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I have accumulated a large collection of game development books over the years, virtually all of which are an inch or two thicker than this book—even though they cover similar subjects and techniques. The disparity is not because my writing is terse or I use a smaller font—it is because traditional game development tools tend to require a large amount of technical knowledge that the reader must first absorb before building even the simplest of games. Even seasoned game developers find the technical requirements of starting a game to be enough of a barrier that they are less likely to work on game ideas that are unproven or potentially not commercial-worthy. Game development may have become easier over the years, with simplified programming inter- faces and more programmers wishing to share their knowledge, but writing a game is still a significant undertaking.

When I discovered Python, it lowered a number of barriers to writing software, because I could work faster and accomplish more with less effort, and when combined with Pygame I could experiment with game ideas and build a complete game from scratch in record time. The beauty of Pygame is that it makes the various tasks in creating a game (setting up a display, drawing to the screen, playing sound, etc.) only as complicated as they need to be—and it turns out that's not particularly complicated at all!

Many one-liners in Pygame would take dozens of lines in C++, the traditional tool of game developers.

Although Python and Pygame are superb tools for rapid game development, there is little in the way of books or web tutorials for Python game programmers, who often have no choice but to mentally translate from another language to Python when researching a new topic in game development. This book was conceived to fill that gap and allow the beginner game pro- grammer to get up to speed with Python and learn the fundamentals of game programming without having to first learn C++, C#, Java, or another language first. It was also my opportunity to explain 3D game programming in a way that is accessible to nonmathematicians—some- thing that is not easy to find in other books.

In short, this is the book I would have wanted to have when I started out in game development!

Who This Book Is For?

This book is for anyone who has thought about creating a computer game, or wants to learn about the technology behind game development. Although Python is the tool of choice for this book, many of the techniques covered are equally applicable to other languages.