Everyone these days loves playing games. From children to people of old age, everyone is glued to their gaming devices to have some fun and refresh their minds.
As a result, the gaming industry is flourishing by day and night. According to Forbes, the gaming industry will reach over $300 billion by 2025.
The web is a growing platform to host online browser-based games that users can play from anywhere and anytime worldwide. Gone are the days when web-only supported plain old 2D-based games. With the growing technology, you can create exciting graphics-rich online games.
Honestly, Python is not so popular when it comes to developing resource-intensive gaming applications. Developers usually complain about the performance of games built on top of Python.
However, this is not the case when creating browser-based Python games. There are many web technologies and Python libraries and platforms that you can use to create graphically rich games that run on most modern-day browsers.
This article will discuss various ways and tools to make a web game in Python. With these tools, you can build a game on any browser.
Also Read: Sending Emails Using Python With Image And PDF Attachments.
Before starting, let’s first see why you should target the online browser games market.
Why Should You Target Online Browser Games?
People love to play mini-games on their browsers. You will probably find browser-based games in almost every genre, from FPS, RPG, Arcade, city building, war games, etc.
Therefore, if you learn how to create and develop browser-based games, you can earn a handsome amount of money.
Other reasons include the following:
- The web has infinite reach, and the games built for web browsers work well on most platforms, such as PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc.
- Improved discoverability of your browser game as you can benefit from the shareability and linkability of the web.
- All revenue from your mobile game is yours, and you don’t have to pay any portion of your income to app stores.
- Your users can play your game from anywhere and anytime. All they need is an internet connection to play your browser-based Python game.
- Better engage with your game players to get feedback without any middleman.
The Role of Python in The Gaming Industry
- The AI behavior of The SIMS is scripted using Python.
- The map editor of Civilization IV supports Python programming.
- Another popular game supporting Python is Disney’s Toontown Online, a multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPGs). It helps pandas3D with the game’s graphics, which is relatively lightweight.
- EVE Online is another MMORPG that uses stackless Python – a variation of Python programming language for its client and server-side code.
- Battlefield Heroes uses Python for game logic, such as scoring with cleartext and game modes.
How To Use Python For Browser Games Development?
Primary browser games utilize JavaScript and WebGL or Canvas2D to display browser graphics.
There is no way to build your entire browser game using Python, as web browsers use HTML to render web pages and their various elements.
Therefore, you can use Python for the backend logic of your game and render it as pure HTML on browsers.
Another way is to use Python on the backend to generate interactive Flash or JavaScript to run on the browser.
Popular game engines such as Unity3D or UnrealEngine allow you to export game projects into compatible HTML5 code. However, this method is complex and time-consuming to implement inside a game engine.
The best way is to use any native HTML 5 game engine. Using a native HTML5 game engine, you can produce optimized JavaScript code, boosting the performance of your browser-based games.
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of Python-based browser games. To determine gaming logic, you must use frontend technologies and APIs to render your game on the browser and Python gaming libraries and frameworks at the backend.
Technology for browser-based Python game development
1. Full Screen API – If you want your browser game to run over the entire screen.
2. Gamepad API – For providing gamepads or other game controller support to your browser game.
3. Web Audio API – Games without audio are dull, and no one wants to play it. Use Web Audio API to control playback and audio manipulation from JS code. You can add cool sound effects and apply them in real time.
4. HTML and CSS – Most essential to learn if you want to build your own browser game. Using HTML and CSS, you can design the interface of your browser game. <canvas> HTML tag provides an easy way to do 2D graphics.
5. JavaScript – Modern-day programming language of the web, which is fast. Using it, you can apply Python logic from the backend to control the gameplay.
6. HTML Audio – If you only require basic audio for your browser game, apply the <audio> HTML element.
7. WebGL – Create high-performance and hardware-accelerated 3D and 2D graphics from web content.
8. WebRTC – WebRTC or Web Real-Time Communications API supports transferring video and audio data, including teleconferencing back and forth between multiple users.
So, if you want to build an online multiplayer game and allow players to talk with each other while they are busy killing zombies, then this is the API for you.
9. WebSockets – Connect your browser game to the server and facilitate real-time data transfer to support gameplay actions, chat services, etc.
1o. Web Workers – Take advantage of modern-day multicore processors using Web Workers.
Spawn background game threads running their own JS code to enhance the performance of your Python-based online game.
11. Pointer Lock API – Get the exact coordinates of your user’s cursor to measure accurately what players are doing in the game.
Now, you are familiar with various web technologies you can use for online Python game development. Let’s see various Python libraries and frameworks for game development.
Python Libraries For Online Game Development
1. PyGame
PyGame is a simple and easy-to-use set of Python modules for developing video games. It adds functionality on top of the SDL library. Thus allowing you to create top-notch Python games.
Over 660 game projects have been built on the PyGame websites, including Indie Game Festival finalists, Australian Game Festival, etc.
Features:
- Multicore processor support
- Utilizes optimized C and Assembly code
- Portable
- Great control over your main loop.
- Modular
Games developed using Pygame – Magic Leap, Oculus Quest, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, etc.
2. Kivy
Kivy is a cross-platform Python framework for NUI development, which you can use to develop exciting and addictive mobile games.
Whether it is a simple puzzle game or an arcade game, you can bring your gaming idea into reality using Kivy.
Features:
- Kivy supports rapid application prototyping.
- Write your game code once and run it on multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, OS X, iOS, and Android.
- Native support of taking user inputs from various devices, including Mac OS X trackpad, WM_Pen, Linux Kernel HID, etc.
- Free to use for commercial projects.
- The graphics engine utilizes OpenGL ES 2.
Games developed using Kivy – Deflectouch, FishLife, memoryKivy, ArithmeBricks, etc.
Mobile games developed using Kivy – Spikes Escape, Ants Must Die, CoinTex, Quadropoly, etc.
3. Pyganim
Pyganim, pronounced as “pig” and “animation,” is a Pygame module for quickly adding sprite animations and supports both Python 2 and Python 3.
You can use it with the PyGame library to develop your mobile game if it requires more complex sprite transformations and animations.
4. OcempGUI
OcempGUI is a Python-based toolkit for creating simple GUIs. It leverages the capabilities of the PyGame library and allows you to develop a broad range of game projects.
If you want to build basic Python games involving simple GUI elements such as entry boxes, buttons, scrolling, and simple events, you can quickly get started with OcempGUI.
Features:
- Save your time by using a broad range of drawing functions.
- Focus on your primary task instead of getting troubled with low-level components.
- Build simple GUI Python games.
5. pyjs
pyjs is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) development platform for developing web-based and desktop games.
With pyjs, you can write your JavaScript game entirely in Python as it contains a Python-to-JavaScript compiler.
Here is an overview of how pyjs works:
Image Source: pyjs
Features:
- Run the web-based Python game on a desktop as a standalone application.
- Develop games using Python instead of HTML and CSS.
- AJAX library for handling browser interoperability issues.
- UI widgets and a DOM library – Written in Python and translated to JS for your mobile game deployment.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we explored various methods and tools for creating cool Python web games that your users can play on their browsers anytime and anywhere.
Python has a lot of work to do to boost its gaming performance compared to C# and C++, which are far better alternatives to developing resource-intensive games.
However, Python is still not far behind, and if you are looking to create simple yet addictive mobile games, then you can play with it.
Great read, Himanshu! Your insights on Python for browser game development clarified many misconceptions. Highlighting Python’s potential in this field, especially in creating browser games, is praiseworthy.
I found your detailed list of web technologies and Python libraries highly informative. Your tips on using Python for backend logic particularly struck me.
Thanks for this enlightening piece!