Learn to write games using Python

Computers & Mobile
Learn to write games using Python

game_programming_python.jpg

Interested in learning how to program, or know someone who is? Then you might want to check out Al Sweigart’s free book, Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python. Now in it’s second edition, the Creative Commons-licensed book was written to help anyone, young or old, learn to program in the powerful Python language.

From the introduction:

Programming isn’t hard. But it is hard to find learning materials that teach you to do interesting things with programming. Other computer books go over many topics that most newbie coders don’t need. This book will teach you how to program your own computer games. You will learn a useful skill and have fun games to show for it!

This book is for:

  • Anyone who wants to teach themselves computer programming, even if they have no previous experience programming.
  • Kids and teenagers who want to learn computer programming by creating games. Kids as young as 9 or 10 years old should be able to follow along.
  • Adults and teachers who wish to teach others programming.
  • Anyone, young or old, who wants to learn how to program by learning a professional programming language.

It looks like it could be a great place for a budding programmer to start, and since it available online for free, why not check it out? [via O’Reilly Radar]

12 thoughts on “Learn to write games using Python

  1. Brent says:

    I needed to convert my Perl skills to Python skills for my job. I didn’t want my actual work code to be my initial testing ground for python so I wrote a small game in my spare time. It was a networked strategy game which forced me to learn various python modules (networking, threading, imaging, xml, etc.).

    I highly recommend anyone wanting to dive into python to try writing a game in it whether you use the guide mentioned in this article or just on your own.

  2. Stephen says:

    I’ve been reading the first few pages of this and I really like his idea. I’ve seen too many beginner computer books that are over simplified to the point of being factually wrong. There’s a real need for books that explain computers, which let’s face it, are something that’s here to stay to children and young people (and just the not yet technical) in a way which accounts for the fact that computers 1) just are complicated machines and you need to accept that and 2) still need to be written for a novice audience.

  3. Eric says:

    Alice is a better choice than Python:

    http://alice.org/

    1. Maha says:

      Is alice a language? Python is an actual language that you can learn. Why is alice a better choice?

      1. Eric says:

        Alice is an object-oriented language and an ide. The cool part is that you learn procedural (and object-oriented) programming through creating animations, a whole lot nicer than the “print the odd numbers less from 100” approach that I learned back in the late 70s.

        Here’s a random example that I pulled off youtube:

    2. Bob D says:

      Wow, thank you Eric! You somehow know all of my requirements for every one of my projects to be able to determine that Alice is a better choice. You have mad skills!

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