Learning Python – A first foray into games & graphics

I have started close to 50 game projects in the last few years, many reached only planning stages but a few resulted in something somewhat playable. I’ve used a couple of technologies, text & canvas web games and DarkBasic, however neither really felt ideal to me.

Programming a game in canvas requires too many different languages: Javascript, PHP, HTML & MySQL if you want any persistance; while the syntax of DarkBasic is not to my liking and as a language it has some very frustrating structural limitations.

What I’m looking for is a language that can cover as much of the process as possible; graphics, logic & networking, yet also not be over-simplified. I have looked at C/C++, but these languages have the issue of being ridiculously nerdy and complicated.

Python, therefore, looks to be the solution. Lovely.

PyGame is a great looking plugin for python that saves you the agony of struggling with multiple operating-system graphics and coding the core interactions from scratch. It also has the best website in existence.

The first tutorial is a simple bouncing ball, much like the old Windows 98 screensavers. In just a few lines of code (and a quick use of MS Paint) you can have your first 2d graphics. Sorted.

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import sys, pygame
pygame.init()
 
size = width, height = 1280, 768
speed = [2, 2]
black = 0, 0, 0
 
screen = pygame.display.set_mode(size)
 
ball = pygame.image.load("ball.bmp")
ballrect = ball.get_rect()
 
while 1:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT: sys.exit()
 
    ballrect = ballrect.move(speed)
    if ballrect.left < 0 or ballrect.right > width:
        speed[0] = -speed[0]
    if ballrect.top < 0 or ballrect.top > height:
        speed[1] = -speed[1]
 
    screen.fill(black)
    screen.blit(ball, ballrect)
    pygame.display.flip()

import sys, pygame
pygame.init()

size = width, height = 1280, 768
speed = [2, 2]
black = 0, 0, 0

screen = pygame.display.set_mode(size)

ball = pygame.image.load("ball.bmp")
ballrect = ball.get_rect()

while 1:
	for event in pygame.event.get():
		if event.type == pygame.QUIT: sys.exit()

	ballrect = ballrect.move(speed)
	if ballrect.left < 0 or ballrect.right > width:
		speed[0] = -speed[0]
	if ballrect.top < 0 or ballrect.top > height:
		speed[1] = -speed[1]

	screen.fill(black)
	screen.blit(ball, ballrect)
	pygame.display.flip()

Getting rid of the screen reset on line 23 after a few bounces results in a rather cool effect: