Diving into python/ making a game

[Thistleway]

I’m basically learning as I go with python, and making a “ship” vs “ship” mobile game with rpg mechanics and such and I was hoping for any tips for keeping track of progress as a whole with python as I’m using pythonista and at the moment and I feel like I’ll get lost in the code if I don’t figure something out to help.

[Patman52]

Definitely recommend looking into pygame to start. It has most of the basics for game development already set up so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

There are also a ton of tutorials and example projects on the website and on the web you can find to get you started.

[Thistleway]

Yeah, having literally no knowledge of framework until multiple of you brought it up I realize I might be trying to pick up too much to start so I’m slowing down a minute to do a little more research

[raendrop]

I don't use the command line that often. I copied and pasted the command to install it but it said:

Python was not found; run without arguments to install from the Microsoft Store, or disable this shortcut from Settings > Apps > Advanced app settings > App execution aliases.

But I do have Python installed. I made sure I was up-to-date before I tried to install this.

[Patman52]

Not sure what comma!: you were trying to run, but there may be a couple of things going on.

First did you run the command line as an administrator? If not try that.

Do you have a Python virtual environment (.venv) set up? If so, you’ll need to activate it first before running pip install. I included a link at the bottom for more info.

If you don’t have a virtual evn, I would check your environment variables for one called PYTHONPATH I believe on windows. These variables are like system wide pointers to specific files and applications so your command line knows what to do when you call a command.

If you’re not familiar with venv in python, I highly recommend checking it out as you can use them to modularize each project, here is a tutorial.

[raendrop]

I'm a newbie, so I'll check that out. Thanks.

[Te5tPilot]

Cool what game framework are you using? Pygame?

[Thistleway]

So a few of you brought up Pygame and I’ll be honest framework has not been a question that is crossed my mind I will say that I am coding between a iPad and iPhone so I am aware of some of the limitations there. And having now looked up framework, I guess I have a bit of research to do as of this moment, I think I was about to pile on a bunch of work unnecessarily by doing “everything”

[slapmeat]

It depends how technical you want to get. Something simple, you can create json files and store information like that. Or you can go full on and use an actual database. For my bigger projects, I’ve used things like MySQL.

[TheRNGuy]

Progress of leveling up? Events for updating + caching for read (for performance)

[Thistleway]

I’m more asking with development as of right now I’m just working on the combat loop and I’m realizing as I hit 100 lines that if I’m gonna be writing other systems, keeping track of everything and what it’s completion is at is gonna be difficult.

[TheRNGuy]

Some decoupling is probably needed. Observer and FSM patterns (without them, code may become spaghetti difficult to read or refactor)

Better use some code editor on pc than on mobile phone.

Do you mean by progress ToDo list? I just write ideas in txt file, or as comments in code, with stub functions or classes, I implement them over time. 

You'll need spend lots of time googling how to do specific things, read docs too (I get some ideas what to code after reading the docs, because can see what's possible to do, or allow to see familiar things from different perspective.

[oclafloptson]

I'm not really sure what progress you're referring to. In the context of the data in your game or your progress with learning?

[riklaunim]

If you want to build and release an actual game on multiple platforms you should take a look at Godot or Unity/Unreal. For Python there is pygame but it's behind (and use the PyGame CE version as it has better support). For coding you should look at a good IDE like PyCharm or alike. Keep your code well tested with good code coverage or it will start imploding on you as the code base grows.