Project 10: Do-It-Yourself Arcade Game

Abstract

Welcome to the final project. Now that you’ve sampled several of Python’s many capabilities, it’s time to go out with a bang. In this chapter, you learn how to use Pygame, an extension that enables you to write full-fledged, full-screen arcade games in Python. Although easy to use, Pygame is quite powerful and consists of several components that are thoroughly documented in the Pygame documentation (available on the Pygame web site, http://pygame.org). This project introduces you to some of the main Pygame concepts, but because this chapter is only meant as a starting point, I’ve skipped several interesting features, such as sound and video handling. I recommend that you investigate the other features yourself, once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics. You might also want to take a look at Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame by Will McGugan (Apress, 2007).