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Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4th Edition Paperback – Illustrated, December 16, 2016

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 514 ratings

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Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python will teach you how to make computer games using the popular Python programming language—even if you’ve never programmed before!

Begin by building classic games like Hangman, Guess the Number, and Tic-Tac-Toe, and then work your way up to more advanced games, like a text-based treasure hunting game and an animated collision-dodging game with sound effects. Along the way, you’ll learn key programming and math concepts that will help you take your game programming to the next level.

Learn how to:
–Combine loops, variables, and flow control statements into real working programs
–Choose the right data structures for the job, such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples
–Add graphics and animation to your games with the pygame module
–Handle keyboard and mouse input
–Program simple artificial intelligence so you can play against the computer
–Use cryptography to convert text messages into secret code
–Debug your programs and find common errors

As you work through each game, you’ll build a solid foundation in Python and an understanding of computer science fundamentals.

What new game will you create with the power of Python?

The projects in this book are compatible with Python 3.
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From the Publisher

Copy of Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4E on black background with No Starch Press logo

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'Ultimate How-to-Learn Python Book'

“...Pretty close to the ultimate how-to-learn python book. First, it combines an easy ramp up from expecting you to know virtually nothing to having you try out – and understand – Python. Second, it provides the code, the tools, and the explanations required for you build a number of increasingly sophisticated games and the know-how to branch out to creating games completely on your own.”

—Computerworld

Copies of Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4E on black background

'A Hit'

"Games are a great way to engage kids, and Python is a perfect language for them to see immediate results on the screen as they code. Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python should be a hit."

—GeekDad

Spread of Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4E on yellow background

'Excellent'

“This is an excellent way to learn Python, if you are a kid or not. Little kids can learn with their adult guide, and older kids will eat this book up in an afternoon or two.”

—Greg Laden, National Geographic's ScienceBlogs

About the Author

Al Sweigart is a software developer and tech book author living in Seattle. Python is his favorite programming language, and he is the developer of several open source modules for it. His other books are freely available under a Creative Commons license on his website. His cat Zophie weighs 11 pounds.

No Starch Press logo. A black circle with a white iron with a star in the center

About the Publisher

No Starch Press has published the finest in geek entertainment since 1994, creating both timely and timeless titles like Python Crash Course, Python for Kids, How Linux Works, and Hacking: The Art of Exploitation. An independent, San Francisco-based publishing company, No Starch Press focuses on a curated list of well-crafted books that make a difference. They publish on many topics, including computer programming, cybersecurity, operating systems, and LEGO. The titles have personality, the authors are passionate experts, and all the content goes through extensive editorial and technical reviews. Long known for its fun, fearless approach to technology, No Starch Press has earned wide support from STEM enthusiasts worldwide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Pretty close to the ultimate how-to-learn python book. First, it combines an easy ramp up from expecting you to know virtually nothing to having you try out – and understand – Python. Second, it provides the code, the tools, and the explanations required for you build a number of increasingly sophisticated games and the know-how to branch out to creating games completely on your own.”
—Computerworld

“Many of the games include flowcharts so the reader will better understand the logic needed to complete the game, and I was especially happy to see a few chapters focus on topics not necessary limited to games such as Cartesian coordinates and using the built-in Debugger.”
—GeekDad

“This is an excellent way to learn Python, if you are a kid or not. Little kids can learn with their adult guide, and older kids will eat this book up in an afternoon or two.”
—Greg Laden, National Geographic's ScienceBlogs

“This book is a great entry point for beginning programmers that 'gamifies' coding, allowing readers to immediately apply the concepts covered, rather than teaching basics with little application.”
—School Library Connection

"If games are your thing, this would be the perfect book to learn Python."
—Rajat, @argent_codes

About the Author

Al Sweigart is a software developer and teaches programming to kids and adults. He has written several Python books, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python and Making Games with Python & Pygame.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ No Starch Press; 4th edition (December 16, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 376 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1593277954
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1593277956
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10 years and up
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1030L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.06 x 0.79 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 514 ratings

About the author

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Al Sweigart
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Al Sweigart is a software developer and tech book author living in Houston. He has written several programming books for beginners, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. His books are freely available under a Creative Commons license at his website https://inventwithpython.com.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
514 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and fun for learning programming. They appreciate the simple language and clear explanations that allow them to apply concepts quickly. The games aspect makes it more interesting to keep moving through the chapters.

