Python Game Development with Pygame Zero for Beginners

All the projects in this book use Python 3, so make sure you download the correct version from the website. Follow the instructions that match your computer.

[26-Dec-2020 updates]

For Windows 10 users, please download and install Python 3.8.2 for this course as the latest Python 3.9 version seems to have some compatibility issues with Pygame Zero version 1.0.2 according to the feedback from some students.

In this session, you'll test your Python, Pygame, Pygame Zero, and Visual Studio Code (VSCode) installations by creating your first Python program using Python & Pygame Zero. Follow these steps to create a simple program that greets the world.

If your program manages to function accordingly, it shows that your installation is done perfectly and you are ready to start your subsequent lessons.

All the projects in this book use Python 3, so make sure you download the correct version form the website. Follow the instructions that match your computer.

In this session, you'll test your Python, Pygame, Pygame Zero, and Visual Studio Code (VSCode) installations by creating your first Python program using Python & Pygame Zero. Follow these steps to create a simple program that greets the world.

If your program manages to function accordingly, it shows that your installation is done perfectly and you are ready to start your subsequent lessons.

Python comes with many built-in functions. They allow you to perform a variety of tasks, from printing messages to converting one type of data to another. These built-in functions make programming with Python easier.

Variables are used to store and label pieces of information. You will use them a lot in your code, for example, to hold the current score or keep track of how many lives you have left in a game.

Variables can be used to store numbers, which can then be used with math operators such as add, subtract, multiply, divide, and so on to perform calculations just like you do in maths. The multiplication and division signs are different from the symbols you use at school, so take note of them.

A string is any data made up of a sequence of letters or other characters. Words or sentences are stored as strings. In Python, strings are frequently used and most programs use at least one string. Any character that you can type of your keyboard can be stored in a string.

In Python, a list is used to store a collection of data. It can hold many different values and keep them in order. For example, a list can store a deck of cards for a game or different colors used for the game. The position of each value in the list is identified with a number, starting from 0. You can use these numbers to change the values stored in a list or to access its value.

A tuple is another type in Python that holds a collection of items or objects, tuples are very similar to lists, and everything you know about lists is most likely the same for tuples! However, there are two major differences between tuples and lists: a) Tuples use parentheses b) Tuples are immutable, i.e. the values of the objects stored and the number of objects stored in a tuple cannot be changed throughout the program, once they are defined.

Another set of operators we often use in programming are called comparison operators. Just like the name, comparison operators help us compare one value to another. When we use comparison operators, they give us back a True or False answer known as a Boolean type or value. Comparison operators and Booleans are super important because they help us make decisions in our games.

Playing a game involves making decisions about what to do next. These are often based on answers to questions. For example, "Do I hit the alien?", "Is the coin is being collected?", "Does the rocket hit the wall?".  These questions usually involve comparing one value to another. For instance, is one number bigger than the other? If it is, the computer might skip a block of code that would otherwise have run.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to play with loops in Python. When you're coding a game, you often need to run the same bit of code several times, but it'd be pretty boring if you have to type it in every single time. Luckily, you can use a loop to run the same block of code over and over again. There are many types of loops in Python.

Continue from the previous lesson, you'll learn how to play with loops in Python. When you're coding a game, you often need to run the same bit of code several times, but it'd be pretty boring if you have to type it in every single time. Luckily, you can use a loop to run the same block of code over and over again. There are many types of loops in Python.

Functions are really handy tools for all coders. They let you name useful chunks of code so that you can use them over and over again without having to type the whole thing out each time. Yes, you just have to type the name of the function to execute it in your program at the point you want them to execute!

You have learned about some built-in functions in the previous lessons, but you can also write your own functions to handle tasks specifics to your games.

Functions are really handy tools for all coders. They let you name useful chunks of code so that you can use them over and over again without having to type the whole thing out each time. Yes, you just have to type the name of the function to execute it in your program at the point you want them to execute!

You have learned about some built-in functions in the previous lessons, but there isn't a built-in function for everything, so you need to know how to write, or "define", your own. A function should have one clear purpose and a name that describes what it does.

When you write or define our own functions, you often want the functions to be able to take in parameters (you've learned this in the previous lesson) when you call them in your program. In this lesson, you'll learn how to make one or more parameters optional in Python by giving them a default value.

Learn the best Python programming practice in naming your variables and functions name to make them easy to read and understandable.

Errors are one of the things that you need to deal with quite a lot when you building your games, especially when you are new to Python or programming. In this lesson, you will learn the various types of common errors you might encounter while you are developing your game and how to solve or debug them.

The variables you defined in your program are fenced within their own boundary or "scope" in Python. Understanding how the scope of variable works will ensure your game function properly according to your plan without any unexpected errors.

