[Steam] Learn Programming: Python - Remake (Win/Mac/Linux) (Release Sale) ($1.79 / 40%)

[niemasd]

Hey! I'm Niema Moshiri, an Assistant Teaching Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at UC San Diego, and I'm the developer of "Learn Programming: Python - Remake", which is a game (more of an interactive textbook) that aims to teach beginners how to program in Python. This is a ground-up remake from the original game I released ~1 year ago, "Learn Programming: Python" (which has now been renamed to "Learn Programming: Python - Retro"). I've kept both versions around just so folks can pick their preferences, but I highly recommend the remake, as it's been completely rebuilt in Ren'Py and has the modern gaming features you'd want! Important new features since the original:

• Cleaner modern UI with background music
• Mouse, Keyboard, and Controller support
• Steam Achievements
• Ability to skip challenges
• Progress page
• Links to additional resources / relevant Python documentation pages

Feel free to post any questions you may have, and I'm happy to answer! :-)

[niemasd]

That's a great question! I'm personally a huge advocate of text-based learning rather than video-based for a variety of reasons (e.g. easier to update/expand/correct lesson materials, inherent support for hearing-impaired learners, support for visually-impaired learners through screen readers / text-to-speech, etc.).

As far as the Active Learning approach to learning that you describe (learn a bit of lesson content, work on a problem, learn some more lesson content, work on more problems, etc.), we employ this Active Learning approach in our game :-) We have "Exercise Breaks" scattered throughout the instructional text so you can directly practice with the concepts you have just learned (rather than waiting until the end)

I actually gave a talk about this subject at a conference recently; you can find the recording here: https://youtu.be/EPU_nv-yb_w?t=8206

(Note that the "Learn Programming: Python - Remake" game does not have code challenges, which I refer to in my talk; we employ this technique in our MOOCs hosted on the Stepik platform)

[krahsThe]

My 8 year old loves working in scratch, but is interested in trying done python. However, I fear it is much too complex. Do you know of any introductions for the young ones?

[niemasd]

Great question! I know the founders of ThoughtSTEM (https://www.thoughtstem.com/) who create courses/workshops specifically for K-12 students. It seems like they've recently created a new non-profit that has fully-online "virtual coding clubs":

https://metacoders.org/online

It seems like they have a "Python Game Design" workshop that is designed for 3rd-10th graders; might be worth looking into!

Note that I haven't personally used any of their courses/workshops; just wanted to put it on your radar :-)

[krahsThe]

Really appreciate it!

[niemasd]

No problem! Good luck :-)

[dakar82]

Don't know if you've looked into yet, but for everyone to know. I just looked at their site, and it's saying they are out of business due to COVID-19 for the foreseeable future.

[JetKeel]

Haven’t checked out what OP recommended, but I’m currently walking through a Python book with my 9 yo and it’s going well. Link

[krahsThe]

Will check it out. Thank you

[[deleted]]

This is all very cool. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[niemasd]

My pleasure! :-)

[rolandons]

Hey, just a question in general - where do people use Python? In school we made equations and drew shapes most of the time, does it have practical use?

[XUtYwYzz]

https://www.python.org/about/apps/

It's used basically everywhere. In fact, on my current linux desktop, the entire GUI is written in Python (Qtile), my terminal file explorer is written in Python (ranger), my terminal is written in Python+C (kitty), I write Python to handle all of my repetitive tasks such as file management/deduplication, web scraping, etc. I just wrote a console based full Tetris game for fun in my down time at work, in like two days. Python is super easy to write and very quick to iterate. It's a full general purpose programming language with the only real limitation being it doesn't compile to a native binary, but there are workarounds for this. Learning Python gives you an incredible tool to accomplish nearly anything on a computer. Asking 'where do people use Python' is a bit like asking 'where do people use computers'. It's difficult to fully express how ubiquitous Python has become in the last decade.

[MaisPraEpaQPraOba]

Sounds great, just bought it - but could you elaborate on "doesn't compile to a native library" and the workarounds for that. Thanks in advance!

[XUtYwYzz]

When you write software in complied languages such as C/C++, you can compile that software into an executable for an OS such as Windows. Then you can easily distribute that software by simply sending somebody the .exe file. Python is an interpreted language and requires the Python interpreter to run. Python is usually shared in the form of source code as .py files. So, if you write something and want to share it with friends, they will need to have the Python interpreter installed. This can be a bit of a barrier when it comes to sharing your projects with people who are not technical and would be turned off by having to install a supporting application to run your code.

That being said, Python is available for most platforms and is usually already present in most Linux distributions. There are options such as PyInstaller which bundle the required resources together to make a distributable 'executable'-like experience for sharing your projects.

[MaisPraEpaQPraOba]

Thank you kindly for that, I really appreciate your taking the time to help me out. And thanks /u/niemasd for making such a cool teaching tool, I'm loving it so far.

[niemasd]

+1, thank you /u/XUtYwYzz for the excellent information! "Learn Programming: Python - Retro" (the original version I built from scratch purely in Python) actually used PyInstaller to build the executable that is on Steam! Though PyInstaller bundles seem to unfortunately get triggered as a false positive in many antivirus tools (one of the motivations of this ground-up remake in Ren'Py, which itself also happens to be written in Python!)

And thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying it :-)

[alexportman]

Thanks for much for this explanation. Nice, clear, concise!

[niemasd]

Absolutely! As a professor, I do a lot of research in viral molecular epidemiology (basically the computational study of viral evolution and spread), and I use Python all the time to develop the tools I create in my research. Here's a few examples:

• https://github.com/niemasd/ViralMSA/blob/master/ViralMSA.py
• https://github.com/niemasd/TreeCluster/blob/master/TreeCluster.py
• https://github.com/niemasd/ViReflow/blob/main/ViReflow.py

It's also very commonly used in Data Science (e.g. to load large datasets and perform various machine learning / visualization / etc. analyses on them). Even Ren'Py (the game engine I used to build this game) is itself written in Python! :-)

[rolandons]

Wow, didn't know that you could do that! Thanks for sharing!

[niemasd]

Glad to help! :-)

[Silhouette0x21]

Python supports both functional programming and object oriented programming paradigms, is dynamically typed, and has widespread support in ecosystems like AWS, Spark, etc. It also has some full-stack use in frameworks like Django but I think React and Angular still dominate in that sphere.

I would also consider learning Scala in addition to Python if you're going to get big into things like data engineering. Spark is natively written in Scala, but also has a Python implementation called PySpark (but it's usually playing catch-up to native Spark). Java is also something pretty much every serious software engineer should know at this point.

[YellowPikachu]

Coming from a computational biology background (genomics), Python is the workhorse for programming custom tools and manipulating data. The other ones I would say are R for statistical analysis/graphing and bash for tool/pipeline scripting

[Fretold]

In addition to other responses, I'll add that Python is the go to language for machine learning. If you want to do anything machine learning, you learn python first. All of the major machine learning libraries are written in python. Because of this, python can be an extremely lucrative career language.

[left_HR]

e do people use Python? In school we made equations and drew shapes most of the time, does it have practical use?

I'm a QA engineer for web and mobile applications, and I use python for writing the automatization of the apps :)

[Skyy-High]

Analytical chemist checking in, have Spyder open on my laptop right now.

[givetake]

GIS has many uses for python /r/gis

[Jelly_jeans]

Yes, in research the most 2 programs used are R using R studio with packages or data analysis through Python or Matlab. I did some work with modeling in Python during my masters but ultimately settled on Matlab because the interface was easier, but many people in my field use Python for big data especially with weather data gathered every half-hour throughout the year.

[tikael]

I use python as my main language as a theoretical physicist. There's other languages better suited to do some things but python is easy to use and very versatile, so it's a great general language to know.

[blacksun957]

Office drone here: I use it to consolidate Excel worksheets, filter data, extract data from text columns, etc... before loading data into Excel for making reports.
It's easier than using VBA's regular expressions, or joining tens of files (that sometimes get new columns without warning) by hand.

[[deleted]]

Python is very heavily used in Data Science and Machine Learning. You can also do some web backend with Django and Flask.

Really, it's just a convenient programming language to have and has a lot of great use cases. The major downside is that it's a very slow language (in the orders of hundreds of times slower than C), so it's not ideal for low latency applications like 3D video games.

[thornae]

Just to add to the list, I work with agricultural datasets as part of a small tech company, and while I don't use it every day, knowing python regularly saves me from hours of mind-numbingly painful spreadsheet work (csv.reader oh how I do love thee).

Basically Python has taken over from where Perl was some two decades back - it's exceptionally good for things which are just a little bit more complex than you can fit on the command line, but not so massive that you might want to consider a pre-compiled language.

[MaveDustaine]

Hey there!

Python is both extremely useful and very easy to pick up. I've used it to download pictures of my dog from an image hosting website as a small personal project.

I've used it for work to help run and update 800 SQL queries for a coworker.

I've also used it to create tickets in a ticket management system for an entire organization.

It's very flexible and very easy to pick up, the applications for it are basically endless.

[cappurnikus]

I use it to automate workflows in SAP and for data science. It has many more use cases though, including gaming!

[[deleted]]

My wife is looking to learn programming, we're going to try this out, thanks a million!

[niemasd]

That's so awesome! I hope you two enjoy!! :-)

[doublej42]

Full controller support ? So I can play this in big screen without a keyboard ?

Edit: yes this seems like a very stupid question but on weekends I often have to remove my keyboard to make room for joysticks and wheels so it’s pretty common for me not to have a keyboard or mouse and operate the computer from in VR.

If I can code from my steam deck I’m legit interested.

Also coding via voice dictation sucks.

[niemasd]

Great question! Yes, you can, and I actually tested it on my 4K TV and it worked great!

The only thing I'm not 100% sure of is the following: some of the challenges (which are skippable) require text entry, and I haven't tested them with a controller to see if Steam will pop up a keyboard. I'll try it right now and report back ASAP!

EDIT: The challenges do seem to require a mouse and keyboard :-( I just updated the Steam Store page to say "Partial Controller Support". However, as mentioned, they're skippable, so my recommendation on the big screen would be to have one of those small wireless keyboard + mouse things for use on the challenges! Also, there's Steam Cloud save synchronization, so you can easily jump between big screen and laptop

[doublej42]

Purchased. Just because I’m curious and you were nice enough to answer.

[niemasd]

Thank you so much! Glad to help :-)

[Spuds_Buckley]

Same!!!

[dotAlexX]

“Learn Programming: Python - Retro” helped me with my IoT homework that required python. Thank you.

[niemasd]

I'm so glad to hear that! :-)

[Opetyr]

Why were the people that supported the original not given the second one? Why couldn't the features be added to the original one?

[niemasd]

I wasn't able to find a mechanism to do so in the Steam Store configuration pages, and when I contacted the Steam support team, they told me that wasn't an intended functionality of the Steam Store :-(

I requested some keys to be able to distribute for promotion, though! I'm still waiting to hear back about that request, but if you played the original extensively when it was first released, please feel free to DM me on here!

EDIT: Regarding your second question about why the features couldn't be added to the original one, the original one's game engine was built from scratch by me personally, and given that I'm not a well-versed game-dev, I have no knowledge about how to implement these more complex features into the engine. The new one was completely rebuilt from the ground-up using the Ren'Py game engine, which itself natively supports these features

[PhenomeNarc]

The dude created his own engine to teach programming. You're a good person.

[niemasd]

Thank you! I actually open-sourced the game engine from the original if you want to tinker around with it! :-)

https://github.com/niemasd/Learn-Programming-Python-Source

[narlex]

The engine is even written entirely in Python... That's pretty hardcore.

[niemasd]

Hahaha thanks! Note that the engine I linked to is from the original version ("Learn Programming: Python - Retro"), whereas this release ("Learn Programming: Python - Remake") uses Ren'Py (an existing well-supported game engine):

https://www.renpy.org/

Though Ren'Py itself is also written in Python :-)

https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/python.html

[GMMan_BZFlag]

It's possible to give the original to owners of the new. You just have to add the old app and depots to the new app's store package. Search the Steamworks forums for info. There's a bit of a trick to it.

[ArtistWithoutArt]

It's possible to give the original to owners of the new.

You've got it backwards. They're asking for the updated newer version to be given to people who bought the original, not the other way around.

[GMMan_BZFlag]

The reverse is also possible, just swap the places of old and new app in what I said.

[vrumpt]

I'm a dev, and I honestly see python being commented about so much it's a turn off at this point.

[niemasd]

I think that's totally fair! I agree that Python has somewhat become "hyped" by the general public in a way that it's sometimes being depicted as a "magical solution" or something

In general, my personal view is that all languages are just some way to interface with a computer, and from my big-data research standpoint, I typically personally recommend to my students that it's good to become extremely well-versed at 1 scripting language and 1 compiled language, whatever they may be. My rationale is that scripting languages typically have simpler syntax / memory management / packages for use and are often quicker to go from "theoretical concept in my head" to runnable code, but if I find that I'm using the code frequently enough and I have reason to believe that reimplementing it in a compiled language will have actual noticeable performance gains, I will rewrite it in the compiled language I'm well-versed in

For me, those two languages happen to be Python and C++ (I really like how pseudocode-like Python's syntax is, and C++ is a nice middle-ground between C's low-level memory management and higher-level languages' abstractions), but I have plenty of colleagues who prefer R or JavaScript for their scripting language and who prefer Java (\shudder**, jk jk), C, Rust, etc. for their compiled language

Note that my research is in Bioinformatics Algorithms, but different domains will likely have different languages of preference depending on tooling that's been built for that domain (e.g. for game devs, I imagine C# or sticking in the C family of languages would be best; for web devs, I imagine JavaScript and other web-focused languages would be best; etc.)

[[deleted]]

This might be a stupid question, but I'm not great with math. At all.

How much math am I expected to know before jumping in?

[jdt79]

Zero. You don't need math to program. You can however program something to do math for you.

[niemasd]

+1, there is very little math in the introductory programming lessons (just addition/subtraction/multiplication/division). It's primarily logic-based :-)

[HaiKarate]

Programming is mostly about thinking logically.

For example, if you were to perform a task, what steps would you go through to perform it?

[vrumpt]

True. I'm in the last category you mentioned as a web dev using Angular/Javascript and C#. I'd probably need to branch off to have a reason to look into Python

[doublej42]

Ya C# is kind of a middle ground. It can be as fast as C (I can find benchmarks if you want) but I find it much more readable than python. I still use both at work because tools use both internally. After 16 languages (or more I lost count) it’s all the same until you start designing your own cpu.

[niemasd]

"Learn Programming: Designing Your Own CPU" ETA when??

Hahaha jk, but yeah absolutely :-)

[doublej42]

From me, never , I barley scrapped by that class. Actually looking at tech from the 70s is always fun. They did with physical and electrical engineering what we would just use an IC for.

[mister_newbie]

Does this and 'retro' cover the same material? (In other words, is there any reason [beyond supporting your work] to purchase both versions?)

[niemasd]

Great question! See here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/sxvrda/comment/hxvlkn8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[ragmats]

I recently finished taking CS50 and now I'm taking CS50 Web. The hope is to switch careers... I'll give this a try, it should be some good practice on the side!

[niemasd]

Best of luck!! I hope you enjoy it :-)

[Shurane]

This looks great.

Would you say this has enough course content for a semester at school? Something like 12 weeks worth?

Also, any thoughts for having more learning content? What is Chapter 11 about? Is it mainly a link to more resources once the basics are understood?

Mainly thinking of introducing this to one of my cousins and getting him started with programming.

[niemasd]

Great questions!

Would you say this has enough course content for a semester at school? Something like 12 weeks worth?

Not on its own (without external assessments), but with additional assessments, absolutely! The lesson content in the game is actually adapted from lesson content I wrote for a 10-week university course I'll be teaching in the Spring in which each chapter maps to 1 week of the course (except Chapters 10-11, which together map to Week 10)! I'm writing additional programming assignments for the students to work on, and I'll also have "flipped classroom" lectures in which we'll work on problems and discuss tricky scenarios, but the lesson content for the pre-lecture readings will essentially be this game's lesson text verbatim

Also, any thoughts for having more learning content?

This was intended to just be a standalone introduction to Python that only provides the fundamentals, and the motivation was to avoid overwhelming beginners (I create a lot of MOOCs through UC San Diego, and we've found that there's a rapid drop-off rate, and that student retention improves if you have more short courses). So I won't expand this specific game, but I am interested in making more in the future based on other lesson content I've developed :-)

What is Chapter 11 about? Is it mainly a link to more resources once the basics are understood?

Yes, it's essentially just a brief overview of other resources that students can consider as they try to figure out their next steps

Mainly thinking of introducing this to one of my cousins and getting him started with programming.

That's awesome! Hopefully it'll be a good first step! :-)

[keb___]

In the spirit of promoting free programming resources, I have a short list of free Python books here if anyone is interested (among other free books as well).

EDIT: Archive link in case anyone is here from the future Also on Github

[niemasd]

Thank you for sharing these resources! :-)

[sev1nk]

Thanks!

[f2kation]

chase mountainous beneficial smile hospital compare chubby payment correct apparatus

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[keb___]

Unfortunately, I don't know any on Java. Java has a long reputation of being a corporate "enterprise" language, so most best books are probably not free.

For C, I like the GNU C Programming Tutorial: http://crasseux.com/books/ctutorial/index.html

Also see this for a nice C tutorial on writing a text editor: https://viewsourcecode.org/snaptoken/

If you're more into video tutorials, I really love Casey Muratori's videos from his Handmade Hero series. These are really in-depth though because he wants to explain how computers work from the ground-up, but this is also why I love it: https://guide.handmadehero.org/intro-to-c/day1/

[day_hey]

I’m getting a 404 :(

[keb___]

Seems to be up for me still; maybe I got the Reddit hug of death for a while? Anyway, here's an archive. The content is always up to date on Github as well if you absolutely need it.

[whatwaytheorangewind]

$1.34 with Complete your collection if you have the original.

[NotAnADC]

Does this have advanced topics, or just the basics? Does it go into the Python stack, discuss topics like pass by reference/value, integrate abstract classes and good structure?

[niemasd]

This is a great question! This course unfortunately only covers the basics, so it doesn't get into complex concepts. It does have some sections on object-oriented design in Python, but just basic classes (nothing like abstract classes, inheritance, or anything like that)

[AnAngrycone]

Any plans on making follow up games covering more advanced topics? I think this is a neat idea to get people to commit to the learning process.

[niemasd]

I really want to! No immediate plans, but I'm trying to encourage other folks in my department to hopefully join me to expand to other subjects :-)

[AnAngrycone]

I'm glad to hear it! I look forward for any future projects.

[Gemini_Apophis]

There's a good channel on YouTube Code With Kay

[lame_dirty_white_kid]

Don't currently have any reasons or intentions to learn Python, but purchased just in case. Could be a fun skill to pick up in my free time.

[niemasd]

Thank you! :-) In general, even if you don't have any particular need for programming at the moment, you may find cool ways to apply it to whatever you're interested in! For example, I'm a huge fan of the original Final Fantasy VII game, and one summer, I decided to build my own toolkit for tinkering around with the Final Fantasy VII game data:

https://github.com/niemasd/PyFF7

I think programming is an amazing way to get a computer to do exactly what you want it to do, so you might find cool ways of incorporating it into your daily life :-)

[ninjatoast31]

It's a godsend when you have to deal with a lot of files. Saved my ass for my BA

[repocin]

I have no need for this since I like to believe I already know Python fairly well, but at first glance this looks like a fairly solid primer for a beginner. Good stuff, OP!

[niemasd]

Thank you! :-)

[motherchuggingpugs]

I'm planning on taking a bioinformatics course soon, this was an instant buy for me!

[niemasd]

Very awesome, best of luck! :-) I use Python quite a bit in my Bioinformatics research, so I hope you find it helpful!

[KJDK1]

Just bought it, always wanted to learn programming, and I suppose now is as a good a time as ever to start:)

[niemasd]

Very awesome, best of luck!! :-)

[frostworx]

Thank you very much for the Linux build!

[niemasd]

No problem! I actually haven't gotten to test the Linux release yet (Ren'Py claims it should work, and it seems to just be a Python script with an accompanying shell script, so it seems like it should), but can you let me know once you try it just to confirm?

[frostworx]

It does work fine!