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20 customers mention "Learning material"20 positive0 negative

Customers find the book an excellent introduction to programming in Python. It teaches the basics while creating games. The code explanations are thorough, systematic, and clear. Many readers find it a good reference and provide much-needed resources for their students.

"...Al's outdone himself with this one. He does an incredible job of teaching the reader how to program in Python from scratch; whenever he comes to a..." Read more

"...basics, but most importantly, this book gave them the knowledge about troubleshooting their code when things did not work...." Read more

"Its a good book but with a warning. You learn a lot about logic and how to design your code/app...." Read more

"...You’ll definitely get a good understanding of Python for a beginner...." Read more

14 customers mention "Fun"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and interactive. They appreciate the quests and activities that provide immediate results. The games aspect makes it more interesting to keep moving on through the chapters. Readers mention that the book progresses from simple riddle games to 2D graphics games.

"...The writing in this book is tight, engaging, entertaining, and just seriously impressive, and the projects are super fun too...." Read more

"...I like the improved hangman from chapter 9 because it has different levels of difficulty. Please continue to write more books on this topic." Read more

"...The students love quests and activities that gave them immediate results and help...." Read more

"...It's well written and engaging! Strongly recommended to any computer science teachers or anyone who wants to learn coding...." Read more

10 customers mention "Language"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's language clear and easy to understand. They appreciate the simple games that make it easy to grasp the concepts. The book explains the code in simple terms, describing the process step-by-step. It helps readers apply the concepts quickly with examples and step-by-step instructions. The explanations are thorough and systematic, making it easy for parents to learn coding as well to encourage their children to continue to do so.

"...comes to a concept that the reader may not be familiar with, he explains it clearly and thoroughly using simple English, and then demonstrates why..." Read more

"...Students were able to make changes, expand their knowledge of coding basics, but most importantly, this book gave them the knowledge about..." Read more

"...do well on breaking each part of the code into segments and describing the process." Read more

"...It's well written and engaging! Strongly recommended to any computer science teachers or anyone who wants to learn coding...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2017
    I just finished reading "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python", and it's my new all-time favorite book for beginners who want to learn how to program. Al's outdone himself with this one. He does an incredible job of teaching the reader how to program in Python from scratch; whenever he comes to a concept that the reader may not be familiar with, he explains it clearly and thoroughly using simple English, and then demonstrates why the concept is useful.

    The writing in this book is tight, engaging, entertaining, and just seriously impressive, and the projects are super fun too. I particularly liked the Tic-Tac-Toe project: I thought it was really clever to have the reader implement an AI for one of their games so early on in the book, instead of burying something fun like that in a later chapter.

    I don't know if Al's gotten way better at writing over the past few years, or if he's gotten a great editor, or some combination of the two; but whatever the cause, this book really shines. When I read his book "Making Games with Python & Pygame" (published in 2012), I found that he sometimes explained concepts using frustratingly vague language, or introduced them in an order that bothered me, and I also noticed a few typos and bugs in that book's prose and code; I found basically zero such issues in "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python".

    The only main thing I wish he'd change is that he uses mixedCase for his variable and function names, but snake_case is the naming standard in Python programs (documented in PEP8). It's not obvious to me why he prefers mixedCase, and this seems like something that shouldn't have survived to the fourth edition of this book. All in all, though, this is a problem I'm more than willing to overlook, given how otherwise excellent this book is.

    From now on, whenever a friend asks me what the best way is of learning to program, I'm going to point them directly to this book. Keep up the great work, Al!
    51 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2022
    I'm a programmer and I'm teaching Python to my 7-year-old son. I decided to start with this book. It took us over a year to get through all the chapters. My son typed in all the code for each chapter without copying and pasting. After that I read the chapter to him, explaining the code. Then he had fun playing and modifying the games! My son's review is below:

