Skip to content

Getting Set Up for Pygame Zero

Over the next several labs you'll build real video games: an alien dodging a bee, tanks that hunt you down, weights falling from the sky, and an infinite runner with costumes and a Game Over screen. Every game studio starts somewhere. Ours starts with a folder named images.

Overview

In this lab you'll install the Pygame Zero library in Thonny, make a home folder for your games, download every image the whole unit needs in one zip file, and run a tiny test program to prove your setup works. Ten minutes here saves a headache in every lab that follows.

Before you start

Open Thonny. If you can't find it on your computer, ask for help before continuing.

You've got it when…

  • pgzero shows as installed in Thonny's package manager.
  • You have a Pygame Zero folder with a folder named images inside it.
  • The images folder holds all 41 game images from the download.
  • Your test program opens a window with the alien on a sky-blue background.

Collaboration & AI

Work: On your own. Ask a neighbor for a hand if you're stuck, but do the setup on your own computer.

AI — AIAS Level 1, No AI: This lab is about learning where your files live, and only you know where you put them. What the levels mean.

Install Pygame Zero

Thonny comes with Python built in, but the Pygame Zero library is a separate piece. Thonny has a package manager for exactly this job, so there's nothing to download from a website.

  1. In Thonny, open the menu Tools ▸ Manage packages…

  2. Type pgzero into the search box at the top and click Search on PyPI.

  3. Click pgzero in the search results, then click Install. When the progress messages stop, click Close.

Warning

The package is named exactly pgzero — no spaces, and no "pygame" in front. Similarly named packages are not the library we want.

Info

If pgzero already appears in the list of installed packages when the window opens, someone has beaten you to it. Skip to the next section.

Make a Home for Your Games

Every game you write in this unit will live in one folder, next to one shared images folder. Keeping them together is not just tidiness — Pygame Zero only looks for images in a folder named images sitting beside your program.

  1. In your Documents folder (or wherever your teacher tells you), create a new folder named pygame-zero.

Download the Game Images

Your games will star an alien, a bee, two tanks, some hearts, and a small wardrobe of runner costumes. All 41 images are in one zip file.

  1. Download the zip file.

    Download pygame-zero-images.zip

  2. Double-click the downloaded file to unpack it. On Windows, right-click it and choose Extract All… instead. Either way, you end up with a folder named images.

  3. Move the images folder into your pygame-zero folder.

Warning

The folder must be named exactly images — all lowercase, no spaces — and it must sit inside your pygame-zero folder, next to the programs you'll write. Pygame Zero will not look anywhere else.

What's in the zip?

All 41 images for the whole unit, so you only do this download once. Each lab also offers its own images as individual downloads, in case one ever goes missing.

Test Your Setup

The smallest possible game will tell us whether everything is in the right place.

  1. In Thonny, create a new program and save it as alien_test.py in your pygame-zero folder — next to the images folder, not inside it.

  2. Type this program.

    alien_test.py
    import pgzrun

WIDTH = 800
HEIGHT = 600

alien = Actor("alien")
alien.x = WIDTH / 2
alien.y = HEIGHT / 2

def draw():
    screen.fill("skyblue")
    alien.draw()

pgzrun.go()

  3. Run your program with the Run button (or press F5). Your screen should look like this.

    The alien centered in a sky-blue Pygame Zero window.

The bookends

Two lines in that program do jobs our old editor used to do for us. import pgzrun is the first line of every game — it loads the Pygame Zero library. pgzrun.go() is the last line — it starts the game running. Everything between the bookends is your game. Every program in this unit begins and ends exactly this way.

Where did the alien come from?

Actor("alien") found alien.png in your images folder by name — no .png needed. That's the whole reason the folder matters.

Checkpoint

If the alien is on your screen, your setup is done and every lab in this unit will find its images. If you got an error instead, check that alien_test.py sits next to (not inside) the images folder, and that the folder name is exactly images. An error like No module named 'pgzrun' means the library isn't installed — go back to Install Pygame Zero at the top of this lab.

Turn It In

  • Submit your alien_test.py file in Google Classroom.

How It's Graded

This lab is worth up to 4 points. One score covers everything you turn in.

Score What it looks like
4 — Excellent Your alien_test.py runs as-is: a window opens with the alien centered on sky blue. That only happens when everything upstream is right — pgzero installed, all 41 images inside a folder named exactly images, and your program saved next to that folder, not inside it.
3 — Above Average The setup works with a minor slip you had to fix along the way — the file saved in the wrong spot and moved, or a mistyped folder name corrected at the checkpoint.
2 — Average pgzero is installed and the folders exist, but the test program errors or was never finished.
1 — Below Average Little of the setup done — no images folder in place, or no test program at all.
0 — Failing Nothing submitted, or no evidence of the setup.