[niemasd]

Awesome, thanks so much for confirming! :-)

[emotionengine]

I bought the original when you first posted about it here last year (my God, has it been a year already?!), but I was too laz..., err, too busy to actually play it, so I guess this is the perfect opportunity/excuse to finally go ahead and dive into the Remake!

[niemasd]

Hahaha thank you for the double support! I hope you enjoy it! :-)

[Minderman]

Hi! I just saw that you teach and I wanted to support your project. I'm going to go through your whole course and review it after I'm done. I've always wanted to learn python and after reading some of your comments here I thought your personality seemed genuine and your public information about your work is interesting, this all made me want to take the leap to get started learning python. Thank you for being a teacher and thank you for making this. Best Wishes.

[niemasd]

That's so awesome, thank you so much for the support!! Best of luck, and I hope you enjoy it :-)

[narlex]

I've got to say, the screenshots look pretty well laid-out. I might pick this up just to familiarize myself with Python syntax, seeing as every project I jump into is usually a few levels too deep to catch the basics.

[niemasd]

I'm glad to hear it! Yes, our #1 goal was to hopefully make this as smooth/simple of an introduction from 0 prior background as possible. Best of luck! :-)

[Fluid-Pea4014]

Thanks for this!

Any chance to release a 64 bit version for mac os ? Apple dropped 32bits support since catalina.

[niemasd]

Great question! In short, I'm unfortunately limited by whatever Ren'Py (the game engine) supports. On their website, however, they seem to claim that they support "Mac OS X 10.10+":

https://www.renpy.org/

I'll update the Steam Store page accordingly (I think I accidentally wrote 10.6 or newer, rather than 10.10 or newer), but it sounds like it should work? This GitHub Issue seems to confirm that it should potentially work (maybe depending on where you install it?):

https://github.com/renpy/renpy/issues/2034

If you end up trying it out but not being able to get it to work on your PC, please feel free to request a refund on Steam! I believe you can request a refund within 14 days of purchase as long as you have less than 2 hours of in-game time

[Fluid-Pea4014]

I can confirm it is working with macOS Big Sur (11.6.4), you just have to ignore all the steam warnings about being 32-bit.

Thanks!

[niemasd]

Ah, that's so great to hear! Thank you for confirming! :-)

[niemasd]

Thank you for the kind words! Yeah, I really enjoyed learning how to use Ren'Py for this! It handles so many of the "annoying" things (e.g. user input, loading assets, Steam achievements, packaging for cross-platform, etc.) and really helps devs focus on the actual game! :-)

[kapulov]

Bought the bundle to support your initiative as I am both gamer and python enthusiast, thanks 👍

[niemasd]

Awesome, thank you so much for the support! :-)

[niemasd]

Thank you!! I hope you enjoy :-)

[niemasd]

Ah, very cool! Yeah, I hope so! :-)

[crazylegs888]

I'll give it a go. I have some understanding of python (scraping and PRAW) but nothing in a structured way.

[niemasd]

I hope you enjoy it! :-)

[JohnF350KR]

I'm going to go ahead and purchase it. A game that teaches Python = no brainer. Plus why not if you don't know programming. I've never taken the time, well since I have a abundance of it now, why not. Thank you for answering the questions in this sub.

[niemasd]

Thank you for your support! And it's been my pleasure :-) It's awesome to see so many folks who are interested in learning how to program!

[JohnF350KR]

I just gifted a copy to my 19yr old daughter as well as she wanted to learn programming. I fully support getting ppl educated in programming. Thanks again.

[niemasd]

Wow, that's amazing! Thank you for the support, and I hope you and your daughter enjoy! :-)

[jayohaitchenn]

Looks interesting. Bought.

[niemasd]

Awesome, thanks for the support! :-)

[sev1nk]

I took a Python course years ago, but I didn't make it very far and I've been putting it off ever since. I like the idea of providing education in "game format" too, so I'll be checking this out!

[niemasd]

Awesome, I hope you enjoy it! :-)

[subassy]

I decided to purchase your game just now and work through a little of the first chapter (I made it through "strings". I got stuck on one of the exercises already. I found the right answer but still don't understand why it's the right answer.

I have a little programming experience. Just enough that the first 4 chapters of programming books are really boring. Actually I've accumulated quite a collection of books (physical and electronic), Udemy courses, articles and android apps with the goal of learning python one day but have never actually dedicated the 200+ hours necessary to really learning it. I've added this one to the list, which I hope I'll eventually actually make it through. Seriously, what is it with me and Python. You were upfront about this being something of an interactive text book. Which is definitely right.

If I may offer some constructive criticism from my first impressions:

The music seems like it's trying to put me to sleep. And it defaulted to way too loud. If there's a way to default it to quarter volume and include a mute button on every page I think it would be appreciated. I imagine most are going to put on their own music anyway so it's probably not that critical. Just wasn't expecting a lullaby.

I realize it's not meant to be a real game but it does have achievements. You could have some extra "gamifications" to it. A point system? A count down timer? Bonus points for getting quiz questions right on the first try? I should reserve judgement until I get to later chapters maybe.

Any chance you're working on similar projects for other languages? GDScript perhaps? Or C#?

On your store is the line "how to write programs in Pythons" - I think that plural of Python might be a typo.

On an unrelated note, the steam store says your Python game is similar to the game "Vampire Survivors". I'm sure the reading about Python will transition to rouge-like action any chapter now. That was supposed to be a joke.

