.. _programming-guide-game:

In-depth game example
=====================

This tutorial will walk you through the steps of writing a simple Asteroids
clone. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with writing and running
Python programs. This is not a programming tutorial, but it should hopefully
be clear enough to follow even if you're a beginner. If you get stuck,
first have a look at the relevant sections of the programming guide.
The full source code can also be found in the `examples/game/` folder
of the pyglet source directory, which you can follow along with.
If anything is still not clear, let us know!

Basic graphics
--------------

Lets begin!  The first version of our game will simply show a score of zero,
a label showing the name of the program, three randomly placed asteroids,
and the player’s ship. Nothing will move.

Setting up
^^^^^^^^^^

First things first, make sure you have pyglet installed. Then, we will set
up the folder structure for our project.  Since this example game is written
in stages, we will have several `version` folders at various stages of
development.  We will also have a shared resource folder with the images,
called ‘resources,’ outside of the example folders.  Each `version` folder
contains a Python file called `asteroid.py` which runs the game, as well as
a sub-folder named `game` where we will place additional modules; this is
where most of the logic will be. Your folder structure should look like this::

    game/
        resources/
            (images go here)
        version1/
            asteroid.py
            game/
                __init__.py

Getting a window
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To set up a window, simply `import pyglet`, create a new instance of
:class:`pyglet.window.Window`, and call `pyglet.app.run()`::

    import pyglet
    game_window = pyglet.window.Window(800, 600)

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        pyglet.app.run()

If you run the code above, you should see a window full of junk that
goes away when you press Esc. (What you are seeing is raw uninitialized
graphics memory).

Loading and displaying an image
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Since our images will reside in a directory other than the example’s root
directory, we need to tell pyglet where to find them::

    import pyglet
    pyglet.resource.path = ['../resources']
    pyglet.resource.reindex()

pyglet's :mod:`pyglet.resource` module takes all of the hard work out of
finding and loading game resources such as images, sounds, etc..  All that
you need to do is tell it where to look, and reindex it. In this example
game, the resource path starts with `../` because the resources folder is
on the same level as the `version1` folder.  If we left it off, pyglet
would look inside `version1/` for the `resources/` folder.

Now that pyglet’s resource module is initialized, we can easily load the images
with the :func:`~pyglet.resource.image` function of the resource module::

    player_image = pyglet.resource.image("player.png")
    bullet_image = pyglet.resource.image("bullet.png")
    asteroid_image = pyglet.resource.image("asteroid.png")

Centering the images
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Pyglet will draw and position all images from their lower left corner by
default.  We don’t want this behavior for our images, which need to rotate
around their centers.  All we have to do to achieve this is to set their
anchor points.  Lets create a function to simplify this::

    def center_image(image):
        """Sets an image's anchor point to its center"""
        image.anchor_x = image.width // 2
        image.anchor_y = image.height // 2

Now we can just call center_image() on all of our loaded images::

    center_image(player_image)
    center_image(bullet_image)
    center_image(asteroid_image)

Remember that the center_image() function must be defined before it can be
called at the module level.  Also, note that zero degrees points directly
to the right in pyglet, so the images are all drawn with their front
pointing to the right.

To access the images from asteroid.py, we need to use something like
`from game import resources`, which we’ll get into in the next section.

Initializing objects
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We want to put some labels at the top of the window to give the player some
information about the score and the current difficulty level.  Eventually,
we will have a score display, the name of the level, and a row of icons
representing the number of remaining lives.

Making the labels
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To make a text label in pyglet, just initialize a :class:`pyglet.text.Label` object::

    score_label = pyglet.text.Label(text="Score: 0", x=10, y=460)
    level_label = pyglet.text.Label(text="My Amazing Game",
                                x=game_window.width//2, y=game_window.height//2, anchor_x='center')

Notice that the second label is centered using the anchor_x attribute.