    --------------------------

    Dear Mr. Sweigart, I really enjoyed the games in your book. There are many ways of modifying the games, like in the dodger game, you can make it so that every time your score gets to 1000, the baddies fall faster by 1. Also, you can change all the images and music to be like Zelda and you can make it 2 players. In Sounds and Images, you can make another food that makes you smaller. I like the improved hangman from chapter 9 because it has different levels of difficulty. Please continue to write more books on this topic.
    22 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2019
    In hosting a learn to code python group of students from grades 5-9, many quickly moved beyond our planned coding quests. Three top coders were awarded copies of "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python", and they immediately started coding games. The students love quests and activities that gave them immediate results and help. Students were able to make changes, expand their knowledge of coding basics, but most importantly, this book gave them the knowledge about troubleshooting their code when things did not work. We will use the book and game programs again with the next group of python coders. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn the basics of Python in a fun way. Parents can learn to code as well to help encourage their children to continue to code. Can't say enough good things about the activities in this book.
    9 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2017
    Its a good book but with a warning. You learn a lot about logic and how to design your code/app. He explains each section of the code to you in detail about what it is doing. Right away he teaches you about debugging and how to use that to figure out how the code works. I'd recommend the book for any adult, I would not recommend giving it to your 10 year old kid as they may lose interest pretty quick. Some of the logic is definitely for someone with a bit of previous in school programming or past history of it. I've done simple coding and took Java in college and I even had to really think and investigate on some of the logic. I'd advise you to go over the book yourself before giving to your child to be able to help explain. Another warning is some of the code is really long, lots of typing. And I'd suggest downloading the source files as the code in the book isn't always correct to begin with so your app may not run.
    25 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2021
    My teacher assigned this book. You’ll definitely get a good understanding of Python for a beginner. Only thing I don’t like is that it doesn’t touch on classes at all which could be more beneficial for the last game parts (especially in visuals). But it does still do well on breaking each part of the code into segments and describing the process.
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2019
    I was assigned to teach computer science principles at the last minute and did not get any resources, because bureaucrats take their sweet time to approve anything. This book is awesome and provided much needed resources for my students. It's well written and engaging! Strongly recommended to any computer science teachers or anyone who wants to learn coding. Unlike many other resources, this book begins at the very beginning.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2021
    book itself is very fun, you do really fun things there, it really worth to pay for it. it is easy to follow and need no time more then 2 or 3 week to finish it, but you feel that you programmed some cool game after that.
  • Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2020
    My eight year old, who just moved into chapter books six months ago, reads and re-reads this book with great interest. He’s enjoying learning coding with it. (He started with the Hour Of Code website a year ago, he didn’t start ‘cold’ from this book.)

Top reviews from other countries

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  • Chandra
    5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy buy
    Reviewed in India on August 12, 2024
    Bought this for my son who is in high school. Good to see him stuck to this book and coding on his own. Python is crucial in today’s context and hopefully his love for code grows further. Partly thanks to this book which teaches via a game-like narration.
  • Mario González
    5.0 out of 5 stars Muy digerible y recomendable
    Reviewed in Mexico on July 22, 2019
    El libro tiene una lectura muy facil de digerir. Muy recomendable para interactuar con el lenguaje.
  • Billy888
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book that works well as your first lessons in Python
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2020
    Great book. It was the first book I brought to learn Python. It does the job well but for me I ended up progressing through the book Python Crash Course at the same time at equal pace. This is because the way my mind works, I kept wanting to adapt the programs, making them more complicated to test how I understood concepts and found that the things I wanted the programs to do to weren’t sometimes covered till later in the book or not at all but working through both the books solved most of this for me.
    I will just say about all the complaints about the binding. The reason it is breaking is because the spine of the books are not glued to the cover. For me this was great because I hate creasing the spine of the cover and the way I read books in order to stop this happening works really well with the cover of the book for me and I love the way they are bound because it makes the job of keeping them in undamaged condition so much easier as can hold the book in one hand to work instead of needing to to achieve no damage. It will very quickly break though if like most people probably do flatten the book out on a table/bend it back to keep it open.
  • Gabriel
    5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Quality
    Reviewed in Japan on February 12, 2024
    I had an excellent experience with Rarewaves-USA; they shipped my order promptly and everything arrived in perfect condition.

    The book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" is fantastic. The quality of the book exceeded my expectations and I am thrilled with my purchase. It really doesn't get any better than this!

    Highly recommend both the seller and the book to anyone interested in programming or game development. Truly a great find!
    Customer image
    Gabriel
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Exceptional Quality

    Reviewed in Japan on February 12, 2024
    I had an excellent experience with Rarewaves-USA; they shipped my order promptly and everything arrived in perfect condition.

    The book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" is fantastic. The quality of the book exceeded my expectations and I am thrilled with my purchase. It really doesn't get any better than this!

    Highly recommend both the seller and the book to anyone interested in programming or game development. Truly a great find!
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  • Correcaminos
    4.0 out of 5 stars Bien para empezar
    Reviewed in Spain on July 18, 2017
    Quizás hecho en falta más programas con entorno gráfico.Al final trata sobre pygame. Por lo demás muestra los programas de forma didáctica y amena