PY-L1-46 · Game · Number Guesser — Part 2 (Difficulty Levels)

Game — Number Guesser, Part 2 (Difficulty Levels)

Yesterday a player could guess all day until they got it. Today we add stakes. Pick Easy (1-50, 10 tries), Medium (1-100, 7 tries) or Hard (1-200, 8 tries). When the try-cap is reached, the game ends and the secret is revealed. Real game-design choices — same Python.

⏱ 1 hour🎮 Game lesson📚 After PY-L1-45💻 VS Code or online-python.com

Learning Goals

3 min

By the end of this lesson you can:

Use an if/elif/else on a menu choice to set three constants together (low, high, max_tries).
End the game in two ways from one loop — win (correct guess) and lose (tries used up).
Wrap the difficulty-pick + game loop inside a function so the main program reads like a menu.

Warm-Up

5 min

How many guesses should each difficulty allow? Use the "halving" intuition (binary search). Each guess can rule out half the remaining range, so the number of guesses needed is roughly:

range size   guesses needed
   1-50          ~6
   1-100         ~7
   1-200         ~8

If we give the player exactly the binary-search count, only the most perfect play wins. If we give them generous wiggle room, the game is trivially easy. The choice is a game-design call:

Easy: 1-50, generous 10 tries (4 extra) — beginners.
Medium: 1-100, 7 tries (zero extra) — solid players.
Hard: 1-200, 8 tries (zero extra) — masochists.

Why think about this?

Game tuning is what separates "works" from "fun". The numbers above aren't in Python yet — they're design choices, made on paper, before any code. Build the habit now.

New Concept · Menus and Two-Exit Loops

14 min

One `if`, three constants

level = input("Pick (easy / medium / hard): ").strip().lower()

if level == "easy":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 50, 10
elif level == "medium":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7
elif level == "hard":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 200, 8
else:
    print("Defaulting to medium.")
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7

One menu pick, three values set together. The notation low, high, max_tries = 1, 50, 10 is tuple unpacking — assign three variables in one line. We'll meet it properly in Level 2 (PY-L2-04), but it's natural to use here.

Two-exit loop

The game ends either when the guess is right, or when tries reaches max_tries. Same shape as Hangman's win/lose loop from PY-L1-36:

while tries < max_tries:
    # ...ask for guess, validate...
    tries = tries + 1

    if guess == secret:
        print("Won in", tries, "tries!")
        break
    elif guess < secret:
        print("higher")
    else:
        print("lower")

# after the loop
if tries == max_tries and guess != secret:
    print("Out of tries. The number was", secret)

The while tries < max_tries condition does the "ran out" case automatically. The break inside handles the "won" case. After the loop, one if tells the two endings apart — exactly like Hangman.

Wrap it in a function

The game function takes the level's constants and runs the round. That hides all the messy logic and lets the main program read like a menu:

def play_round(low, high, max_tries):
    # ... random pick, loop, win/lose ...
    return True if won else False

# main
print("Welcome to Number Guesser Deluxe!")
while True:
    level = input("Easy / Medium / Hard / Quit? ").strip().lower()
    if level == "quit":
        break
    low, high, tries = pick_level(level)   # imagined helper
    play_round(low, high, tries)

Today we'll keep the function fairly thin — pass in the constants, run one round, print the result. Tomorrow we'll extract the level-picker too.

Rule of thumb

When several things change together (range size, try cap, difficulty label), set them all in one if branch. Keeps related values in one place — anyone reading the menu sees the whole rule at once.

Worked Example · Number Guesser v2

14 min

The full file

Update guesser.py:

Code

# guesser.py — Number Guesser v2 (difficulty levels)

import random

def pick_difficulty():
    print()
    print("Difficulty:")
    print("  easy   — 1-50, 10 tries")
    print("  medium — 1-100, 7 tries")
    print("  hard   — 1-200, 8 tries")

    while True:
        choice = input("Pick: ").strip().lower()
        if choice == "easy":
            return 1, 50, 10
        elif choice == "medium":
            return 1, 100, 7
        elif choice == "hard":
            return 1, 200, 8
        else:
            print("Type easy, medium, or hard.")


def play_round(low, high, max_tries):
    secret = random.randint(low, high)
    tries = 0
    print()
    print("I picked a number between", low, "and", high, ". You have", max_tries, "tries.")

    while tries < max_tries:
        raw = input("Guess: ").strip()

        if not raw.isdigit():
            print("Whole numbers only.")
            continue
        guess = int(raw)
        if guess < low or guess > high:
            print("Out of range.")
            continue

        tries = tries + 1
        remaining = max_tries - tries

        if guess < secret:
            print("⬆️  Higher.", "Tries left:", remaining)
        elif guess > secret:
            print("⬇️  Lower.", "Tries left:", remaining)
        else:
            print("🎉 Correct! Got it in", tries, "out of", max_tries, "tries.")
            return True

    print()
    print("💀 Out of tries. The number was", secret, ".")
    return False


# main program
print("=" * 40)
print("       Number Guesser — v2")
print("=" * 40)

while True:
    low, high, cap = pick_difficulty()
    won = play_round(low, high, cap)

    again = input("Play again? (y/n) ").strip().lower()
    if again != "y":
        print("Goodbye.")
        break

Sample run · a hard-difficulty win

========================================
       Number Guesser — v2
========================================

Difficulty:
  easy   — 1-50, 10 tries
  medium — 1-100, 7 tries
  hard   — 1-200, 8 tries
Pick: hard

I picked a number between 1 and 200 . You have 8 tries.
Guess: 100
⬆️  Higher. Tries left: 7
Guess: 150
⬇️  Lower. Tries left: 6
Guess: 125
⬆️  Higher. Tries left: 5
Guess: 137
⬇️  Lower. Tries left: 4
Guess: 130
⬆️  Higher. Tries left: 3
Guess: 134
⬇️  Lower. Tries left: 2
Guess: 132
🎉 Correct! Got it in 7 out of 8 tries.
Play again? (y/n) n
Goodbye.

Sample run · running out

Pick: medium
I picked a number between 1 and 100 . You have 7 tries.
Guess: 50
... (random unlucky game) ...
Guess: 41
⬆️  Higher. Tries left: 0

💀 Out of tries. The number was 47 .

Three things to notice

pick_difficulty uses a sub-loop. If the player types something invalid, it keeps re-asking. The function only returns when it has a valid difficulty.
play_round returns True/False. The main program doesn't use the result today, but it sets us up for Part 3 — the win counter and hi-score table will need to know whether the round was a win.
remaining = max_tries - tries is computed every iteration so we can tell the player how much longer they've got. Tiny UX win, two extra lines of code.

Why split into two functions?

One does menu choosing, one does game playing. Tomorrow we'll add a third — save_score. Three small focused functions are easier to reason about than one giant play_game that does everything.

Try It Yourself

13 min

Three tasks. Each adds one piece — menu, max-tries cap, lose-condition.

01 🟢 Just the menu

Add a difficulty prompt to your Part 1 file. Use if/elif/else to set low, high, and max_tries for three levels. Print the three values right after so you can see they were set.

Hint

level = input("easy / medium / hard? ").strip().lower()

if level == "easy":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 50, 10
elif level == "medium":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7
elif level == "hard":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 200, 8
else:
    print("Going with medium.")
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7

print("Settings:", low, high, max_tries)

Type each level once. The print should show 1, 50, 10 then 1, 100, 7 then 1, 200, 8. Confirm before adding the loop.

02 🟡 Enforce the cap

Change your while True loop into while tries < max_tries. Move the win break inside the "correct guess" branch. Don't add a lose-message yet — just verify that the loop ends automatically when the cap is hit.

Hint

tries = 0

while tries < max_tries:
    # validation as before
    tries = tries + 1
    # comparisons as before
    if guess == secret:
        print("Correct in", tries, "!")
        break

Test by picking hard (8 tries) and deliberately guessing wrong each time. After your 8th wrong guess the loop should exit cleanly without crashing. We'll add the lose-message in task 3.

03 🔴 Lose-message after the loop (stretch)

After the while loop, add an if that checks whether the player won. If they didn't, print Out of tries! The number was <secret>.

Hint

# after the while loop
if guess != secret:
    print("Out of tries! The number was", secret)

If you used break inside the correct branch, guess still equals secret when you escaped — so the if is False and the lose message doesn't print. Without break, the loop ends naturally when tries == max_tries and guess is the last (wrong) guess. Either way the check works.

Mini-Challenge · Ali's One-Try Easy Mode

8 min

Ali's game lets you guess only once on every difficulty. Find the bug.

# ali_guesser.py — buggy

import random

level = input("easy / hard? ").strip().lower()
if level == "easy":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 50, 10
elif level == "hard":
    low, high, max_tries = 1, 200, 8

secret = random.randint(low, high)
tries = 1                          # bug

while tries < max_tries:
    guess = int(input("Guess: "))
    if guess == secret:
        print("Win!")
        break
    tries = tries + 1

Bug. tries = 1 instead of tries = 0. The counter starts at 1, so on the first attempt the loop runs but tries jumps to 2, then 3... when the player's on attempt 9 of 10 on easy, tries is already 10 and the loop exits early. Effectively they get fewer tries than promised.
Stretch bug. Same crash risk on bad input as Hana's — int(input(...)) without isdigit.