Drawing the labels
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We want pyglet to run some specific code whenever the window is drawn.
An :meth:`~pyglet.window.Window.on_draw` event is dispatched to the window
to give it a chance to redraw its contents.  pyglet provides several ways
to attach event handlers to objects; a simple way is to use a decorator::

    @game_window.event
    def on_draw():
        # draw things here

The `@game_window.event` decorator lets the Window instance know that our
`on_draw()` function is an event handler.
The :meth:`~pyglet.window.Window.on_draw` event is fired whenever
- you guessed it - the window needs to be redrawn.  Other events include
:meth:`~pyglet.window.Window.on_mouse_press` and
:meth:`~pyglet.window.Window.on_key_press`.

Now we can fill the method with the functions necessary to draw our labels.
Before we draw anything, we should clear the screen.  After that, we can
simply call each object’s draw() function::

    @game_window.event
    def on_draw():
        game_window.clear()

        level_label.draw()
        score_label.draw()

Now when you run asteroid.py, you should get a window with a score of zero
in the upper left corner and a centered label reading “My Amazing Game”
at the top of the screen.

Making the player and asteroid sprites
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The player should be an instance or subclass of :class:`pyglet.sprite.Sprite`,
like so::

    from game import resources
    ...
    player_ship = pyglet.sprite.Sprite(img=resources.player_image, x=400, y=300)

To get the player to draw on the screen, add a line to `on_draw()`::

    @game_window.event
    def on_draw():
        ...
        player_ship.draw()

Loading the asteroids is a little more complicated, since we’ll need to place
more than one at random locations that don’t immediately collide with the
player.  Let’s put the loading code in a new game submodule called load.py::

    import pyglet
    import random
    from . import resources

    def asteroids(num_asteroids):
        asteroids = []
        for i in range(num_asteroids):
            asteroid_x = random.randint(0, 800)
            asteroid_y = random.randint(0, 600)
            new_asteroid = pyglet.sprite.Sprite(img=resources.asteroid_image,
                                                x=asteroid_x, y=asteroid_y)
            new_asteroid.rotation = random.randint(0, 360)
            asteroids.append(new_asteroid)
        return asteroids

All we are doing here is making a few new sprites with random positions.
There’s still a problem, though - an asteroid might randomly be placed
exactly where the player is, causing immediate death. To fix this issue,
we’ll need to be able to tell how far away new asteroids are from the player.
Here is a simple function to calculate that distance::

    import math
    ...
    def distance(point_1=(0, 0), point_2=(0, 0)):
        """Returns the distance between two points"""
        return math.sqrt((point_1[0] - point_2[0]) ** 2 + (point_1[1] - point_2[1]) ** 2)

To check new asteroids against the player’s position, we need to pass the
player’s position into the `asteroids()` function and keep regenerating
new coordinates until the asteroid is far enough away.  pyglet sprites
keep track of their position both as a tuple (Sprite.position) and as
x and y attributes (Sprite.x and Sprite.y).  To keep our code short,
we’ll just pass the position tuple into the function::

    def asteroids(num_asteroids, player_position):
        asteroids = []
        for i in range(num_asteroids):
            asteroid_x, asteroid_y = player_position
            while distance((asteroid_x, asteroid_y), player_position) < 100:
                asteroid_x = random.randint(0, 800)
                asteroid_y = random.randint(0, 600)
            new_asteroid = pyglet.sprite.Sprite(
                img=resources.asteroid_image, x=asteroid_x, y=asteroid_y)
            new_asteroid.rotation = random.randint(0, 360)
            asteroids.append(new_asteroid)
        return asteroids

For each asteroid, it chooses random positions until it finds one away from
the player, creates the sprite, and gives it a random rotation. Each asteroid
is appended to a list, which is returned.

Now you can load three asteroids like this::

    from game import resources, load
    ...
    asteroids = load.asteroids(3, player_ship.position)

The asteroids variable now contains a list of sprites. Drawing them on the
screen is as simple as it was for the player’s ship - just call their
:meth:`~pyglet.sprite.Sprite.draw` methods:

.. code:: python

    @game_window.event
    def on_draw():
        ...
        for asteroid in asteroids:
            asteroid.draw()

This wraps up the first section.  Your "game" doesn't do much of anything yet,
but we'll get to that in the following sections.  You may want to look over
the `examples/game/version1` folder in the pyglet source to review what we've
done, and to find a functional copy.


