Write your own games, simulations and demonstrations with PyGame

Create interactive graphical applications for serious fun

Coen de Groot

Education Game-Development Learning Teaching

See in schedule Download Slides

(Important: before the workshop, go to http://www.compassmentis.com/europython2019/)

People learn better when it is fun and engaging, and understand better when they can see it. Writing games can be as much fun as playing them. PyGame is a simple but effective library for writing your own interactive experiences like games, demonstrations and exercises.

I have used PyGame to learn French, at coding jams, to explain a machine learning algorithm, and to recreate one of my favourite boardgames.

During the session you will learn how to load, transform and display images; create moving sprites and detect collisions; display text in different fonts and sizes; use colour; draw lines, rectangles, circles and other shapes; play music; create and handle events; and control your application using the keyboard, mouse or midi interface.

We will look at the benefits and limitations of using Python and PyGame for game development.

You will discover the best places to get game resources - images, backgrounds, textures, sounds and music - many for free. And you will get access to a repository with code snippets to get you started quickly.

This is a practical training. You will spend a lot of time programming with PyGame. I will give you some ideas of what to create, or come with your own idea.

You will leave with the knowledge and resources to create your own games and experiences, and with your own application, or at least a strong start.

This session is for intermediate to experienced Python programmers. You will need a laptop with Python 3, PyGame and an internet connection.

Type: Training (180 mins); Python level: Intermediate; Domain level: Beginner


Coen de Groot

Compass Mentis IT Ltd

Coen started playing with computers in the late 70s, and is still programming for fun and profit. He has six years experience with Python as a freelance developer, powering websites, moving, transforming and analysing data and more. He also regularly delivers Python training courses for Learning Tree International.

In his spare time he uses Python to learn French and takes part in game jams (game creation competitions).