Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python
Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python (or IYOCGwP “eye-yawk-gwip”) is a book (hopefully a series of books) that teaches Python game programming for kids in the 9 to 12 year old age range. Instead of teaching principles and concepts, each chapter has a complete example of a game and its source code up front, and then provides explanation for the code.
The main website is
http://pythonbook.coffeeghost.net
The book is freely available to copy and distribute for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons license. Any feedback or comments would be greatly appreciated.
Filed under: Blog by AlSweigart |
Great Idea! I wish I’d thought of it! ;-)
It’s been a long time since I was typing in those games from Creative Computing books. The dragon game reminds me of hunt the wumpus.
Comment on June 18, 2008 @ 11:56 am
Hey Al,
I downloaded your python book and I’m loving it so far. I’m gonna use it as an introduction to programming with my 10 year old son.
I read the about the author and I have good news about your fear of losing brain cells. Neuralgenesis. We grow new brain cells with use. Here is a link to more information. http://web.mac.com/memoryguy/Julian_Keith/Research.html
Thanks for the book.
Comment on August 29, 2008 @ 6:59 am
Wow. I remember back in 1987 when I first copied the Dragon World BASIC listing into the TurboC IDE because I wanted to write a game. That was my first introduction into computer programming, and many years later it’s my career. It was a great walk down nostalgia to see Dragon World living again to once again get kids into programming games with Python. Thanks for doing this!
Comment on August 29, 2008 @ 7:27 am
Thanks for grt book
Comment on September 8, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
Excellent documentation on Python game programming!
Comment on September 15, 2008 @ 9:35 am
thank you very much for this excellent resource!!
one thing I noticed: the page numbering isn’t working (pdf version): the table of content always says “page X”, the pages themselves don’t have any number. only minor flaw but maybe you can consider it for the next update.
thanks again, your book is very valueable to me.
Comment on September 18, 2008 @ 1:16 am
This is one of the great tutorials i have being longing to read.great job man. And please where can i get more of such interesting tutorials. And thanks once more.
Comment on September 23, 2008 @ 10:02 am
This is awsome! I personally have wanted to learn python for a while now, but did not want to go through the troubles of reading all those boring documentation all over again after already knowing C++ and Java. And since I don’t need to use oop for the way I want to use it (Blender 3D) all I need is this book. Thank you SO much. This will also help all my coder buddies (I was trying to get them to learn C++ until I saw this, and I was not having very high hopes). This will be a good intro for them into the programming world. Thank you once again.
Comment on September 30, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
this is the best python book ,thank u.
Comment on October 1, 2008 @ 3:33 am
I searched over the web and found a good resource for game programmers.Thanks for sharing.
Comment on October 1, 2008 @ 9:46 pm
This is a great book! Have you thought about exercises?
Comment on October 19, 2008 @ 6:47 pm
Thank you Al!
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to teach my kids (now 11 and 13) that programming is fun and easy and a good way to learn other stuff on the way. I haven’t found any material on the web yet that would be good enough to do the job, so I have started thinking of doing something myself for JavaScript.
Now I found your book though and it seems to be just what I wanted. Me and my kids will give it a try this winter. The only problem I can see right now is that our native language isn’t english (I’m from Sweden) but I think we can overcome that as well.
Comment on November 2, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
Very interesting book! When can we expect to see book 2?
Comment on November 3, 2008 @ 7:35 pm