In this lesson, you'll learn to set up your game project environment in VSCode, the project file structure, and also naming your code project file.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to import the Pygame Zero runner system into your code and also using the preset variable in Pygame Zero to set the size of the game window and also the title. You'll also learn how to use the Pygame Zero's functions to render your game window with a different color.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to add an actor to your game window and move it around on your game window. You'll also learn about the graphic representation of Pygame on a game window and how to utilize it to place your actor on a different location on the game window.

You'll also learn in this lesson how to import external functions from the external library and use them in your game.

This lesson shows you how to make your game responsive to the player's mouse click by detecting the mouse clicking events in your code. You'll also learn how to use collision detection in your code to respond to the event.

One of the key features of a game is able to display messages to the player such as instructions, player scores, player's lives count, and so on. You'll learn the trick in this lesson too!

In this lesson, you'll see how easy you could fine-tune your game after it is done. Also, knowing how to troubleshoot is also essential, knowing how Python interprets your code is a key to that as well.

You are going to enhance what you have learned in your previous lesson and also some new functionalities of Pygame and Pygame Zero. In this game, you will learn how to receive and interpret the arrow keys press from your keyboard and also more collision detection function of Pygame.

In this lesson, you will learn how to use function placeholders to organize your code structure. 

In this lesson, we are going to build a game called "Connect The Satellites". In this game, you will challenge yourself and your friends to connect all the satellites that appear on the screen as quickly as possible.

In order to respond to the mouse click events by the player, we need to add the event handler from Pygame Zero to capture the events when the player clicks on any part of the game window. In this lesson, you will learn the skills you need to handle and process the mouse click events inside your game.

In order to record the time lapsed in a game, we need to use the time functions in Python. You will learn how to use one of them in your code to capture the game start and end time to see who is faster in finishing the job!

In this lesson, we are going to build a game called "The Shooting Stars", when the game starts, two stars will moving down the screen and the player needs to clicks on the red-star before it reaches the bottom of the game window. Each time the red-star is clicked, the game moves on to the next level and more stars with different colors will appear and the speed of them moving down to the game window will also increase. It is an interesting game that challenges your response time and speed.

In this lesson, you will learn how to use Pygame Zero's blit method to paint the background of your game window and also to display the game status messages on the screen.

In order to create stars with different colors, we need to create them randomly during program run-time. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the random function together with the list's operation to complete the task.

There are many ways to move an object around the game window in Pygame Zero, one of the ways is to use the animation function and in this lesson, you will learn how the animation function works and how to incorporate that into your game.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the "in" operator in your game to examine if the red-star was clicked to make the next decision in your game, whether to move to the next level or the game is over!

In this lesson, you will put your coding skill to test and create a quiz game to challenge your friends. You are a quizmaster, so you can make questions about any topic you like.

When come to drawing the game interface for this game, we are going to look at a totally different set of functionalities in Pygame Zero, which are the functions to draw and fill rectangles as game objects and also to position them on the game window and respond to mouse click events.

Reading or writing information from and to a file are often activities when comes to building a game to records information such as the user's name, score, and level. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the file read and write functions in Python to read the questions and answers you have saved in a text file.

Once you have the questions and answers read from the text file, you have to use some programming techniques to process and display them on pre-defined rectangles or boxes on your game window. This lesson shows you how you could use the techniques you have learned to display and questions and answers for your players.

If you allow your users to skip questions, you'll need to build the logic in your game to handle the score calculation and other conditions. This lesson will show you one of the ways to do that to make your game more interesting.

There are many ways to represent your data in a text file and how you design your game data will directly impact how you write the program for your game. In this lesson, I will show you the potential problem we might encounter if we represent our data structure in the previous lesson and how to resolve them.

I will introduce to you how you could access the various pre-defined Pygame Zero colors code in this lesson and how you could use them in your game. In this lesson, you can build a color chart for your future use as well.

Welcome back, in this lesson you will combine most of the coding skills you have learned previously to build this game. Also, you will be introduced to some new coding skills in Python that are required to build more advanced games.

So far, you have learned how to move an object on a pretty stagnant background. In this lesson, you will learn how to create objects on the game window that look like background objects and move them as if the background is moving and interact the main actor of your game with these "background" objects.

Animations make our game more fun and interesting to play and often it is a crucial piece in game development. In this lesson, we are going to learn some techniques to animate a bird flapping its wings while flying across the sky in our game window. Thanks to Pygame Zero, complicated animations can now be made simple.

In this lesson, you will learn how to handle detect and handle multiple collisions between your main actor and also the rest of the moving objects in your game to determine what action to be taken.

Once you have all the pieces of codes and functions completed, it is time for you to enjoy the game with your friends and see who can score the highest score by flying the ballons across the sky for the longest and avoid most obstacles.