Dr. House: The Visual Novel

A C++ terminal game where you play Dr. Gregory House trying to diagnose a patient before they die, you end up at Mayfield Psychiatric, or you bankrupt Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. You order tests, argue with the team, lie to Cuddy for money, and occasionally pop a Vicodin.

You are Gregory House. A patient is bleeding from somewhere they shouldn't be bleeding from. You have ~8000 hospital dollars, four hostile colleagues, a Vicodin bottle, and roughly fifteen turns before something kills them. Run labs. Order treatments. Break into their apartment. Don't take the fifth pill.

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Quickstart Guide

Prerequisites

• C++23 compatible compiler (GCC/Clang/MSVC)
• CMake (v3.20+)
• OpenSSL
• An Anthropic API Key (for the Claude integration)

Setup & Build

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/ec4t3rina/cpp-dr-house-agentic-ai.git](https://github.com/ec4t3rina/cpp-dr-house-agentic-ai.git)
   cd cpp-dr-house-agentic-ai

CRITICAL - API Key: Create a file named secrets.json in the root directory and add your Anthropic API key:

{
    "anthropic_api_key": "sk-ant-api03-YOUR_KEY_HERE"
}

(Note: secrets.json is gitignored by default for security).

2. Build the project:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build

3. Run the game:

./build/oop

(To skip gameplay and auto-test all C++ exception loss conditions, run: ./build/oop --test)

Gameplay Features & Walkthrough

There are four critical stats. Lose control of them, and it's Game Over.

Stat	Starting Value	Win/Loss Condition
Health	30-80	Drops to 0 → Patient dies (PatientDeathException)
Clarity	0%	Hits 100% AND Health ≥ 10 → You Win (Eureka Finale)
Malpractice	0%	Hits 100% → Tritter gets you (FiredByHospitalException)
Budget	$8,000	Drops below $0 → Hospital pulls the plug (OutOfBudgetException)
Vicodin Level	0 / 5	Hits 5 → Sent to Mayfield Psychiatric (MayfieldWardException)

The Core Mechanics

• Medical Intervention: Order from a list of Lab Tests, Treatments, or Risky Procedures. The LLM evaluates your choice against the hidden canonical diagnosis to award Clarity or penalize you.

• Social Interaction: Send the team (Chase, Cameron, Foreman) to brainstorm (triggers parallel LLM calls for unique perspectives), ask Wilson for a hint, or beg Cuddy for emergency funding.

• The "Chaos" Menu: Break into the patient's house for clues, skip clinic duty, or pop a Vicodin for a quick Clarity boost.

• The Whiteboard (Free-Text): Type your own medical theories into a prompt. The AI acts as House's internal monologue to guide you. Hidden Easter Egg: If your text input contains a substring of the actual hidden disease, you trigger a "Eureka" spark and gain a massive +5% Clarity bonus!

• The Eureka Finale: Once you hit 100% Clarity, the POV shifts to the patient for a 3-round conversational boss fight where House delivers the final diagnosis.

Screen.Recording.2026-05-17.at.18.31.28.mov

Post-Game Analysis

Win or lose, the game serializes every action you took and offers two distinct AI-generated wrap-ups:

1. Foreman's Post-Mortem: The LLM reviews your exact ActionRecord log, reviews your medical errors, and explains the optimal clinical path you should have taken. Saved to Notes_<PatientName>.txt.

2. Director's Cut: The AI takes your entire playthrough log and writes a 2-page dramatic TV script. Saved to Episode_<PatientName>.txt.

Episode_Paul_Garza.txt

Have fun!! :D