Python Lessons and Tutorials

While the majority of our classes are held in-person - there's no substitute for the classroom teacher-student interaction - we have created a number of online tutorials to help get started or to help students review what they've learned in class.

All lessons are available on our YouTube channel, and we're also adding text-based versions of every lesson for those that prefer reading over watching. Read on to see what's available.

Please consider supporting these lessons:

Game Development with Pygame

If you're interested in game development, this is the place to start. We'll introduce you to Pygame, the Python-based game library, and show you how to get started.

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Pygame Tutorial #1: Shmup (Space Shooter)

Your first Pygame project! Follow along step-by-step as we build a space shoot-em-up (aka "Shmup"). Each lesson, we'll add one feature to the code until we have a fully working game! Some of the things you'll learn how to do:

• Player Controls (keyboard)
• Handling Collisions
• Sprite Animations
• Sound and Music
• Ending the game (and restarting)

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Pygame Tutorial #2: Jumpy Platformer (Doodle Jump style)

Ready to jump to the next level? (see what we did there?) In this project, we'll step up our game, using some more advanced methods and Pygame features to build a "Doodle Jump" style platformer. Some of the new techniques we'll learn:

• Saving the high score
• Simulating gravity and friction
• Using spritesheet graphics
• Pixel perfect collisions

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Pygame Tutorial #3: Tile-based Game

The latest Pygame tutorial series tackles the concept of tile-based games, where the game world is based on a grid of tiles, including ideas like scrolling maps, pathfinding, enemy AI, and more.

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Game Development In-Depth

"In-depth Topics" will explore and explain a little more deeply certain subjects that may be tricky for new programmers to understand, or that may not quite fit into the usual tutorial structure. Most will likely be math related, but they may also cover other topics that come up or are requested by viewers.

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