Basic motion
------------

In the second version of the example, we’ll introduce a simpler, faster way
to draw all of the game objects, as well as add row of icons indicating the
number of lives left.  We’ll also write some code to make the player and the
asteroids obey the laws of physics.

Drawing with batches
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Calling each object’s `draw()` method manually can become cumbersome and
tedious if there are many different kinds of objects.  It's also very
inefficient if you need to draw a large number of objects. The pyglet
:class:`pyglet.graphics.Batch` class simplifies drawing by letting you draw
all your objects with a single function call.  All you need to do is create
a batch, pass it into each object you want to draw, and call the batch’s
:meth:`~pyglet.graphics.Batch.draw` method.

To create a new batch, simply create an instance of :class:`pyglet.graphics.Batch`::

    main_batch = pyglet.graphics.Batch()

To make an object a member of a batch, just pass the batch into its
constructor as the batch keyword argument::

    score_label = pyglet.text.Label(text="Score: 0", x=10, y=575, batch=main_batch)

Add the batch keyword argument to each graphical object created in asteroid.py.

To use the batch with the asteroid sprites, we’ll need to pass the batch into
the `game.load.asteroid()` function, then just add it as a keyword argument to
each new sprite. Update the function::

    def asteroids(num_asteroids, player_position, batch=None):
        ...
        new_asteroid = pyglet.sprite.Sprite(img=resources.asteroid_image,
                                            x=asteroid_x, y=asteroid_y,
                                            batch=batch)

And update the place where it’s called::

    asteroids = load.asteroids(3, player_ship.position, main_batch)

Now you can replace those five lines of `draw()` calls with just one::

    main_batch.draw()

Now when you run asteroid.py, it should look exactly the same.

Displaying little ship icons
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To show how many lives the player has left, we’ll need to draw a little row
of icons in the upper right corner of the screen.  Since we’ll be making more
than one using the same template, let’s create a function called
`player_lives()` in the `load` module to generate them. The icons should look
the same as the player’s ship.  We could create a scaled version using an
image editor, or we could just let pyglet do the scaling.  I don’t know about
you, but I prefer the option that requires less work.

The function for creating the icons is almost exactly the same as the one for
creating asteroids. For each icon we just create a sprite, give it a position
and scale, and append it to the return list::

    def player_lives(num_icons, batch=None):
        player_lives = []
        for i in range(num_icons):
            new_sprite = pyglet.sprite.Sprite(img=resources.player_image,
                                              x=785-i*30, y=585, batch=batch)
            new_sprite.scale = 0.5
            player_lives.append(new_sprite)
        return player_lives

The player icon is 50x50 pixels, so half that size will be 25x25.  We want to
put a little bit of space between each icon, so we create them at 30-pixel
intervals starting from the right side of the screen and moving to the left.
Note that like the `asteroids()` function, `player_lives()` takes a `batch`
argument.

Making things move
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The game would be pretty boring if nothing on the screen ever moved. To
achieve motion, we’ll need to write our own set of classes to handle
frame-by-frame movement calculations.  We’ll also need to write a Player
class to respond to keyboard input.

**Creating the basic motion class**

Since every visible object is represented by at least one Sprite, we may as
well make our basic motion class a subclass of pyglet.sprite.Sprite. Another
approach would be to have our class have a sprite attribute.

Create a new game submodule called physicalobject.py and declare a
PhysicalObject class. The only new attributes we’ll be adding will store the
object’s velocity, so the constructor will be simple::

    class PhysicalObject(pyglet.sprite.Sprite):

        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)

            self.velocity_x, self.velocity_y = 0.0, 0.0

Each object will need to be updated every frame, so let’s write an `update()`
method::

    def update(self, dt):
        self.x += self.velocity_x * dt
        self.y += self.velocity_y * dt

What’s dt?  It’s the "delta time", or "time step".  Game frames are not
instantaneous, and they don’t always take equal amounts of time to draw.
If you’ve ever tried to play a modern game on an old machine, you know
that frame rates can jump all over the place.  There are a number of
ways to deal with this problem, the simplest one being to just multiply all
time-sensitive operations by dt. I’ll show you how this value is calculated
later.

