Book Image

Python Game Programming By Example

By : Alejandro Rodas de Paz, Joseph Howse
Book Image

Python Game Programming By Example

By: Alejandro Rodas de Paz, Joseph Howse

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)
8
Index

Getting started with cocos2d


As with any other framework, cocos2d is composed of several modules and classes that implement different features. In order to develop applications with this API, we need to understand the following basic concepts:

  • Scene: Each of the stages of your application is a scene. While your game may have many scenes, only one is active at any given point in time. The transition between scenes defines your game's workflow.

  • Layer: Every sheet contained in a scene, whose overlay creates the final appearance of the scene, is called a layer. For instance, your game's main scene may have a background layer, an HUD layer with player information and scores, and an animation layer, where events and collisions between sprites are being processed.

  • Sprite: This is a 2D image that can be manipulated though cocos2d actions, such as move, scale, or rotate. In our games, sprites will represent the player's character, enemies, and visual information, such as the number of lives left...