so_long

A small 2D tile-based game written in C from scratch, using the minimal graphics library MiniLibX. Built at 42 Berlin as part of the Common Core.

You play a character who must collect every collectible on the map and reach the exit, in as few moves as possible.

What it does

• Parses and validates a map from a .ber file: the map must be rectangular, fully enclosed by walls, and contain exactly one player, one exit, and at least one collectible
• Verifies the map is actually solvable with a flood-fill pathfinding check before the game starts
• Renders the world with textured sprites; smooth window management (no flicker on minimize/focus)
• Movement with W/A/S/D, move counter printed to the shell on every step
• Clean exit on ESC or window close, with all allocated memory freed
• Handles every invalid input with an explicit Error message instead of crashing

Bonus

• Enemy patrols that end the game on contact
• Sprite animation
• On-screen move counter rendered in the window

What it demonstrates

Manual memory management, file parsing and defensive input validation, a basic game loop, event-driven programming through X11/MiniLibX hooks, and a recursive flood-fill algorithm — all in raw C, no external libraries beyond MiniLibX.

Build & run

make
./so_long maps/[mapname].ber

Constraints (42 rules)

Written under the 42 "Norm": functions max 25 lines, no global variables, only open/close/read/write/malloc/free/perror/strerror/exit plus MiniLibX and the math library. Zero memory leaks (checked with valgrind) and zero crashes on any input, verified in peer-review defense.