Blackjack

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Inspiration

Being college students during this pandemic, we often find ourselves feeling bored and isolated in our dorm rooms due to the restrictions on activities and things to do. So we thought to build some sort of a game that individuals can play on their own to help with this problem. After careful thought, we decided blackjack would be a game that meets the needs we had set out and one which we have the ability to create in the given time period.

What it does

Our blackjack application provides the user with an intuitive interface allowing them to play multiple games of blackjack until they no longer have any money they can bet. First, the user can view the amount of money they have in the bank and place bets against the CPU dealer. Once the betting stage is complete, the user can choose to start the game in which the interface shows the cards that both the user and dealer draw. Based on the values of those cards, the user is given a choice to either hit or stand. In the event that an ace is drawn, our program calculates whether the value of the ace should be 1 or 11 based on the players hand. The round ends when either the player or dealer reach 21, tie, or go over 21.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenges we encountered included figuring out how to associate each card in a card deck with the corresponding card image. We had a collection of images for every possible card denomination and suit, but we had to figure out a way to link the image with the corresponding card in the card class. Additionally, we faced some issues regarding the logic of the blackjack game itself. A few edge cases would produce unexpected results and this would lead to confusion for the user if left unfixed. We spent a great deal of time debugging and testing our application using various test cases and situations.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are extremely proud of being able to finish our project and have it be bug free and ready for any users to enjoy.

What we learned

In addition to learning about how team collaboration works with software projects and how to create a GUI with Java Swing, we learned that due to challenges and setbacks, things are never as easy as what we expect when we started. However, we also learned that the satisfaction gained by persevering through those challenges and making it to the finish line is worth the effort the challenges required of us.

What's next for Blackjack

As a team we plan to learn more about Android development and we hope to be able to convert our application into an android app alongside adding new features and improvements.

Built With

• java
• swing