LudumData

Aeolus

LD36

New LD Member

LD36LD #35 29. Jul 2016 · 16:10 UTC · 27 days before compo start by Aeolus · 4

Hello, I’m new to Ludum Dare (and game development), so I’m entering the Mini LD #69 to see if I can create a game. I’m using python3 and pygame as well as PyCharm for my IDE. I’ve been programming for a 4 or 5 years and got interested in game development. Any tips for Ludum Dare, game development, or python would be appreciated. Thanks!

Tags: pygame, python

I’m in

LD36LD #36 13. Aug 2016 · 02:06 UTC · 12 days before compo start by Aeolus · 2

I will be entering LD 36. This will be my first full LD. I entered an unfinished game to MiniLD 69 to try out game development. I will be using python 3 with the pygame library.

Tags: LD36

Comments

Mieeh
13. Aug 2016 · 14:31 UTC
Hey Aelous, good luck on your first Ludum Dare! It’s fun.

May I ask, what library do you use to compile your game to a .exe format?

I myself have been using pygame but never figured out how to make it compatible on Mac or Linux when I myself use Windows?

Python and Game Development

LD36LD #36 13. Aug 2016 · 15:47 UTC · 12 days before compo start by Aeolus · 0

I’m pretty new to Ludum Dare. I just recently got into game development, but I’ve been programming for years. I’ve been using python 3 with the pygame library for game development. Around the website, I’ve seen a few people using python as well. I’ve heard python isn’t the best for game development, and I’m using it currently because that’s the main language I’ve been coding in. I have a few questions about python and game development:

Is python good for game development? Why or why not?

Are there any tools or libraries you would recommend?

Have you used python for game development in the past, and do you currently?

Right now my impression is that, as python is a high level language, it is slower for memory intensive games. If I continue with game development, I would probably switch to another language. So far I haven’t had any problems with it, because I’ve been programming pretty simplistic 2D games.

Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

Tags: game development, pygame, pygame python, python

Comments

Javabot
13. Aug 2016 · 17:32 UTC
Python really is not the best language for games because other programming languages run a lot faster. Especially since they usually require lots of calculations. It is slower than the rest because it is a “higher” language, while c++ is closer to hardware, or “lower”. Other than that, You can certainly use python to create simplistic 2d games.
edve98
13. Aug 2016 · 20:07 UTC
I am no expert on this but I’m pretty sure you can continue to use python for Ludum Dare and other game jams. However if you decide to create more complex games in your spare time as hobby (or even as a job). I can recommend c++(Cocos2d, Unreal), java (libgdx) or c#(Unity). Also there is Godot if you want something similar to Python (it has it’s own scripting language but apparently it’s very similar to python).
Photon
13. Aug 2016 · 22:00 UTC
The major consideration I would advise you to look into is distribution. Can you deploy an executable that people can easily download and run? You can, of course, let people run the code themselves, but this potentially puts far more work into playing your game on the player and is not very elegant. Most people (during judging) are looking for games that require very little to no effort to get running, and that’s an important consideration if you’re looking for good feedback from lots of people.
microwerx
13. Aug 2016 · 23:29 UTC
I recommend continuing to use Python for this Ludum Dare. Use what you are comfortable with. You will have more than enough things to do during the 48 hours than to be looking up howto’s for a different language. I feel that in 48 hours, Python will run more than fast enough for anything you want to do. I wouldn’t look down on it too much. Many games and applications incorporate Python as a built-in scripting language. And seeing as your typical computer is able to do about a billion things a second, literally, how much do you plan on writing. Even with a 1GHZ processor and 50% efficiency with the interpretation of Python code, at 60fps, you still can do over 8 million things per frame. Pretty sure you can get away with doing a fraction of that per frame.
14. Aug 2016 · 00:43 UTC
If you have created a game in a language like C++ or Java, you will see that Python is much simpler and easier to build a program with. Because it is a higher level programming language, it’s use in developing games is much faster than creating one with lower level languages. Python has its share of two dimensional engines available for free, including PyOpenGL if you require a 3D binding for the language. Plus, since it comes bundled with any Linux distro, making your game run on Linux will require minimum effort.
QualityCatGames
14. Aug 2016 · 05:36 UTC
You should probably stick to what you’re comfortable with.

I have had bad experiences with Python, probably because of its whitespace-sensitivity

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it.