Step 1 - Install and Open a Window

Our first step is to make sure everything is installed, and that we can at least get a window open.

Installation

• Make sure Python is installed. Download Python here if you don’t already have it.

• Download this bundle with code, images, and sounds. (Images are from kenney.nl.) Your file structure should look like:

• Make sure the Arcade library is installed.

  • Install Arcade with pip install arcade on Windows or pip3 install arcade on Mac/Linux. Or install by using a venv.

  • Here are the longer, official Installation Instructions.

I highly recommend using the free community edition of PyCharm as an editor. If you do, see Install Arcade with PyCharm and a Virtual Environment.

Open a Window

The example below opens up a blank window. Set up a project and get the code below working. (It is also in the zip file as 01_open_window.py.)

Note

This is a fixed-size window. It is possible to have a Resizable Window or a Full Screen Example, but there are more interesting things we can do first. Therefore we’ll stick with a fixed-size window for this tutorial.

01_open_window.py - Open a Window

"""
Platformer Game
"""
import arcade

# Constants
SCREEN_WIDTH = 1000
SCREEN_HEIGHT = 650
SCREEN_TITLE = "Platformer"


class MyGame(arcade.Window):
    """
    Main application class.
    """

    def __init__(self):

        # Call the parent class and set up the window
        super().__init__(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, SCREEN_TITLE)

        arcade.set_background_color(arcade.csscolor.CORNFLOWER_BLUE)

    def setup(self):
        """ Set up the game here. Call this function to restart the game. """
        pass

    def on_draw(self):
        """ Render the screen. """

        arcade.start_render()
        # Code to draw the screen goes here


def main():
    """ Main method """
    window = MyGame()
    window.setup()
    arcade.run()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Once you get the code working, figure out how to:

• Change the screen size

• Change the title

• Change the background color

  • See the documentation for arcade.color package

  • See the documentation for arcade.csscolor package

• Look through the documentation for the Window class to get an idea of everything it can do.