Install

Using pip

Tip

For beginners unfamiliar with Python, a more in depth guide to installing Python and Arcade can be found in the The Arcade Book.

The most common way to install Arcade is to use the pip package manager. This will install the latest version of Arcade from PyPI.

pip install arcade

If you are installing Arcade directly into your system Python, meaning you are not using a virtual environment (or don’t know what that is), you may need to use the --user flag to install Arcade just for your user.

pip install arcade --user

Upgrading an existing installation of Arcade can be done with the following command:

pip install -I https://github.com/pythonarcade/arcade/archive/refs/heads/development.zip

The -I flag is used to force reinstall the package completely ignoring what you have installed.

Development version

Pre-releases of Arcade may appear on PyPI using the dev suffix. It’s also quick and easy to install the latest development version from github

If you prefer to install from git:

git clone https://github.com/pythonarcade/arcade
cd arcade
pip install -e .

This installs Arcade in editable mode, so you can make changes to the code and see the changes immediately. Also consider forking the repository on github installing your fork instead.

Running examples

Arcade comes with a rich set of examples that demonstrate basic usage of the library.

To test that the installation was successful, check out the Examples section and run one or more of the examples. The command to run the example is in the header of each example file.

For example:

python -m arcade.examples.sprite_explosion_bitmapped

Built-in resource

Arcade comes with a set of built-in assets that can be used in simple project while learning the library. See the Built-In Resources section.