PyGameMaker

A GameMaker-style visual game development IDE for creating 2D games with Python.

⬇️ Download PyGameMaker 1.0

Version 1.0 is here — grab a ready-to-run build. No Python install required:

Platform	Download
Windows	PyGameMaker.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon)	PyGameMaker-macOS-ARM.zip
macOS (Intel)	PyGameMaker-macOS-Intel.zip
Linux	PyGameMaker-Linux.tar.gz

See all releases & release notes, or read the Getting Started guide in the wiki. Prefer to run from source? See Installation below.

First launch: on Windows, SmartScreen → More info → Run anyway; on macOS, right-click the app → Open to get past Gatekeeper.

Building a maze in the PyGameMaker room editor, with a live preview of the room in the properties panel.

Educational Goals

This project serves a dual educational purpose:

1. Learn Python through Game Development - Use PyGameMaker to create games visually, then examine the generated Python/Pygame code to understand how game logic translates to real programming concepts.

2. Learn Advanced Python through IDE Development - Contribute to PyGameMaker itself and explore real-world software engineering: Qt GUI development, plugin architecture, code generation, internationalization, and more.

Overview

PyGameMaker provides a familiar drag-and-drop interface inspired by classic GameMaker, allowing users to create games visually using:

• Blockly Visual Programming - Build game logic with visual code blocks
• Traditional Event/Action System - GM80-style event-driven programming
• Asset Management - Sprites, sounds, backgrounds, objects, and rooms
• Multiple Export Targets - HTML5, standalone executables, and more

Features

• Visual sprite editor with animation strip support
• Room editor with instance placement
• Object editor with Blockly-based event programming
• Real-time game preview and testing
• Project import/export
• Multi-language support (English, French, German, Italian, Slovenian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian)

Recent Improvements

Internationalization

• Added complete Spanish (Español) translation with 650+ translated strings
• Added Russian language support with flag icons in the language menu
• Flag icons now displayed in the Tools → Language menu for easier selection

UI/UX Enhancements

• Room preview now shows in properties panel when a room is selected in the asset tree
• Events tree expands by default to show actions immediately
• Right panel collapses automatically when object editor is active
• Fixed room editor properties not updating when switching between rooms
• Fixed inconsistent icon sizes in asset tree between sprites and objects

New Features & Actions

• Added show_message action alias for Blockly compatibility
• Added <self> option to set_sprite action for current sprite animation
• Implemented 10 additional missing actions for game logic

Bug Fixes

• Fixed infinite loop when navigating to next/previous room at boundaries
• Fixed broken dependency checks in EXE and Linux exporters
• Fixed asset_modified signal bug (now correctly uses asset_updated)

Code Quality & Testing

• Added comprehensive test suite with 81+ ActionExecutor tests
• Added 19 event type tests for the event system
• Added runtime game engine unit tests and integration tests
• Configured flake8 for code quality with linting fixes applied
• Improved CI workflow with proper test structure

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or higher
• PySide6 (Qt for Python)
• Pygame
• Pillow

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Gabe1290/pythongm.git
cd pythongm

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install PySide6 pygame Pillow

Running

python main.py

Project Structure

pygm2/
├── core/           # Core application logic
├── editors/        # Asset editors (sprite, object, room)
├── dialogs/        # UI dialogs
├── widgets/        # Custom Qt widgets
├── export/         # Game exporters (HTML5, EXE, Kivy)
├── config/         # Configuration and Blockly settings
├── translations/   # Language files
├── tutorials/      # Built-in tutorials
├── scripts/        # Build and utility scripts
└── docs/           # Documentation

Building Standalone Executable

python scripts/build_nuitka.py

License

The PyGameMaker source code is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE.

The documentation (everything under docs/, wiki/, in-app tutorials, this README, the CHANGELOG, manuals and flyers) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) — see LICENSE-docs.

Attribution: Gabriel Thullen, 2025-2026.

Third-Party Libraries

• PySide6 - Qt for Python (LGPLv3)
• Pygame - Game development library (LGPLv2.1)
• Pillow - Image processing (HPND License)
• Blockly - Visual programming (Apache 2.0)

Author

Gabriel Thullen

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.