Video Tutorial 1 – Making a Barebones Pygame Program
I think that it could be easier to learn game programming through a video tutorial – you’re actually able to see the code unfold before your eyes, with audio explanations – rather than through reading – although I think that reading is great and won’t be replaced anytime soon. Probably 90% of what I know about programming I learned through reading.
With this in mind, I’ve prepared a video tutorial explaining how to make a basic Pygame application from scratch. It’s only 2.3 MB, and according to Martindale’s Download Time Calculator, should only take 5 minutes and 29 seconds to completely download over a 56K modem connection. The video itself is about 7 minutes and 13 seconds long. The video was made using the freeware app DebugMode Wink.
This code and probably all the code that I’m ever going to write in Pygame is based heavily on the Aliens example included in the Pygame source distribution and Line By Line Chimp Example. I encourage you to grab a copy of the source distribution – you can learn a lot just by reading the code.
I will post a transcript of the video soon for those who cannot view the video or for those who prefer to read.
July 4th, 2006 at 4:41 am
[...] The 1945 code branches off from the barebones code, and borrows from Arinoid. However, in contrast to the barebones app which uses RenderUpdates, 1945 uses RenderPlain, because the entire screen changes at every frame due to the scrolling background, so dirty rectangles aren’t necessary. [...]
July 29th, 2006 at 10:38 am
Nice tutorial. I’m familiar with Python but not with Pygame, so this was a good intro.
Have you posted a note on comp.lang.python about your video? I’m sure you would get a lot of interest there!
Thanks!
– Paul
August 7th, 2006 at 8:05 am
this seems to be very good intro in PyGame…
I’m waiting for a sequel…
thanx a lot!
October 20th, 2006 at 6:09 am
I haven’t replied to people in a very long time, and for this I apologize. Thank you so much to everyone for visiting the site and leaving valuable feedback.
Paul: Thank you for the suggestion! I haven’t posted a notice yet, perhaps when the site becomes a bit more complete.
Thank you so much again!
December 9th, 2006 at 6:38 am
[...] This very simple program, which is a slightly modified version of the barebones pygame program, implements a very simple typing game. I hope that you will find this code useful, and perhaps this can be the start of a complete typing game! [...]
January 5th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
[...] Original link [...]
March 15th, 2007 at 7:44 am
excellent!
I’m novice in pygame and python at all. That I need to speedup my galaxian clone =)
March 17th, 2007 at 4:36 am
Hi Sereg. I’m glad to know you found the videos useful. My latest post deals with a Space Invaders clone, which might help you as well in building your Galaxian clone. Good luck!
April 18th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Very nice introduction. I made an attempt to try pygame some time ago, but it was hard to find a solid base skeleton for applications. This tutorial seems to teach good practices about using pygame, and for that I would like to thank the author.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:35 am
this tut is really helpful so far but im stuck on the second vid. i didnt have the arinoid_master.bmp file. At first it said “Could not open data/arinoid_master.bmp” so i downloaded from the link you suggested. now that i have the file it still says the same thing. do i haev to move the file somewhere because i noticed during the video you said that the file should be in the data subdirectory, so you linked it to “os.path” so should i move it there? and how and where exactly do imove it to?
thank you for the video and pleace e- mail me at : n0t0ri0us_MILAD@yahoo.com to help me with my problem
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:20 am
im having same problem do i need to save the file to a certain folder?
July 10th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Very good tutorial, it looks great… really nice indeed! My only suggestion is about the audio… since I’m not a native English speaker I find a bit difficult understanding what you say. It would be great if you speak a bit clearer and try to avoid microphone noises in your next video tutorials. It’s not that I’m so bad understanding English
, after all I can watch movies with no problems.
Please take it as a positive critic, I really liked the tutorial but I’ll need to watch it several times because I really want to understand it!
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:28 am
Nice tutorial! Really really liked it. I have just started out with Pygame and your tutorials look like a step in the right direction.
Just one thing though. When I execute the script from Python GUI (IDLE), it doesn’t exit smoothly (It has to be “end-task”ed). But when I double click it from explorer, it behaves properly. Any idea why??
Thanks for the great tutorial!
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Good, but where are the rest?
November 12th, 2007 at 9:25 am
[...] Video Tutorial 1 – Making a Barebones Pygame Program [...]
July 15th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Having come from a C/C++/assembly background, I just recently discovered the allure of Python and Pygame. Needless to say I am having an incredible time learning all these new things. Every second I learn something new; I’ve read more tutorials and examples than I could count.
But, your video achieves something different. With your calm and slow voice that speaks clearly and concisely you have no doubt accelerated the learning for many people. Using audio, visual, and interactive teaching methods this video is an excellent addition to the Pygame tutorial community and should be watched as soon as possible when one wants to learn Python and Pygame.