Presentation: Introduction to PyGame

Thursday 1:20 p.m.–4:40 p.m.

Introduction to PyGame

Richard Jones

Audience level:: Novice
Category:: Gaming

Description

This tutorial will walk the attendees through development of a simple game using PyGame with time left over for some experimentation and exploration of different types of games.

Abstract

I will walk through the practicalities of building a simple video game from scratch, starting with presenting one approach to structuring the game code to keep it sane. I will talk about what libraries are available and then focus on the facilities present in the library used in the tutorial.

I will then walk through the development of a simple game during which the attendees will code the game. Once the game is developed I will talk about potential further development that possibilities and use the remaining tutorial time to encourage and assist attendees in their efforts to do so.

The game developed will cover the key game-writing skills of controlling what appears on the screen (including tile mapping and animation), loading resources, handling user input and simulating the environment within the game. There will be demonstrations and discussion of the various tools that may be used to create game assets (tile maps, sprites and sound effects.)

The tutorial will also cover packaging the game for distribution both via PyPI and as a stand-alone executable.

Participants should be familiar with Python, and must have pygame version 1.9+ installed. We will not have time to deal with installation and compatibility issues so participants must check their laptops can run pygame applications.

Update: See updated tutorial preparation instructions at Introduction to PyGame