How to Control Time in Your Games Using PyGame
Have you ever wanted to create an exciting game using Python’s PyGame library, but felt overwhelmed by the concept of time management? If so, you’re not alone.
Time is one of the most critical components of game development, and understanding how time works in PyGame is essential to create engaging and successful games. PyGame provides several useful functions and modules that allow you to control time in your games.
Creating a Simple Game
Start by creating a simple game where a rectangle is moving right. To begin,install pip on your deviceand use the command below to install the PyGame module:
You can find all the code examples in thisGitHub repo.
Once installed, import the PyGame module. Then create a screen with a size of 800x600 and a white background color, and add a rect object. The code should look something like this:
After that, use a while loop to keep the game running and keep the rect object moving right until it reaches the end of the screen.
You can also add user inputs andcollisions in the game. Below is the output:
Overview of the Time Module of PyGame
To control the time in this game, it’s possible to use thepygame.timemodule. This module provides various useful features, including aClockobject with methods likeget_ticks(),wait(), anddelay(). Using these functions, you can easily control the time in your game.
Creating a Clock Object to Track Time
In PyGame, you may use a Clock object to track time. To create a Clock, simply use the following line of code:
With this Clock object, you can now keep track of the time in your game. There are also several other useful functions associated with the Clock object, such as:
Getting the Time Using get_ticks
Theget_ticks()function returns the time in milliseconds since PyGame initialized. To use this function, add the following line of code:
Add a text object to display the time taken:
you may use the time elapsed to implement time-based game elements such as power-ups that last for a specific amount of time. For example, you can implement a power-up that increases the speed of the rect object for 5 seconds:
Below is the output:
Pausing the Game Using the wait and delay Functions
PyGame also provides two functions that you can use to pause the game for a specific amount of time: thewaitfunction and thedelayfunction.
To use thewaitfunction, simply add the following line of code in the while loop:
This will pause the game for 1000 milliseconds (1 second). To use thedelayfunction, simply add the following line of code in the while loop:
This will delay the next frame of the game for 1000 milliseconds (1 second).
Differences Between wait and delay
There are a few differences between thewaitanddelayfunctions. Thewaitfunction sleeps the process to share the processor with other programs. Thedelayfunction will use the processor to make the delay more accurate. This means that thedelayfunction requires more processor power than thewaitfunction and is suitable for games that need precise timing.
Creating an Event Using set_timer
You can use theset_timer()function to create an event that triggers after a specified amount of time.
Events in PyGame are objects that contain information about user input or program-generated messages. To use this function, create a custom event and add the following line of code:
This will create an event that triggers after 1,000 milliseconds—1 second. There are different types of events that you can trigger, such as mouse movement, keyboard input, and window events. Your code can then react to these events in whatever way is most appropriate.
For example, if you want to change the y-axis of the rect object after 1 second, or when the custom event triggers, you can add the following line of code:
This way, you can easily create time-based events in your game which you can use to create interesting and challenging gameplay.
Improve Game Controls With Time
With the help of time control, you could improve the controls of the game. You can use the time to implement acceleration, deceleration, and even game-over conditions. Many games introduce the concept of bullet time where the action slows down for a short period.
Using the time control functions in PyGame, you can easily implement such features—and more—in your own games.
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