Show the fix

tries = 0                          # start at zero

while tries < max_tries:
    raw = input("Guess: ").strip()
    if not raw.isdigit():
        print("Numbers only.")
        continue
    guess = int(raw)

    tries = tries + 1
    if guess == secret:
        print("Won in", tries, "tries!")
        break

Counter off-by-one is the most common bug in any cap-based loop. Decide once and for all: tries is "how many valid guesses have happened so far". Before any guess: 0. After the first: 1. The loop condition tries < max_tries then reads as "keep going while we haven't used them all". Easy.

Recap

3 min

Difficulty levels are an if/elif/else on a menu choice that sets three constants together — range low, range high, and max tries. The game becomes a two-exit loop: win on correct (break), lose on tries-cap (loop ends naturally), with one if after the loop to decide which message to print. We wrapped the round in a play_round function and the menu in pick_difficulty, and the main program reads like a menu — pick, play, ask again, repeat. Next lesson — Part 3 — we add a hi-score table that remembers the player's best three runs.

Vocabulary Card

difficulty level: A named bundle of game constants — range and max-tries together. Changing the name changes all three.
tuple unpacking (preview): a, b, c = 1, 2, 3 — assign three variables in one statement. Proper deep-dive in Level 2 (PY-L2-04).
two-exit loop: A loop that ends in one of two ways: condition becomes false, or break fires. After the loop, one if decides which message to print.
play_round: The conventional name for a function that runs exactly one game. Returns whether the round was a win.
game tuning: Choosing constants (range size, try cap, damage range) to make a game feel fun. A design skill, not a coding one.

Homework

4 min

Two upgrades for tonight.

Add a fourth difficulty impossible — 1-500, 9 tries. Play it once. (You should usually lose. That's the point.)
Refactor your level-picker to return a list instead of three values: return [low, high, max_tries]. Then unpack in the main program: settings = pick_difficulty(); low, high, cap = settings[0], settings[1], settings[2]. (Tuple unpacking in Level 2 will let you skip the index dance.)
Bonus: have play_round also return tries so the main program can announce the score: print("That took you", tries, "guesses."). Hint: return True, tries returns two values; capture as won, used = play_round(...).

Bring guesser.py next class. PY-L1-47 adds the hi-score table — your wins get saved, and we print a leaderboard.

Sample · guesser.py with fourth level & two-value return

# guesser.py — v2.1

def pick_difficulty():
    print("\nDifficulty: easy / medium / hard / impossible")
    while True:
        c = input("Pick: ").strip().lower()
        if c == "easy":       return [1, 50, 10]
        if c == "medium":     return [1, 100, 7]
        if c == "hard":       return [1, 200, 8]
        if c == "impossible": return [1, 500, 9]
        print("Try easy / medium / hard / impossible.")

def play_round(low, high, cap):
    secret = random.randint(low, high)
    tries = 0
    while tries < cap:
        raw = input("Guess: ").strip()
        if not raw.isdigit(): continue
        guess = int(raw)
        if guess < low or guess > high: continue
        tries = tries + 1
        if guess == secret:
            print("Won in", tries, "!")
            return True, tries
        elif guess < secret:
            print("higher")
        else:
            print("lower")
    print("Out of tries. Secret was", secret)
    return False, tries

# main
import random
while True:
    s = pick_difficulty()
    low, high, cap = s[0], s[1], s[2]
    won, used = play_round(low, high, cap)
    if won:
        print("That took you", used, "guesses.")
    if input("Again? ").strip().lower() != "y":
        break

Two ideas worth pinning down. (1) return True, tries returns two values at once — Python wraps them in a tuple and lets you unpack with won, used = .... The capstone uses this pattern a lot. (2) Indexing the returned list as s[0], s[1], s[2] works, but feels clunky — that's exactly the problem tuple unpacking in PY-L2-04 solves elegantly.

