pyved-engine 23.8a1

Custom game engine built upon python/pygame

Introducing pyved-engine, a Python package that provides a powerful and efficient 2D game engine named Pyv.

Designed to streamline game development Pyv offers a comprehensive set of tools for rapid prototyping and game production.

Create captivating and bug-free applications effortlessly. Pyv offers an array of built-in modules for seamless management of game assets, AI integration, procedural generation, and other advanced features. Join our vibrant community today and unlock the full potential of your game development with Pyv!

Join our Discord

Why not simply use Pygame?

There seems to be some confusion within the community regarding the distinction between a Python package and a game engine. It's important to note that Pygame, while being a Python package, does not offer the comprehensive set of features found in a dedicated 2D game engine. As a result, it may not fulfill all the requirements necessary for developing a fully-fledged game.

How can a game engine help me?

A game engine provides invaluable time-saving benefits by storing a collection of useful and reusable code snippets within its framework. Instead of reinventing the wheel and wasting your precious time by re-writing generic code for video games, you can leverage the power of the engine.

By referring to the comprehensive documentation, you can quickly learn how to implement various functionalities such as pathfinding or loading spritesheets. With simple function or method calls, you can seamlessly integrate these features into your game, saving precious development time and effort!

Getting started

To install our Python package, simply type:

pip install pyved-engine

Once Pyv is available on your system, to begin, open a command line and create a new game by typing the following command:

pyv-cli create [MyGame]

Replace [MyGame] with any fancy name you prefer for your game. This command will initialize your project and generate a boilerplate source code. For the sake of clarity, we have copied the boilerplate code below:

import pyved_engine as pyv

pyv.init(pyv.HD_MODE)

Read/improve the technical documentation

The documentation isn't finished. Your help would be very appreciated to improve that part. Files used to build the documentation can be found within the docs\ folder, there is also the mkdocs.yml file that is located at the root folder of the project.

To preview the bleeding edge version of docs, you can type:

mkdocs build
mkdocs serve

If it doesn't work, remember that you needed the mkdocs python lib first. To fix this rapidly you can type: pip install -r requirements.txt

For now, the documentation is available in only two languages: English and French.

of video games)

• a wrapper around the popular pygame lib
• the abbreviation for [k]ata [engi]ne

Why "kata"? Kata.Games denotes a new gaming platform that helps indie game developers to create and share digital experiences easily, all around the globe! Via this innovative platform, we're proud to publish all kinds of games powered by pyved-engine.

For advanced user

Design principles

1. Code readability matters. Clean, expressive code is not a luxury!

2. pyved-engine encourages the use of patterns such as the Mediator or MVC, but people should remain free to use their favorite coding style.

3. pyved-engine will be embedded in a versatile toolbox simply named pyved

Feature Overview

The game engine comes packed with useful features:

1. global event queue (simplifies the use of both the Mediator and the MVC design patterns)
2. gamestate stack, state management via events
3. simple GUI creation: buttons, checkboxes, etc.
4. tileset loading, sprite animation
5. tilemap parser (based on .tmx or .tsj file formats)
6. mathematical tools: matrices ; vectors ; gradient noise functions (->procedural generation)
7. helper classes for coding roguelike or RPG games
8. helper classes for coding card games (Poker, Blackjack, etc.)
9. helper classes for adding artificial opponents/intelligent entities (NPCs) to your game
10. ...

Installation

To get started, first, copy the source-code (as a .zip file) from Github. It is recommended to download the last tagged version, (not the most recent commit) because most recent dev versions might be unstable.

Once you have the files on your computer, use the command line to navigate to the root folder of the project (one level below src\).

Because pyved-engine is still in an alpha phase, it is recommended to clone the repository by yourself and then use the command line to install pyved-engine in an editable mode.

> git clone https://github.com/gaudiatech/pyved-engine.git .
> cd pyved-engine
> pip install -e .

These 3 lines install pyved-engine on your system, but also allow you to modify the source-code of the engine.

Getting started

To test pyved-engine right away, you could create an empty file named test_engine.py. Then copy-paste the basic code snippet below, it shows you how a game can be built.

import pyved_engine as pve

HELP_MSG = 'press ESC to exit, any key to change bg_color...'
CAPTION = 'my first video game, hi mom!'

pve.init(1, caption=CAPTION)
pygame = pve.pygame
screen = pve.get_surface()
color_idx = 0
allcolors = ('pink', 'yellow', 'purple')
bg_color = allcolors[0]
print(HELP_MSG)
gameover = False

while not gameover:  # game loop
    for ev in pygame.event.get():
        if ev.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
            if ev.key == pygame.K_ESCAPE:
                gameover = True
            else:
                color_idx = (color_idx + 1) % len(allcolors)
    # update "game logic"
    bg_color = allcolors[color_idx]
    # update the display
    screen.fill(bg_color)
    pve.flip()

print('done!')

This is only one possibilty, very similar to how you define games using pygame-ce. In the docs you will see better, more efficient ways to define your games.

Mini tutorial

If you're familiar with pygame, getting used to pyved-engine is really easy. Navigate to the src/ folder. There, you see a very basic example that uses only pygame:

• demo-a-pygame.py

Now try to notice what is different when one uses pyved-engine (only minor details change):

• demo-a-kengi-straightf.py

This is only one way to use pyved-engine but it's most likely that you will start with this one, if you already have some background in creating games using pygame. Actually, one can see pyved-engine as a mere wrapper around pygame. Everything that you can do with pygame can be done the same way when using pyved-engine, but pyved-engine also unlocks many new features that are very worthy of interest!

To explore more possibilities you can take a glimpse of the next demo that implements the same thing but using the M-V-C pattern:

• demo-a-kengi-mvc.py

Note that this program starts with the declaration of a list of user-defined events. User-defined events can have attributes. These events, just like regular pygame events, are processed via a standard method proc_event that you need to re-define when you sub-class pyved-engine.event.EventReceiver...

General goal

As a wise man (Joel Spolsky) once said:

"It’s Harder to Read Code than to Write it"

Our general goal is to empower you to:

1. write standardized therefore very easy-to-read code

Readability is not to overlook! If you take care of your code readability you'll encounter 30% fewer bugs, you will fix any bug faster, etc. It works like magic!

2. write a type of code that can evolve easily

By using our built-in event system along with the M-V-C pattern, you can reach an amazing level of code flexibility.

3. be more productive

And, interestingly enough:

5. distribute your newly created games via our awesome Kata.Games platform!

In this way, your whole game and the python source-code that it's made of, can be played directly by modern browser (Chrome, Brave, etc.). A world premiere!

License

Currently, materials in this repo are all licensed under the LGPL3 license. See the LICENSE file for more info.

Contribute

Feel free to join the developer team. It's a super easy two-step process: (a) start by forking pyved-engine, (b) join our Discord to discuss, or create a Pull Request directly!

If you spot a bug, create an issue and tell us how to reproduce the bug. The documentation is built via the mkdocs tool. Feel free to make it more user-friendly! It's as simple as modifying a few text files in the docs/ folder. Pull Requests are much appreciated!

Newcomers are always welcome, below are listed the 10 first contributors –our Hall of fame– ;-)

• wkta-tom architecture, event system, design patterns
• tank-king fancy game templates (flappy bird, match3)
• jwvhewitt isometric engine
• ...