Pygame Videogame Maker

A 2D platformer game creator with a built-in visual editor, built with Pygame.

This project lets you compose game scenes in an integrated editor, save them as EEI compositions, and run them immediately.

Features

• Scene editor: Compose scenes from a scrollable palette of exported entities and environments, then inspect the scene tree and edit supported properties.
• Extended viewport: The target game resolution is centered inside a larger composition workspace. Elements can be placed outside the target area and remain in the composition; the game view clips them at runtime.
• EEI compositions: Save scene hierarchy, class paths, transforms, and state to versioned .eei.json files.
• Editor-only markers: Logical nodes such as music can expose a selectable marker without adding a sprite to gameplay.
• Keyboard and gamepad editing: Use mouse controls or the virtual cursor and buttons on a connected controller.
• Project generator: Create a new game folder with the editor, runtime, starter components, and an empty composition.

Getting Started

1. Installation

To install the project dependencies, run:

uv sync

2. Run the Editor

The project includes a visual editor that runs by default. To launch it, use:

uv run pygame-editor editor

This will open the editor scene. To run the current game composition directly, use:

uv run pygame-editor run

Create a game project

From this repository, generate a clean project folder:

uv run pygame-editor new MyGame --output-dir ../games
cd ../games/MyGame
uv sync
uv run my-game editor

The generated project keeps the editor, runtime, and generic entities and environments, but starts with an empty composition. Run it with uv run my-game run. See game/docs/DevelopingAGame.md for instructions on adding game-specific entities, environments, assets, and mechanics. Replace my-game with the command generated from your chosen project name.

Export a game

When development is finished, create a game-only Linux export with:

uv run pygame-editor export game

The command asks where to create dist/; press Enter to use the current directory. To choose the directory without a prompt, pass --output-dir:

uv run pygame-editor export game --output-dir ../release

The export is written to dist/<project-name>-linux/. It keeps the game runtime source, composition, and assets, and removes the editor and input tester scenes. An existing vendor/ directory is copied as well. The exporter currently looks for a launcher named PygameVideogameMaker.pygame; if your generated project renamed it, rename it to that name before exporting. The launcher requires Python 3.12 or newer on the target device; any native packages in vendor/ must match the target Linux architecture. This export does not bundle a Python interpreter or cross-compile dependencies. See game/docs/ExportingAGame.md for the full workflow and platform notes.

Switch scenes

Use F2 or Tab to move to the next scene, and F1 or Shift+Tab to move to the previous one. Press Escape to close the application.

The Visual Editor

The editor provides these current scene-building features:

• Target resolution: Choose 720×480, 1024×768, desktop size, or enter a custom resolution. The game target stays centered in the workspace.
• Palette: Add concrete entities and environments exported by the game modules. Scroll each palette column when it contains more items than fit on screen; placing an item starts a drag so you can position it immediately.
• Composition workspace: Select and drag nodes inside the extended workspace, including areas outside the target game frame. Nodes keep their game-space coordinates when you save or play.
• Scene tree: Select nodes from the hierarchy, review parent/child relationships, and scroll through larger compositions.
• Property inspector: Edit supported public values on the selected node. Booleans toggle on click; text and numeric values can be edited with the keyboard.
• Context menu: Right-click a node to delete it, change its render order, or add an allowed entity or environment before or after it.
• Save and play: Use the toolbar buttons or Ctrl+S to save. Play saves the composition and opens it in the game scene.
• Controller cursor: When a joystick is connected, the left stick moves a virtual cursor, A/B act as the primary click, Y/X act as the secondary click, and the right stick scrolls panels.

To add a selectable editor marker for a logical object without a sprite, define EDITOR_MARKER_LABEL on its class. The marker is drawn by the editor only.

The Entity–Environment Interaction Model (EEI)

The project uses a design model where the game is built from two main components:

• Environments (Environment): Represent spaces or zones that apply rules to their child entities. Built-ins include backgrounds, forces, music, and void containers; environments may be nested under entities.
• Entities (Entity): Game objects such as players, platforms, and items. Each entity belongs to an environment and may contain child environments.

The editor enforces these parent/child rules when adding nodes and records the hierarchy in the composition file. Learn how to extend it in game/docs/DevelopingAGame.md.

You can adjust the initial window size, title, FPS, and display settings in game/configs/settings.toml. The editor also lets you choose the target resolution per composition.

[window]
title = "Videogame Maker"
width = 720
height = 480
fps = 60

Controls and Controllers

The editor loads its controller labels and mappings from game/configs/controllers/generic.toml. Define controls as TOML arrays of tables; the editor also has fallback button and axis indices.

name = "Generic Controller"
deadzone = 0.2

[[buttons]]
name = "a"
index = 0
label = "A"

[[axes]]
name = "left_x"
index = 0

Console Deployment

The deployment script vendors the current Python dependencies and transfers the working project over SSH. It is intended for Linux-based console setups with a compatible Python runtime already installed:

bash deploy_to_console.sh

For a game-only folder without editor scenes, use pygame-editor export game first. The export command prepares a local folder; deploy_to_console.sh deploys the current project tree and does not automatically deploy that export.

Utility Scripts

Optimize PNG Images

The project includes a script to trim excess transparent space from your sprites, optimizing their memory footprint.

# Trim all images in the platforms folder
uv run python scripts/prune_pngs.py game/assets/images/platforms