Game — Number Guesser, Part 2 (Difficulty Levels)

⏱ 1 hour🎮 Game lesson📚 After PY-L1-45💻 VS Code or online-python.com

level = input("Pick (easy / medium / hard): ").strip().lower() if level == "easy": low, high, max_tries = 1, 50, 10 elif level == "medium": low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7 elif level == "hard": low, high, max_tries = 1, 200, 8 else: print("Defaulting to medium.") low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7

while tries < max_tries: # ...ask for guess, validate... tries = tries + 1 if guess == secret: print("Won in", tries, "tries!") break elif guess < secret: print("higher") else: print("lower") # after the loop if tries == max_tries and guess != secret: print("Out of tries. The number was", secret)

def play_round(low, high, max_tries): # ... random pick, loop, win/lose ... return True if won else False # main print("Welcome to Number Guesser Deluxe!") while True: level = input("Easy / Medium / Hard / Quit? ").strip().lower() if level == "quit": break low, high, tries = pick_level(level) # imagined helper play_round(low, high, tries)

# guesser.py — Number Guesser v2 (difficulty levels) import random def pick_difficulty(): print() print("Difficulty:") print(" easy — 1-50, 10 tries") print(" medium — 1-100, 7 tries") print(" hard — 1-200, 8 tries") while True: choice = input("Pick: ").strip().lower() if choice == "easy": return 1, 50, 10 elif choice == "medium": return 1, 100, 7 elif choice == "hard": return 1, 200, 8 else: print("Type easy, medium, or hard.") def play_round(low, high, max_tries): secret = random.randint(low, high) tries = 0 print() print("I picked a number between", low, "and", high, ". You have", max_tries, "tries.") while tries < max_tries: raw = input("Guess: ").strip() if not raw.isdigit(): print("Whole numbers only.") continue guess = int(raw) if guess < low or guess > high: print("Out of range.") continue tries = tries + 1 remaining = max_tries - tries if guess < secret: print("⬆️ Higher.", "Tries left:", remaining) elif guess > secret: print("⬇️ Lower.", "Tries left:", remaining) else: print("🎉 Correct! Got it in", tries, "out of", max_tries, "tries.") return True print() print("💀 Out of tries. The number was", secret, ".") return False # main program print("=" * 40) print(" Number Guesser — v2") print("=" * 40) while True: low, high, cap = pick_difficulty() won = play_round(low, high, cap) again = input("Play again? (y/n) ").strip().lower() if again != "y": print("Goodbye.") break

======================================== Number Guesser — v2 ======================================== Difficulty: easy — 1-50, 10 tries medium — 1-100, 7 tries hard — 1-200, 8 tries Pick: hard I picked a number between 1 and 200 . You have 8 tries. Guess: 100 ⬆️ Higher. Tries left: 7 Guess: 150 ⬇️ Lower. Tries left: 6 Guess: 125 ⬆️ Higher. Tries left: 5 Guess: 137 ⬇️ Lower. Tries left: 4 Guess: 130 ⬆️ Higher. Tries left: 3 Guess: 134 ⬇️ Lower. Tries left: 2 Guess: 132 🎉 Correct! Got it in 7 out of 8 tries. Play again? (y/n) n Goodbye.

level = input("easy / medium / hard? ").strip().lower() if level == "easy": low, high, max_tries = 1, 50, 10 elif level == "medium": low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7 elif level == "hard": low, high, max_tries = 1, 200, 8 else: print("Going with medium.") low, high, max_tries = 1, 100, 7 print("Settings:", low, high, max_tries)

# ali_guesser.py — buggy import random level = input("easy / hard? ").strip().lower() if level == "easy": low, high, max_tries = 1, 50, 10 elif level == "hard": low, high, max_tries = 1, 200, 8 secret = random.randint(low, high) tries = 1 # bug while tries < max_tries: guess = int(input("Guess: ")) if guess == secret: print("Win!") break tries = tries + 1

tries = 0 # start at zero while tries < max_tries: raw = input("Guess: ").strip() if not raw.isdigit(): print("Numbers only.") continue guess = int(raw) tries = tries + 1 if guess == secret: print("Won in", tries, "tries!") break

Learning Goals

Warm-Up

New Concept · Menus and Two-Exit Loops

One if, three constants

Two-exit loop

Wrap it in a function

Worked Example · Number Guesser v2

The full file

Sample run · a hard-difficulty win

Sample run · running out

Three things to notice

Try It Yourself

Mini-Challenge · Ali's One-Try Easy Mode

Recap

Vocabulary Card

Homework

Sample · guesser.py with fourth level & two-value return

Learning Goals

Warm-Up

New Concept · Menus and Two-Exit Loops

One if, three constants

Two-exit loop

Wrap it in a function

Worked Example · Number Guesser v2

The full file

Sample run · a hard-difficulty win

Sample run · running out

Three things to notice

Try It Yourself

Mini-Challenge · Ali's One-Try Easy Mode

Recap

Vocabulary Card

Homework

Sample · guesser.py with fourth level & two-value return

One `if`, three constants

One `if`, three constants