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PyGame: A Primer on Game Programming in Python
PyGame: A Primer on Game Programming in Python
by Jon Fincher 69 Comments  gamedev intermediate projects
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Table of Contents

Background and Setup
Basic PyGame Program
PyGame Concepts
Initialization and Modules
Displays and Surfaces
Images and Rects
Basic Game Design
Importing and Initializing PyGame
Setting Up the Display
Setting Up the Game Loop
Processing Events
Drawing on the Screen
Using .blit() and .flip()
Sprites
Players
User Input
Enemies
Sprite Groups
Custom Events
Collision Detection
Sprite Images
Altering the Object Constructors
Adding Background Images
Game Speed
Sound Effects
A Note on Sources
Conclusion
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 Watch Now This tutorial has a related video course created by the Real Python team. Watch it together with the written tutorial to deepen your understanding: Make a 2D Side-Scroller Game With PyGame

When I started learning computer programming late in the last millennium, it was driven by my desire to write computer games. I tried to figure out how to write games in every language and on every platform I learned, including Python. That’s how I discovered pygame and learned how to use it to write games and other graphical programs. At the time, I really wanted a primer on pygame.

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to:

Draw items on your screen
Play sound effects and music
Handle user input
Implement event loops
Describe how game programming differs from standard procedural Python programming
This primer assumes you have a basic understanding of writing Python programs, including user-defined functions, imports, loops, and conditionals. You should also be familiar with how to open files on your platform. A basic understanding of object-oriented Python is helpful as well. pygame works with most versions of Python, but Python 3.6 is recommended and used throughout this article.

You can get all of the code in this article to follow along:

Sample Code: Click here to download the source code for the PyGame sample project used in this tutorial.

Background and Setup
pygame is a Python wrapper for the SDL library, which stands for Simple DirectMedia Layer. SDL provides cross-platform access to your system’s underlying multimedia hardware components, such as sound, video, mouse, keyboard, and joystick. pygame started life as a replacement for the stalled PySDL project. The cross-platform nature of both SDL and pygame means you can write games and rich multimedia Python programs for every platform that supports them!

To install pygame on your platform, use the appropriate pip command:

$ pip install pygame
You can verify the install by loading one of the examples that comes with the library:

$ python3 -m pygame.examples.aliens
If a game window appears, then pygame is installed properly! If you run into problems, then the Getting Started guide outlines some known issues and caveats for all platforms.


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Basic PyGame Program
Before getting down to specifics, let’s take a look at a basic pygame program. This program creates a window, fills the background with white, and draws a blue circle in the middle of it:

# Simple pygame program

# Import and initialize the pygame library
import pygame
pygame.init()

# Set up the drawing window
screen = pygame.display.set_mode([500, 500])

# Run until the user asks to quit
running = True
while running:

    # Did the user click the window close button?
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False

    # Fill the background with white
    screen.fill((255, 255, 255))

    # Draw a solid blue circle in the center
    pygame.draw.circle(screen, (0, 0, 255), (250, 250), 75)

    # Flip the display
    pygame.display.flip()

# Done! Time to quit.
pygame.quit()