2.1: What You Should Know Before You Begin

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 13562

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

It might help if you know a bit about Python programming (or how to program in another language besides Python) before you read through this book; however even if you haven’t you can still read this book anyway. Programming isn’t nearly as hard as people think it is. If you ever run into some trouble, you can read the free book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" online at http://inventwithpython.com or look up a topic that you find confusing on the Invent with Python wiki at inventwithpython.com/wiki.

You don’t need to know how to use the Pygame library before reading this book. The next chapter is a brief tutorial on all of Pygame’s major features and functions.

Just in case you haven’t read the first book and already installed Python and Pygame on your computer, the installation instructions are in this chapter. If you already have installed both of these then you can skip this chapter.