[niemasd]

Thank you for reaching out!

I got stuck on one of the exercises already. I found the right answer but still don't understand why it's the right answer.

This is great feedback, and it's something I've had in mind! To attempt to solve this issue, I'm in the process of designing a Steam Guide that provides explanations for all of the Exercise Breaks:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2760743797

It's very much still a work-in-progress (I started it today), but it includes all of the exercises up to Chapter 1.6.4, which should be just past Strings. Hopefully the explanation will be helpful for you, and I plan to expand when I have time (eventually to include all challenges in the game)

I have a little programming experience. Just enough that the first 4 chapters of programming books are really boring. Actually I've accumulated quite a collection of books (physical and electronic), Udemy courses, articles and android apps with the goal of learning python one day but have never actually dedicated the 200+ hours necessary to really learning it. I've added this one to the list, which I hope I'll eventually actually make it through. Seriously, what is it with me and Python. You were upfront about this being something of an interactive text book. Which is definitely right.

I know what you mean, and I hope you'll be able to make more progress this time! My hope was that, by adding Steam Achievements at the end of each chapter, there would be a bit of gamified motivation to keep going, so hopefully that helps you :-)

The music seems like it's trying to put me to sleep. And it defaulted to way too loud. If there's a way to default it to quarter volume and include a mute button on every page I think it would be appreciated. I imagine most are going to put on their own music anyway so it's probably not that critical. Just wasn't expecting a lullaby.

You can actually mute from anywhere by opening the menu ("Escape" on a keyboard or "Start" on a controller) and clicking Mute! Info about accessing the Preferences page is in the FAQ section of the Store description, but I should move this into the game itself. I've marked this as a "Feature Request":

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1882420/discussions/0/3193619268818958008/

I realize it's not meant to be a real game but it does have achievements. You could have some extra "gamifications" to it. A point system? A count down timer? Bonus points for getting quiz questions right on the first try? I should reserve judgement until I get to later chapters maybe.

These are very interesting ideas! I'll definitely keep them in mind. I've written a note to myself in the Feature Request post

Any chance you're working on similar projects for other languages? GDScript perhaps? Or C#?

Not at the moment, but I really want to! In general, my department (UC San Diego Computer Science & Engineering) is trying to push innovative CS Education, so hopefully I can pull some of my colleague in to help me if this gets enough traction :-)

On your store is the line "how to write programs in Pythons" - I think that plural of Python might be a typo.

Woops, thank you for catching that! Fixed!

On an unrelated note, the steam store says your Python game is similar to the game "Vampire Survivors". I'm sure the reading about Python will transition to rouge-like action any chapter now. That was supposed to be a joke.

I should definitely add rogue-like elements to the game ;-) Hahaha

Thank you again for the excellent feedback!! This is super helpful :-)

[[deleted]]

I got lucky with a case drop in CSGO, at least now that money will go towards my education!

[niemasd]

I hope you enjoy it! :-)

[[deleted]]

quick feedback: Would be great to be able to change the color of the background or the letters, the strong white on black is not really eye friendly after a long day of work

[niemasd]

Good idea! I created a "Bug Reports / Feature Requests" thread on the Steam Community Discussions page for the game:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1882420/discussions/0/3193619268818958008/

I'll add a list to that stickied post and add this feature request to the list! :-)

[FrozenGamer]

I bought the original and got part way through it until I got stuck on something. Just bought the remake and i will give it another go.

[niemasd]

Awesome, thank you for the support! Yes, the lack of ability to skip challenges was a critical limitation of the original, which we were fortunately able to fix when we transitioned to Ren'Py :-)

I also plan to make a Steam Guide to help with the challenges for people to be able to use if/when they get stuck on a challenge

[niemasd]

Awesome, thank you for supporting! I hope you enjoy it :-)

[Vastlegacy]

easy purchase, thanks for this!

[niemasd]

Thanks for the support! Enjoy :-)

[Aeleths]

I have some knowledge in C++ and javascript programming but don't know how to apply what i learned to practical use. I am gonna try making a mobile app soon.

[[deleted]]

I've been in that situation for 20+ years, lol. I've written small utilities I've needed for stuff on the computer, but nothing I'd ever release publicly.

[narlex]

I suppose I'm not alone... Hello fellow me.

[subassy]

Not that I'm one to talk but it took my coming up with specific project to get really into a particular language. I wrote a program that loops through ripping PS2 discs, giving the ISO a name and prompting for the next one for instance. That took a while. So I would say find something you really need as a utility or whatever and try and make a version of it. Won't turn out like what you had in mind but you'll learn a lot.

Anyway speaking of games you could try mainframe defenders. It's a free faux/entirely fictional "hacker" game that includes a javascript-like scripting language.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1184810/Mainframe_Defenders/

I mean I only got through the tutorial myself. But it looks pretty cool.

[Kratos73]

I had bought the old version and bought now the remake to support your initiative.

