I’m working on a Discord bot game function but having trouble with the game loop. The bot sends the initial message but then doesn’t respond to any commands afterward. I think the issue might be with how I’m handling the while loop or message detection.
def dice_game(user, msg):
playing = True
bot.send_message(msg.channel, "Dice Challenge started! Roll to survive.\nUse $roll to roll the dice.\nUse $quit to end game.")
while playing:
if msg.content.startswith('$roll'):
result = random.randint(1, 6)
bot.send_message(msg.channel, f"{user} rolled a {result}!")
if result == 1:
bot.send_message(msg.channel, f"{user} got unlucky and lost!")
playing = False
if msg.content.startswith('$quit'):
bot.send_message(msg.channel, "Game ended.")
playing = False
What am I doing wrong here? The loop seems to run forever without checking for new messages. Any better approaches for handling interactive games in Discord bots?
The problem is you’re using a blocking while loop with the same message object. Once your function hits that loop, it keeps checking the same original message content over and over instead of listening for new messages. You’re stuck in an infinite loop that never processes fresh input.
You need an event-driven approach instead. Set up a message listener that checks if the user’s currently in a game state, then handle commands from there. Store each user’s game state in a dictionary or class attribute - when new messages come in, check if that user has an active game and process their commands.
Or you could use discord.py’s wait_for() method to pause execution and wait for the next message from that specific user. Process it, then continue the game logic. This way you’re actually capturing new user input rather than being stuck with stale message data.
Your problem is that msg holds the original message that started the function, not new messages. The while loop just keeps checking the same static content forever - msg.content doesn’t change after the first call.
I hit this same issue building my first Discord game bot. You need to handle each command as separate function calls instead of trying to keep state in a loop. When someone types $roll, that should trigger a handler that checks if they’re in a game, processes the roll, and updates their state.
Keep game states external - I use a simple dictionary with user IDs as keys to track who’s playing. Each command handler checks this dictionary first, then runs the game logic. Your bot stays responsive to everyone and won’t get stuck in blocking loops.
yeah, that’s a classic mistake lol. you’re basically checking the same old message infinitely instead of waiting for new ones. try using await bot.wait_for('message') inside your loop to actually capture fresh user input. then check if it’s from the right user and channel before processing the command.