Python Game Programming by Example - Softcover

De Paz, Alejandro Howrodas; Howse, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1785281534 ISBN 13: 9781785281532

Publisher: Packt Pub Ltd, 2015

Synopsis

A pragmatic guide for developing your own games with Python

About This Book

• Strengthen your fundamentals of game programming with Python language
• Seven hands-on games to create 2D and 3D games rapidly from scratch
• Illustrative guide to explore the different GUI libraries for building your games

Who This Book Is For

If you have ever wanted to create casual games in Python and you would like to explore various GUI technologies that this language offers, this is the book for you. This title is intended for beginners to Python with little or no knowledge of game development, and it covers step by step how to build seven different games, from the well-known Space Invaders to a classical 3D platformer.

What You Will Learn

• Take advantage of Python's clean syntax to build games quickly
• Discover distinct frameworks for developing graphical applications
• Implement non-player characters (NPCs) with autonomous and seemingly intelligent behaviors
• Design and code some popular games like Pong and tower defense
• Compose maps and levels for your sprite-based games in an easy manner
• Modularize and apply object-oriented principles during the design of your games
• Exploit libraries like Chimpunk2D, cocos2d, and Tkinter
• Create natural user interfaces (NUIs), using a camera and computer vision algorithms to interpret the player's real-world actions

In Detail

With a growing interest in learning to program, game development is an appealing topic for getting started with coding. From geometry to basic Artificial Intelligence algorithms, there are plenty of concepts that can be applied in almost every game. Python is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. It provides constructs intended to enable clear programs on both a small and large scale. It is the third most popular language whose grammatical syntax is not predominantly based on C. Python is also very easy to code and is also highly flexible, which is exactly what is required for game development. The user-friendliness of this language allows beginners to code games without too much effort or training. Python also works with very little code and in most cases uses the “use cases” approach, reserving lengthy explicit coding for outliers and exceptions, making game development an achievable feat.

Python Game Programming by Example enables readers to develop cool and popular games in Python without having in-depth programming knowledge of Python. The book includes seven hands-on projects developed with several well-known Python packages, as well as a comprehensive explanation about the theory and design of each game.

It will teach readers about the techniques of game design and coding of some popular games like Pong and tower defense. Thereafter, it will allow readers to add levels of complexities to make the games more fun and realistic using 3D.

At the end of the book, you will have added several GUI libraries like Chimpunk2D, cocos2d, and Tkinter in your tool belt, as well as a handful of recipes and algorithms for developing games with Python.

Style and approach

This book is an example-based guide that will teach you to build games using Python. This book follows a step-by-step approach as it is aimed at beginners who would like to get started with basic game development. By the end of this book you will be competent game developers with good knowledge of programming in Python.

About this title

About the Author

Alejandro Rodas de Paz

Alejandro Rodas de Paz is a computer engineer and game developer from Seville, Spain. He came across Python back in 2009, while he was studying at the University of Seville. Alejandro developed several academic projects with Python, from web crawlers to artificial intelligence algorithms. In his spare time, he started building his own games in Python. He did a minor in game design at Hogeschool van Amsterdam, where he created a small 3D game engine based on the ideas he learned during this minor. He has also developed some open source projects, such as a Python API for the Philips Hue personal lighting system. You can find these projects in his GitHub account at https://github.com/aleroddepaz. Prior to this publication, Alejandro collaborated with Packt Publishing as a technical reviewer on the book Tkinter GUI Application Development Hotshot.

Joseph Howse

Joseph Howse is a writer, software developer, and business owner from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Computer games and code are imbibed in his earliest memories, as he learned to read and type by playing text adventures with his older brother, Sam, and watching him write graphics demos in BASIC. Joseph's other books include OpenCV for Secret Agents, OpenCV Blueprints, Android Application Programming with OpenCV 3, and Learning OpenCV 3 Computer Vision with Python. He works with his cats to make computer vision systems for humans, felines, and other users. Visit http://nummist.com to read about some of his latest projects done at Nummist Media Corporation Limited.

Edition details

• Publisher: Packt Pub Ltd
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1785281534
• ISBN 13: 9781785281532
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208