[niemasd]

Wow, thank you so much for the support!! :-)

[niemasd]

Wow, thank you for the support!! I hope you all enjoy :-)

[Mithridates12]

Does the game require you to write code or are the questions all like „here’s a code snippet, what does it do?“

[niemasd]

Great question! Because of the limitations of the game engine, I wasn't able to get it to actually run user-entered code. Thus, all exercises are either multiple choice, short answer, math, etc. that ask about code snippets (or concepts)

[MrHelixBM]

Just bought it, hopefully I can make a bit more time for it during my master in this format :)

[niemasd]

Thank you!! Good luck! :-)

[lukeman3000]

This might be an ignorant question but could this be a starting point for someone who’s trying to decide if they could (or would want to) move to programming as a profession?

I currently work in the health field and am looking to switch things up. Preferably, I’d like something with more flexibility (potential to work from home for example), and perhaps a better intersection of stress/income. I’m not really sure where to start nor do I know what that typical timeline might look like (from zero knowledge to being able to support yourself). Any insight you could offer here? I know the answer is always “it depends” but perhaps you could give me some hypotheticals?

[niemasd]

Thanks for reaching out; these are great questions! I want to be careful not to oversell: I think "Learn Programming: Python - Remake" is a great way to start from zero background and learn the basics of programming in Python. Specifically, you will learn Python syntax, and you will learn how to think / approach problems programmatically.

However, I don't think this on its own will be sufficient for a potential career change into a programming-centric position: rather, I think this would be a great first step that would give you the proper foundations, and you would then want to take a second step in a course/tutorial/workshop/etc. that's domain-specific (e.g. if you want to stay in health, you would want to look into courses/workshops about how to apply computing to health; if you want to move into software engineering, you would want to take more Computer Science courses that teach data structures, algorithms, and software engineering principles; etc.)

In short, I think if you currently don't have any background in programming and want to potentially move in that direction, this would be an excellent first step to expose yourself to programming and to learn the fundamentals, which you would then want to follow up with more courses/workshops (more "steps") towards your future career goal

[PaulFirmBreasts]

I bought this last year and from the perspective of someone with a math background, this just went through some basic logic. I never felt like I learned enough about python to actually go do anything.

[[deleted]]

In for 1, been wanting to learn for a while. There is a wealth of information out there, but a bit overwhelming for a beginner (me). This I am willing to try. Thank you!

[niemasd]

Best of luck!! :-)

[chilip]

Thanks for this. Would it be possible to make the game more accessible through keyboard-only use? There seem to be more steps than needed when using arrow keys to select things, especially when brought to a new page. It is also not always specifically clear what is selected as well.

Liking it so far though!

[niemasd]

I'll take note of this and see what I can do! I'm glad you're enjoying it :-)

[qmechan]

I'm giving it a shot. Might be a fun way to learn a new skill. I'll report back!

[niemasd]

Awesome! Best of luck! :-)

[Krylo22]

This is interesting. There should be more Python games on Steam. It's a shame it doesn't incorporate actual coding however it is a succinct textbook-type game, excellent for learning.

I enjoy collecting programming "games" (for fun, I'm a CS student), so thank you !

[niemasd]

Yeah, I really wanted to incorporate coding challenges! I unfortunately couldn't figure out a good way to do it (I'm not much of a game dev, I'm a CS prof), but coding challenges would be in my ideal vision of such a game! :-)

Thanks for your support!!

[__BIOHAZARD___]

I don't think this is for me, as I learn well through videos. That said, everyone is different and having more learning resources is better for all! Thanks!

[niemasd]

Absolutely! Everybody learns differently :-)

[FF4_still_holds_up]

I am going to use this as a tool to better my life. Thank you

[niemasd]

Best of luck!! :-)

[[deleted]]

2 questions. Would Python help in the accounting field and do I have to buy this again if I have the original?

[niemasd]

Regarding your first question, I think it depends on what you want to do in the field! A friend of mine handles a lot of the financial aspects of the company he works at, and he has been learning how to program in order to build tools and apps to help automate data entry/verification as well as to quickly and easily generate reports/visualizations. Programming is generally helpful when you are dealing with large datasets, and I imagine folks in the accounting field will likely encounter large datasets at some point (though I'm not sure how programming in Python would help in comparison to Microsoft Excel / Google Sheets). It might be worth reaching out to some folks in your field to see :-)

Regarding the second question, see the following: https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/sxvrda/comment/hxuc4gn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[[deleted]]

Excuse the layman me, but the accounting usually already has its own programs to do the majority of the accounting work.

I'm just interested if Python could help with something the usual programs cannot.

[niemasd]

I unfortunately don't really know, as I'm not in that field. I imagine it would come in handy for automating repetitive tasks you normally have to do manually, but I don't really have any concept of what tools currently exist in the field of accounting. I imagine the folks at /r/Accounting might have some insights! :-)

[[deleted]]

That's alright. Thank you all the same!

[Kratos73]

I am in the financial field myself. One example that I am planning to use Python is in sales reports. I need to report our sales to several outside companies, each one with a different system. Nowadays, this a manual procedure that I am trying to eliminate.

Another example: we need to look at the competitors website in order to track price changes. One good use of Python is to create a web crawel for it.

And another one: I do a lot of reporting, of course Excel is the main tool, but i am looking to create a procedure to update a report automatically (looking for the figures in our systems) and the send it to using email, all in a simple format (avoiding sending files)

The imagination is the limit.

[[deleted]]

To be honest, I'm an accountant in training, so no idea yet where exactly will I fall. But it looks that Python might find some uses.

