How to Read This Guide

This guide uses color-coded boxes to help you know what you’re looking at:

What You Need Before Starting

• A Raspberry Pi that is turned on, connected to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and the internet (Wi-Fi).
• Thonny — the program where you write your code. It’s already installed on every Raspberry Pi. Look for a blue and white icon on the desktop or in the menu under Programming.
• An API key — a special password that lets your program talk to ChatGPT. You’ll copy and paste it from www.sekol.ninja.

First, we need to install a small piece of software that lets Python talk to ChatGPT. To do this, we’ll use the terminal — the black window where you type commands directly to the computer.

Click the black rectangle icon in the top taskbar of your Raspberry Pi. A black window with a blinking cursor should open.

Type the following command into the terminal and press Enter:

Wait for it to finish. You’ll see some text scroll by as it downloads and installs. When you see the blinking cursor again, it’s done.

Now close the terminal (type exit or click the X). Open Thonny by clicking its icon (blue and white logo) on the desktop, or find it in the Raspberry Pi menu under Programming → Thonny.

When Thonny opens, you’ll see two sections:

• Top section — this is where you write your code (the “editor”)
• Bottom section — this is where your program’s output appears (the “shell”)

Click File → Save As. Name your file adventure.py and save it to the Desktop.

Now we start writing code! In the top section of Thonny (the editor), type the following:

# ============================================
# CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
# Powered by AI (ChatGPT)
# ============================================

# Import the library we need
from openai import OpenAI

Press Enter twice after the last line (to leave a blank line), then type:

# Set up the connection to ChatGPT
# Get your API key from www.sekol.ninja
client = OpenAI(api_key="paste-your-api-key-here")

This is the fun part! We’re going to tell ChatGPT what kind of storyteller it should be. Add this code below what you already have:

# Tell the AI what kind of stories to create
system_message = {
    "role": "system",
    "content": """You are an adventure story master for kids.
You create exciting choose-your-own-adventure stories.

RULES:
- Keep the story fun, exciting, and kid-friendly.
- Each response should be 2-3 short paragraphs.
- Always end with exactly 3 numbered choices for what to do next.
- Use vivid descriptions to make the story come alive.
- The story should have a sci-fi space adventure theme.
- Never include anything scary, violent, or inappropriate."""
}

Add this line below the system message:

# Create a list to keep track of the conversation
conversation = [system_message]

Add a welcome screen that the player sees when they start:

# Print the welcome screen
print("=" * 50)
print("  CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE")
print("  Powered by AI")
print("=" * 50)
print()

# Ask the player for their name
player_name = input("Enter your character's name: ")
print()
print("Welcome, " + player_name + "! Your adventure begins...")
print()

# Create the first message to start the story
first_message = {
    "role": "user",
    "content": "Start a new adventure story. My character's name is " + player_name + ". Begin the story!"
}
conversation.append(first_message)

This is the biggest section — the engine that makes the whole game run. It’s a loop that keeps going: send a message to ChatGPT → show the story → ask the player → repeat.

⚠️ Indentation (the spaces at the beginning of lines) is very important in Python. Everything inside the loop must be indented with 4 spaces. Thonny should add the spaces automatically when you press Enter after a line ending with :

# The game loop
while True:
    # Send the conversation to ChatGPT
    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o-mini",
        messages=conversation
    )

    # Get the AI's story text
    story_text = response.choices[0].message.content

    # Save the response to conversation history
    conversation.append({
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": story_text
    })

    # Display the story
    print(story_text)
    print()

    # Ask what the player wants to do
    choice = input("What do you choose? (1, 2, 3, or 'quit'): ")

    # If they type quit, end the game
    if choice.lower() == "quit":
        print()
        print("Thanks for playing, " + player_name + "!")
        print("May the Code be with you!")
        break

    # Send the player's choice to the AI
    conversation.append({
        "role": "user",
        "content": "I choose option " + choice
    })

    print()
    print("Generating next chapter...")
    print()

You’re done writing code! Time to test it.

1. Press Ctrl + S to save your file.
2. Press the green Run ▶ button at the top of Thonny (or press F5).
3. Look at the bottom section of Thonny (the shell). You should see:

==================================================
  CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
  Powered by AI
==================================================

Enter your character's name: 

4. Type a character name and press Enter. Wait a few seconds while ChatGPT generates the first chapter.
5. Read the story! At the end, you’ll see 3 choices. Type 1, 2, or 3 and press Enter.
6. When you’re done playing, type quit to end.

Troubleshooting

If something goes wrong, check here first:

Make It Your Own!

companion = input("Name your sidekick: ")
superpower = input("What is your superpower? ")

Complete Code (All Together)

Here is the entire program in one place. If you got lost during the steps, use this as a reference. Remember to replace paste-your-api-key-here with your real API key from www.sekol.ninja.

# ============================================
# CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
# Powered by AI (ChatGPT)
# ============================================

# Import the library we need
from openai import OpenAI

# Set up the connection to ChatGPT
# Get your API key from www.sekol.ninja
client = OpenAI(api_key="paste-your-api-key-here")

# Tell the AI what kind of stories to create
system_message = {
    "role": "system",
    "content": """You are an adventure story master for kids.
You create exciting choose-your-own-adventure stories.

RULES:
- Keep the story fun, exciting, and kid-friendly.
- Each response should be 2-3 short paragraphs.
- Always end with exactly 3 numbered choices for what to do next.
- Use vivid descriptions to make the story come alive.
- The story should have a sci-fi space adventure theme.
- Never include anything scary, violent, or inappropriate."""
}

# Create a list to keep track of the conversation
conversation = [system_message]

# Print the welcome screen
print("=" * 50)
print("  CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE")
print("  Powered by AI")
print("=" * 50)
print()

# Ask the player for their name
player_name = input("Enter your character's name: ")
print()
print("Welcome, " + player_name + "! Your adventure begins...")
print()

# Create the first message to start the story
first_message = {
    "role": "user",
    "content": "Start a new adventure story. My character's name is " + player_name + ". Begin the story!"
}
conversation.append(first_message)

# The game loop
while True:
    # Send the conversation to ChatGPT
    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o-mini",
        messages=conversation
    )

    # Get the AI's story text
    story_text = response.choices[0].message.content

    # Save the response to conversation history
    conversation.append({
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": story_text
    })

    # Display the story
    print(story_text)
    print()

    # Ask what the player wants to do
    choice = input("What do you choose? (1, 2, 3, or 'quit'): ")

    # If they type quit, end the game
    if choice.lower() == "quit":
        print()
        print("Thanks for playing, " + player_name + "!")
        print("May the Code be with you!")
        break

    # Send the player's choice to the AI
    conversation.append({
        "role": "user",
        "content": "I choose option " + choice
    })

    print()
    print("Generating next chapter...")
    print()