Object-Oriented Black Jack in VB.net

Question

Alright, so I want to improve my programming and object orientation skills. I want to program a fully object oriented blackjack game in VB.net under Visual Studio 2008. The first thing I did was learn all the rules of BlackJack.

I've been brainstorming about it. What (I think) I need is a Card class that has a number value and its representation (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K A) and a sign (hearts, diamonds, etc.).

I think I'd a method outside the class that creates a deck of 52 different cards, and a method to deal them and shuffle them.

I'm not sure whether or not I should make a class for the AI that plays as the house.

What suggestions do you have?

Answer 1

Build a UML diagram, abstract as much as possible and plan, plan, plan!

Visual Paradigm has a version that's free for students use (Community Edition I believe) and it's a great tool to plan your classes, properties and methods out.

Yes, I would build some type of class to encapsulate the AI logic that's separate from the game logic. When you build your AI, make sure you plan out your game's winning conditions in a simple manner.