Making a game in Pygame - First Attempts at a space shooter - R-Type inspired.

GWC Community Geek Hobbies
#1

So right now, I’m trying to learn Python to aid my testing career. I think it is good to learn it because:
[ol]
[li]It enables me to understand what the developers go through when they create the feature/software/change.[/li][li]It’s good to keep learning[/li][li]I think that using Python will aid me in my QA work (I just need to figure out how to make it useful).[/li][li]Since I’m using Robot Framework, the underlying code is Python.[/li][li]It’s a good way to learn programming concepts and good practises in a way that is fun.[/li][/ol]So I have done two things. I have signed on to edX course on Introduction to Computer Programming course. It’s a tough course (and least for me) that introduces how to think about problems through algorithms. It is tough but I think I’m learning something.
The other project that I’m doing is creating games using Pygame. My first get it out there project is a side ways shooter. The progress that I’ve got so far is a scrolling starfield and a spaceship that can be moved by the mouse. (It was working until I moved some stuff and now I need to get it working again doh

What I will try to do is post my updates on what I’ve done. Also hints and tips would be useful as well as improvements. I want to learn good practises so it would be good to learn how to organise the code for efficiency.
Of course, I shall allow it to be available so people can test it if they wish. I just need to get used to github.
EDIT – Set up a git hub, the link is: https://github.com/decosta
The
The things I need to do are:
[ul]
[li]Prevent the sprite from going off screen.[/li][li]Incorporate enemies and bosses. Some of the enemies will be using sin as their movement and others will be orbiting. Might as well figure out trig to make them fancy[/li][li]Make the enemies semi smart[/li][li]Make a level for the sprites to live on[/li][li]Incorporate lives, scores and power-ups.[/li][li]Possibly do a HUD to incorporate all of this.[/li][li]Make the world scalable (so that when the game is in a window, it scales correctly to full screen).[/li][/ul]By doing this, there is no way that I cannot test it and think of all the fun ways to break it.

Of course, this is all going to come in due time

tl;dr - Making a space shooting game in Pygame. Hopefully if I’m consistent, I will keep writing about my progress.

#2

Good luck! I work in software but unfortunately I don’t know anything about Python or programing games with graphics. I will watch and cheer you on though. It sounds like you are going about this the right way.

#3

You should look at Blender. Which uses Python and it has a game engine and a community that could help @ blenderartists.org

#4

I have done a bit of Blender, but I want to get this under my belt and then do a space shooter ala Freelancer/Xwing as my long term project. I do like the ships you’ve created. How easy/long did it take you?

#5

Thought I would post my progress in terms of learning how to code, using pygame and python. It’s a slow process and this is going to be one of many games but here is my progress so far.

//youtu.be/_GLbCTwVv8U

So far, you can move, shoot and destroy the aliens. What I need to do is make it look prettier, do explosions, better collision, blend the alpha channel on the aliens.

I talk about it a little bit more here - http://blackboxwhitebox.wordpress.com/