Questions for New Dependencies & Comparing Python Game Libraries

The Real Python Podcast

What are the differences between the various Python game frameworks? Would it help to see a couple of game examples across several libraries to understand the distinctions? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects.

We discuss a Real Python article by previous guest Jon Fincher titled “Top Python Game Engines”. Jon compares five different game frameworks and provides example projects and thorough commentary for each.

We talk about a blog post by recent guest Adam Johnson about determining if a project is well maintained. He suggests twelve questions to decide whether to add a new dependency to your project.

We cover several other articles and projects from the Python community, including a news roundup, Python decorator patterns, finding the smallest and largest values with min() and max(), a discussion about the most-used Python packages, the pony object-relational mapper, and a project to read PEPs in your console.

Course Spotlight: Using Pygame to Build an Asteroids Game in Python

In this course, you’ll build a clone of the Asteroids game in Python using Pygame. Step by step, you’ll add images, input handling, game logic, sounds, and text to your program.

Topics:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:02:04 – News: Python Release Python 3.11.0b1
• 00:02:56 – Faster CPython project
• 00:04:16 – nogil conversation at the 2022 summit
• 00:06:08 – PEP 690: Lazy Imports
• 00:08:14 – DjangoCon US & Europe 2022 Call for Proposals
• 00:09:25 – Top Python Game Engines
• 00:20:38 – Sponsor: CData Software
• 00:21:20 – Python Decorator Patterns
• 00:24:00 – The Well-Maintained Test: 12 Questions for New Dependencies
• 00:29:27 – Python’s min() and max(): Find Smallest and Largest Values
• 00:33:33 – Video Course Spotlight
• 00:34:44 – Which Python Packages Do You Use the Most?
• 00:41:42 – pony: Pony Object Relational Mapper
• 00:47:41 – pepdocs: Read PEPs in Your Console
• 00:50:20 – Thanks and goodbye

News:

• Python Release Python 3.11.0b1
• Faster CPython
• faster-cpython/cpython: The Python programming language
• nogil conversation at the 2022 summit
• PEP 690: Lazy Imports
• DjangoCon Europe 2022 Call for Proposals
• DjangoCon US 2022 Call for Proposals

Topic Links:

• Top Python Game Engines – In this tutorial, you’ll explore several Python game engines available to you. For each, you’ll code simple examples and a more advanced game to learn the game engine’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Python Decorator Patterns – Decorators are a way of wrapping functions around functions, they’re a common technique for providing pre- and post-conditions on your code. Learn about the different ways decorators get invoked and how to write each pattern.
• The Well-Maintained Test: 12 Questions for New Dependencies – There is lots of openly available code out there, but how do you know if you should build a dependency on some random coder’s package? 12 Questions you should ask yourself before using a library.
• Python’s min() and max(): Find Smallest and Largest Values – In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Python’s built-in min() and max() functions to find the smallest and largest values. You’ll also learn how to modify their standard behavior by providing a suitable key function. Finally, you’ll code a few practical examples of using min() and max().

Discussion:

• Which Python Packages Do You Use the Most?

Projects:

• pony: Pony Object Relational Mapper
• pepdocs: Read PEPs in Your Console

Additional Links:

• Eric Snow on Twitter:”We need your help making CPython faster. Publish benchmarks for your app or library.”
• Episode #59: Organizing and Restructuring DjangoCon Europe 2021 – The Real Python Podcast
• PyGame: A Primer on Game Programming in Python – Real Python
• Make a 2D Side-Scroller Game With PyGame – Real Python
• Primer on Python Decorators – Real Python
• The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code – Joel on Software
• Episode #97: Improving Your Django and Python Developer Experience – The Real Python Podcast
• pyflakes · PyPI
• coverage · PyPI
• pudb · PyPI
• Django | The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines
• django-awl · PyPI
• waelstow · PyPI
• six · PyPI
• Pygments — Welcome!
• chardet · PyPI
• certifi · PyPI
• pandas - Python Data Analysis Library
• Project Jupyter | Home
• Bokeh

Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses:

• Using Pygame to Build an Asteroids Game in Python
• Python's map() Function: Transforming Iterables
• Python Decorators 101

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