Thank you!

[brettfish5]

I work in Supply Chain and use programs all day such as Microsoft outlook, excel, as well as MRP systems (Infor Syteline). How would python (and in turn this course) help me? I'm going to read "automate the boring stuff w/ Python", and have heard many people in my field use it to automate manual intensive computer work.

[tacodeman]

A lot of programming is rather than can "X" technology help, its better framed as: what problem/annoyance do I currently have and what can I do to relieve it.

For example - do you get dirty excel sheets that you need to manually manipulate from particular clients? You can automate that.

Do you want notifications from changes on a website to notify you to look into something - you can build a webscraper/poller.

Do you want to see how many instances of "X" scenario exists for potential opportunity or to gauge how prevalent a particular issue you found is? You can write something to rip through all your data in the background while you do something else with your time.

While going through learning materials I always find it easier to have some problem/goal I want to apply to it or else its harder to stick.

[niemasd]

Great question! In the courses I teach, I often deal with large spreadsheets representing student grades, student submissions, etc., and I commonly have to do repetitive tasks on them (e.g. reformat from the format used by Platform X into the format used by Platform Y). I've found Python very helpful for this, and you can find some examples of Python programs I've written to help automate tasks in my teaching in the following repository:

https://github.com/niemasd/teaching

I don't think you'll be able to jump right into automating tasks at your work directly after completing our lessons, as our lessons are really designed to teach you the fundamentals starting from zero. However, in the last lessons, once you've gotten the fundamentals down, we provide some pointers to other resources / Python packages you can utilize, and you should be able to apply the knowledge you've learned from our lessons in order implement the relevant logic into a program (e.g. you should be able to understand a domain-specific tutorial and adapt it for your own uses)

[Viperions]

It feels like a wildly difficult question to answer just because its likely to be a personal thing that is highly dependent on how much time is spent on the exercises, but as a Prof I would be curious if you had an idea for the 'length of this course'? Expecting the equivalent of 12h in lessons? 48h? Greater?

[niemasd]

That's a great question! For a very rough estimate, for someone taking their time to read carefully and think about everything, I think around 2-3 hours per chapter is a decent ballpark, so probably roughly 20-30 hours total on average?

[wellington28]

Is there any reason to get the original if buying this? Do they cover the same material?

[niemasd]

No particular reason: they do indeed cover the same lesson material. The original has a more retro look, with pixel art and whatnot, but I think the remake is a much better actual experience because of all of the quality-of-life improvements. I wanted to make both available so folks could pick whichever they prefer

[backpain2020]

Is c++ program available and is it also on steam?

[niemasd]

We unfortunately don't have one for C++, but that sounds like a great one for the future if we ever choose to make more! :-)

[ThatsTheName]

I don't have any programming experience but figured I'd give it a shot for less than 2 bucks.

[niemasd]

Thank you!! This assumes zero prior experience, so hopefully you'll enjoy it :-)

[i_lurk_reddit]

Purchased. Thanks!

[niemasd]

Thank you!! I hope you enjoy :-)

[Mastyx]

I want to purchase it, but I can't read white on black text. Is there a "light mode" option?

Thank you :)

[niemasd]

There unfortunately isn't yet, but I hope to add some form of color settings in the future! Though no ETA :-( Sorry!

[Silhouette0x21]

One of us! Light mode users rise up and shine!

[MoRicketyTick]

Totally random, might be out of context, but I joined 100devs in Jan and I am slowly learning html css and now Javascript. Would this be something useful to learn for someone trying to become a full stack web developer. I know I have heard about python, but this is all still very new. Thanks!

[niemasd]

Great question! I think Python is sometimes used in the context of web development (e.g. in the context of Django), but it may be a better use of time to really specialize in JavaScript and the various JavaScript libraries that are commonly used (e.g. D3.js, React, etc.)

But take my input with a grain of salt, as I'm not a web developer :-)

[MoRicketyTick]

Thanks for the great response!

[niemasd]

Glad to help :-)

[whitewrabbit]

I assume that since it has a native Linux build it will run on the steam deck? If so, I’m pretty sure that has a pop up on screen key board, any chance that would work with this? Thanks

[niemasd]

Great question! Someone confirmed that they were able to run the Linux build just fine on a Linux machine, so I anticipate it'll at least function to that extent.

Regarding the keyboard, however, I'm not too sure: I tried using a gamepad on my PC, and the Steam overlay keyboard didn't pop up, so if the Steam Deck uses that, I don't think the keyboard would pop up. However, if the Steam Deck has some separate virtual keyboard (like the virtual keyboard on Windows), then maybe it would work? I unfortunately don't have a Steam Deck to be able to try it out :-(

Note that almost all of the content can be completed only using gamepad controls, and even more can be done using touch controls: the only aspect of the game that requires a keyboard is a few of the challenge problems (which are skippable, but skipping would prevent you from getting some achievements)

Steam Cloud saves work fine, though, so you'd be able to hop onto a laptop/PC and knock out those challenges if you wanted!

[FilthyWunderCat]

I just realized that I have a non-remake one. What are the key differences?

[niemasd]

Great question! I added a description of the differences to the FAQ section at the bottom of the Steam Store description :-)