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Build 2048 in the Age of AI

Ship It to the Browser: 2048 as a Web App

Explore how to convert your Python 2048 game engine into a browser-based web app by translating core game functions into JavaScript. Learn to implement game logic, handle user input, render the board, and manage game states. Understand the AI-assisted workflow that helps scaffold the frontend code while preserving your engine architecture. By the end, you'll have a playable web version of 2048 and insights into modular design and web development integration.

We'll cover the following...

By the end of this lesson, you will:

  • Treat your Python 2048 code as a game engine spec.

  • Use a carefully-designed AI prompt to translate the logic into vanilla JavaScript.

  • Build a single-file HTML web app that:

    • Implements the same 4×4 board logic,

    • Maps W/A/S/D and the arrow keys to moves,

    • Looks and feels like the classic 2048 game.

  • Run and tweak your game in the browser using a sandpack HTML/JS environment.

  • Reflect on what you handed to AI (architecture, contracts) vs. what AI handled (boilerplate, DOM, CSS).

Step 0: Your starter code

From the previous lesson, you now have a clean, modular Python engine:

  • Board: 4×4 list of lists of ints, 0 means empty.

  • Core functions:

    • create_initial_board()

    • add_random_tile(board)

    • move_board(board, direction) → (new_board, gained_score, moved)

    • check_game_state(board, target) → 'ongoing' | 'won' | 'lost'

  • Helpers:

    • compress_row, merge_row, move_left, transpose, reverse_rows

  • Constants:

    • TARGET_TILE = 2048

    • KEY_TO_DIRECTION = {"w": "up", "a": ... ...