Making Games with Python & Pygame

You know. I really enjoy this book. Al writes a great book; it is an enjoyable read. This prompted me to buy his other book - Invent your Own Computer Games with Python. Buy them both - you won't be disappointed. The quality of the book (Paper, cover, typeset) is very readable and high-quality for a computer book, which makes it a good library addition. Also, you can get the digital edition free, and lots of code/etc from website - so very good value.Al presents python and pygame concepts in context of re-creating several typical games - like tetris, memory, othello, wormy, etc. Overall excellent pygame book. Pairs well with the rasperry pi computer... hint hint, nudge nudge. ( The games featured in this book are installed on raspberry pi stock image.. )Honestly it's more fun than slogging through the pygame website, and example code. Pygame and this book allow you to quickly put together some pretty 'low tech' fun and easy games.Technically:The book quickly introduces you to core display concepts like surfaces, drawing shapes, colors, blitting graphics, and playing sounds. Then it guides you through 'event handling' concepts over the course of several games. You will be up and running quickly making your own games with sound/graphics/event handling.So, really a good intro / even intermediate intro / to pygame, which perhaps doesn't touch on pygame's more advanced topics very deeply. Focuses well on game design concepts, but doesn't get extremely deep into every bell and whistle of pygame, which to me was a good thing, and kept the book understandable and concise. It is not a 'reference' type book, and advanced pygame topics were not included.

a good learning tool for developing python skills

When I was a kid, I'd get these magazines every month full of code. You had to type it into your Apple or Commodore. It may or may not run. I looked forward every month to doing this. I have to say this is the first time in 30 years I had that same feeling.I ignored PyGame for several years because the website has so poorly laid out. I got bored one weekend and decided to give it a whirl recently. I bought this book to give back to the project and I'm glad I did.While this book won't make you a superstar video game programmer, it may help you build a solid foundation of the underlying code structure required. I had several eureka moments while typing in the examples. I'm a better programmer since reading this book. I wish I would have given PyGame a shot a few years ago.

This series is a bunch of programs that the kids type in and explanations of how the programs work. It's a great jumping off point to messing around -- you start with something that works and change it up to do other things that are more interesting to you. It really doesn't teach computer science at all, the way we grown-ups understand it, but my daughter loves this approach and she's got time to learn the other stuff later. There's a lot to be learned just by the messing around that this book encourages.

If you want to learn Pygame, do NOT buy this book. It is not a good instructional book as you go from zero to 100 in no time; except, in a bad way. For example, first chapter is about installing Python and Pygame; second chapter is about basics; third chapter to the last, the author blasts the reader with full blown complex game programs. Unless the first two chapters provided all the basics, I am not sure how a student is supposed to grasp the large blocks of code. In one of the chapter, the author professes against "magic numbers"; they are bad; no one knows where they come from or mean. Well, the way the author teaches Pygame is no different; without explaining mouse events or the types of events, all of a sudden, we start seeing these concepts out of no where. Granted, the author breaks the huge program down into chunks and explains them later in the chapter; but by then, the reader has lost a sense of progression and direction. I would not recommend this book to teach. Unless you are a seasoned coder and proficient in Python, skip it, as you will find the structure and teaching approach daunting. I have never seen a coding book present teaching material like this one before. First time for everything. To the author, get a clue from Charles Petzold on writing books to teach something.

I am a student in software development, and programming games is all I've wanted to do since the moment I choose this career path. This book helped me get a feel for pygame(the python game library) and was very helpful. I don't suggest buying this book however, because it's completely free at his website. I wish I would have known that, but having the book made it easier to study when I wasn't around my laptop. Awesome book though!

This book is good choice if you are beginner in programming. This book will teach with examples syntax of python and programming skills will sure come better.

We need more books like this! Each example code is broken down line by line with reasons for inclusion in the program. I would not recommend this as a first time programming book because the level of code is a bit higher than that, but this would be great after an introductory book.

Probably do not buy this until after their other book for making video games first. This definitely isn't very beginner level (Though you could probably follow along, it just would be frustrating and take longer to get). Other than that you really do get to make all the game clones you want. I love this book.

il libro è molto intuitivo e vale il prezzo d'acquisto. Tratta varie tematiche tra cui la realizzazione di semplici giochi. Lo consiglio per chi ha già un pò di conoscenza di python anche se il libro fa alcuni cenni che però ovviamente sono esaustivi per comprendere pienamente le basi che stanno dietro la programmazione. Si possono fare giochi come Mario Bross in 2D e anche con questo tipo di giochi vedrete quante righe di programmazione stanno dietro ad un omino che salta e corre. Cmq buon divertimento.

The book begins well but then puts up very steep learning curve

Das Buch setzt nur recht geringfügige Programmierkenntnisse voraus. Dennoch sollte man erste Kenntnisse schon haben.Mir hat das Buch sehr geholfen, um in in das Programmieren von Videospielen einzusteigen. Zudem war es auch recht gut geschrieben und an manchen Stellen sogar humorvoll - und damit alles andere als trocken. Tolles Buch. Kann ich jedem empfehlen, der auch mal versuchen will, ein kleines Spiel zu programmieren.

With full Python 3 source code and many kinds of games to choose from, this is an ideal way to learn how to create your own computer games using Python. I don't think you could rely solely on this book to learn the language, it really isn't structured for that purpose, but there are plenty of 'introduction to Python 3' books out there to buy as companions.Installing the Pygame module (by downloading from the Internet) may not be as easy as the book makes out - it's necessary to align the Python and Pygame release versions exactly (and 32 bit does not equal 64 bit!). A bit of Googling helps and the author can be emailed (and is very helpful) in case of difficulties.