to test your maze-solving skills or explore the code, check out the GitHub repo.
Feel free to drop feedback, feature requests, or even submit PRs. Let’s build cool stuff together!

Forem: Divakar Singh