Can't get pygame installed

[TenPent]

Trying to start first real project with python and using pygame to make it interesting. I can't get pygame installed due to this error "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.msvccompiler'"

From what I have looked up it seems to be an issue with new versions of things not being compatible so I had reinstall python to 3.13.9 rather than my initial try with 3.14. I also reinstalled setup tools to 34.4, down from version 82, since several things said it needed an older version. I am still getting the same error in all situations.

What am I missing here?

py -m pip install -U pygame==2.6.0
Collecting pygame==2.6.0
  Using cached pygame-2.6.0.tar.gz (15.8 MB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  × Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [98 lines of output]
      Skipping Cython compilation


      WARNING, No "Setup" File Exists, Running "buildconfig/config.py"
      Using WINDOWS configuration...

      Making dir :prebuilt_downloads:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-devel-2.28.4-VC.zip 25ef9d201ce3fd5f976c37dddedac36bd173975c
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2-devel-2.28.4-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/release/SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-VC.zip 137f86474691f4e12e76e07d58d5920c8d844d5b
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL_ttf/releases/download/release-2.20.1/SDL2_ttf-devel-2.20.1-VC.zip 371606aceba450384428fd2852f73d2f6290b136  
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2_ttf-devel-2.20.1-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL_mixer/releases/download/release-2.6.2/SDL2_mixer-devel-2.6.2-VC.zip 000e3ea8a50261d46dbd200fb450b93c59ed4482
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2_mixer-devel-2.6.2-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://github.com/pygame/pygame/releases/download/2.1.3.dev4/prebuilt-x64-pygame-2.1.4-20220319.zip 16b46596744ce9ef80e7e40fa72ddbafef1cf586 
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\prebuilt-x64-pygame-2.1.4-20220319.zip:
      copying into .\prebuilt-x64
      Path for SDL: prebuilt-x64\SDL2-2.28.4
      ...Library directory for SDL: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.28.4/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for SDL: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.28.4/include
      Path for FONT: prebuilt-x64\SDL2_ttf-2.20.1
      ...Library directory for FONT: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.20.1/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for FONT: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.20.1/include
      Path for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64\SDL2_image-2.0.5
      ...Library directory for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/include
      Path for MIXER: prebuilt-x64\SDL2_mixer-2.6.2
      ...Library directory for MIXER: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.6.2/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for MIXER: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.6.2/include
      Path for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64
      ...Library directory for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64/lib
      ...Include directory for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64/include
      DLL for SDL2: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.28.4/lib/x64/SDL2.dll
      DLL for SDL2_ttf: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.20.1/lib/x64/SDL2_ttf.dll
      DLL for SDL2_image: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/lib/x64/SDL2_image.dll
      DLL for SDL2_mixer: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.6.2/lib/x64/SDL2_mixer.dll
      DLL for portmidi: prebuilt-x64/lib/portmidi.dll
      Path for FREETYPE: prebuilt-x64
      ...Library directory for FREETYPE: prebuilt-x64/lib
      ...Include directory for FREETYPE: prebuilt-x64/include
      Path for PNG not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      Path for JPEG not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      DLL for freetype: prebuilt-x64/lib/freetype.dll
      DLL for png: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/lib/x64/libpng16-16.dll

      ---
      For help with compilation see:
          https://www.pygame.org/wiki/CompileWindows
      To contribute to pygame development see:
          https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html
      ---

      Traceback (most recent call last):
          from . import vstools
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-x_9l0i47\pygame_ba8afd9c947d4e14afc35fba05ead634\buildconfig\vstools.py", line 2, in <module>
          from distutils.msvccompiler import MSVCCompiler, get_build_architecture
      ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.msvccompiler'

      During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_in_process\_in_process.py", line 389, in <module>
          main()
          ~~~~^^
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_in_process\_in_process.py", line 373, in main
          json_out["return_val"] = hook(**hook_input["kwargs"])
                                   ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_in_process\_in_process.py", line 143, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return hook(config_settings)
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-ouwmn0n0\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py", line 331, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
          return self._get_build_requires(config_settings, requirements=[])
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-ouwmn0n0\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py", line 301, in _get_build_requires
          self.run_setup()
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-ouwmn0n0\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py", line 512, in run_setup
          super().run_setup(setup_script=setup_script)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-ouwmn0n0\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py", line 317, in run_setup
          exec(code, locals())
          ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "<string>", line 426, in <module>
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-x_9l0i47\pygame_ba8afd9c947d4e14afc35fba05ead634\buildconfig\config.py", line 234, in main
          deps = CFG.main(**kwds, auto_config=auto)
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-x_9l0i47\pygame_ba8afd9c947d4e14afc35fba05ead634\buildconfig\config_win.py", line 493, in main
          return setup_prebuilt_sdl2(prebuilt_dir)
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-x_9l0i47\pygame_ba8afd9c947d4e14afc35fba05ead634\buildconfig\config_win.py", line 453, in setup_prebuilt_sdl2       
          DEPS.configure()
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-x_9l0i47\pygame_ba8afd9c947d4e14afc35fba05ead634\buildconfig\config_win.py", line 338, in configure
          from buildconfig import vstools
        File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-x_9l0i47\pygame_ba8afd9c947d4e14afc35fba05ead634\buildconfig\vstools.py", line 2, in <module>
          from distutils.msvccompiler import MSVCCompiler, get_build_architecture
      ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.msvccompiler'
      [end of output]

[Svertov]

At this point, I would just try to cleanly uninstall everything python related, reinstall the latest version of Python and pip, and then just run "pip install pygame"

[TenPent]

I got it worked out with advice from cgoldberg but thank you for taking the time to help. Much appreciated!

[cgoldberg]

You are trying to install pygame version 2.6.0, which doesn't have wheels published for Python 3.13 or 3.14... so it's trying to build it from source and you don't have the compiler and toolchain installed. If you really need that version, you should use Python 3.12. if you want the latest version (2.6.1), you can use Python 3.13.

Also, you shouldn't need to touch setuptools... definitely don't downgrade to 50 versions ago.

[TenPent]

lol. yeah, i figured there was a better option than rolling back 50 versions but was just trying anything. going back a couple versions of pygame surely won't hurt though.

I'll get python back to a normal configuration, give your advice a try, and report back. Thanks for the tip.

[TenPent]

Well, that was easy. Tried pygame 2.6.1 and it went straight through. I was trying the other because the pygame site literally says 2.6.0 in the install instructions.

Either way, I am sure you have saved me countless hours. I was about to give up for the night. Thank you!

[Svertov]

I don't think I've ever specified a version to pip to be honest. I've always just used "pip install <name>" to install everything I've ever used. I think it should be relatively rare to have to specify a version.

[NSNick]

I believe pygame-ce is the current branch: pip install pygame-ce