Projectile

Projectile is a totally legit pygame game. It's a bit basic, but it's easy to hack and tweak.

Tutorials

Continue down this page for installation instructions.

Installation

Getting pygame on Linux

See pygame docs.

Getting pygame on MacOS

MacOS doesn't have python3 by default. An easy way to get it is with Homebrew. From a terminal, install Homebrew:

$> /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
$> brew update

Then, install python3:

$> brew install python3

Then, use pip to install pygame:

$> pip3 install pygame

Getting pygame on Windows

These instructions are for Windows 7. They might also work for later versions of Windows.

Windows doesn't have python3 by default. Download the installer for the latest version of Python 3.6 from here.

Then, run the installer. Make sure to check the "Add Python 3.6 to PATH" box, and click "Install Now." See Python documentation for more details.

When Python has finished installing, click on the Start Menu, type cmd.exe, and hit [enter]. This opens a terminal. To install pygame, type

py -m pip install pygame --user

and hit [enter].

You can check that it worked by running the Aliens game included with pygame:

py -m pygame.examples.aliens

See also pygame documentation.

Getting Projectile on Linux and MacOS

Clone the game's repository to a suitable location:

$> git clone https://github.com/etomzak/projectile.git projectile_trunk

Getting Projectile on Windows

At the top of the Projectile project page (probably the same page that you're reading this text on), click "Clone or download," then "Download ZIP." It will download a file named projectile-master.zip.

Once it's finished downloading, open your Downloads folder. Right-click on projectile-master.zip, and click "Extract all..." Choose where to extract the game to with "Browse." It doesn't really matter where you put it as long as you can find it.

Running the game

On Linux and MacOS

From a terminal:

$> cd projectile_trunk
$> ./projectile-game.py

A short help page is available with

$> ./projectile-game.py -h

On Windows

Navigate to the folder where you extracted projectile-master.zip. Then, open the folder projectile-master. There is another folder in there named projectile-master. Open that one as well.

Then, find the file named projectile-game.py (or just projectile-game). Double-click it to start the game.

Playing the game

Projectile is a simple platformer where you jump around and shoot at stuff. The game is composed of levels, players, baddies, and projectiles. You control a player and shoot projectiles at baddies. Baddies shoot projectiles back at you. Killing baddies gives you points. Getting killed by baddies makes you lose the game. My current personal best for the default, unmodified game is 3945 points.

The game has been designed to make it easy to add new players, baddies, projectiles, and levels. Currently there are two each of players, baddies, projectiles, and levels.

Controls

Key	Action
⬅️➡️	Move
⬆️⬇️	Look up, look down
[space]	Jump
f	Shoot
p	Pause
q	Quit

Cast

Players

Player	Description
	Fred is your garden-variety stick figure guy. He's trying to get back his gold or rescue the princess or something. Fred starts out with 20 health and shoots BBs by default.
	Ilmar is a tank. He can't be hurt by projectiles, and he shoots slugs by default. Every time he fires, there is a 10% chance that the projectile will backfire and Ilmar will blow up.

Baddies

Baddie	Description
	Kreutzwald is an angry-looking balloon, but he can't actually hurt you. He has 1 health and is worth 5 points.
	XOR is an aggressive machine thing that shoots BBs at you as it flies around. It has a small attack surface and is difficult to hit. It has 3 health and is worth 20 points.

Projectiles

Projectile	Description
	BBs are the most basic projectile. They cause 1 damage. A BB power-up has 30 BBs, and normally a player can have 10 BBs in flight at once.
	Slugs are heavy projectiles that do 5 damage. A slug power-up has 10 slugs, and a player can normally have 5 slugs in flight at once.
	The Blaster is a laser gun! Every shot of the blaster fires 5 fast-moving laser bursts, and each burst does 10 damage. Because it's so powerful, a blaster power-up can fire only 3 shots before it burns out. A player can normally have 1 shot in flight at once. Don't point at airplanes.

Levels

Level	Description
	Zero is a simple level with some barriers.
	BigRock is a hectic level with a picture of a big rock in the background.