If we give objects a velocity and just let them go, they will fly off the
screen before long. Since we’re making an Asteroids clone, we would rather
they just wrapped around the screen. Here is a simple function that
accomplishes the goal::

    def check_bounds(self):
        min_x = -self.image.width / 2
        min_y = -self.image.height / 2
        max_x = 800 + self.image.width / 2
        max_y = 600 + self.image.height / 2
        if self.x < min_x:
            self.x = max_x
        elif self.x > max_x:
            self.x = min_x
        if self.y < min_y:
            self.y = max_y
        elif self.y > max_y:
            self.y = min_y

As you can see, it simply checks to see if objects are no longer visible on
the screen, and if so, it moves them to the other side of the screen.
To make every PhysicalObject use this behavior, add a call to
`self.check_bounds()` at the end of `update()`.

To make the asteroids use our new motion code, just import the physicalobject
module and change the `new_asteroid = ...` line to create a new
`PhysicalObject` instead of a `Sprite`.  You’ll also want to give them a random
initial velocity.  Here is the new, improved `load.asteroids()` function:

.. code:: python

    def asteroids(num_asteroids, player_position, batch=None):
        ...
        new_asteroid = physicalobject.PhysicalObject(...)
        new_asteroid.rotation = random.randint(0, 360)
        new_asteroid.velocity_x = random.random()*40
        new_asteroid.velocity_y = random.random()*40
        ...

Writing the game update function
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To call each object’s `update()` method every frame, we first need to have a
list of those objects. For now, we can just declare it after setting up all
the other objects::

    game_objects = [player_ship] + asteroids

Now we can write a simple function to iterate over the list::

    def update(dt):
        for obj in game_objects:
            obj.update(dt)

The `update()` function takes a `dt` parameter because it is still not the
source of the actual time step.

Calling the update() function
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We need to update the objects at least once per frame.  What’s a frame?  Well,
most screens have a maximum refresh rate of 60 hertz.  If we set our loop to
run at exactly 60 hertz, though, the motion will look a little jerky because
it won’t match the screen exactly.  Instead, we can have it
update twice as fast, 120 times per second, to get smooth animation.

The best way to call a function 120 times per second is to ask pyglet to do it.
The :mod:`pyglet.clock` module contains a number of ways to call functions
periodically or at some specified time in the future.  The one we want is
:meth:`pyglet.clock.schedule_interval`::

    pyglet.clock.schedule_interval(update, 1/120.0)

Putting this line above `pyglet.app.run()` in the if `__name__ == '__main__'`
block tells pyglet to call `update()` 120 times per second.  Pyglet will pass
in the elapsed time, i.e. `dt`, as the only parameter.

Now when you run asteroid.py, you should see your formerly static asteroids
drifting serenely across the screen, reappearing on the other side when they
slide off the edge.

Writing the Player class
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In addition to obeying the basic laws of physics, the player object needs to
respond to keyboard input.  Start by creating a `game.player` module,
importing the appropriate modules, and subclassing `PhysicalObject`::

    from . import physicalobject, resources


    class Player(physicalobject.PhysicalObject):

        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            super().__init__(img=resources.player_image, *args, **kwargs)

So far, the only difference between a Player and a PhysicalObject is that a
Player will always have the same image.  But Player objects need a couple
more attributes.  Since the ship will always thrust with the same force in
whatever direction it points, we’ll need to define a constant for the
magnitude of that force.  We should also define a constant for the ship’s
rotation speed::

        self.thrust = 300.0
        self.rotate_speed = 200.0

Now we need to get the class to respond to user input.  Pyglet uses an
event-based approach to input, sending key press and key release events
to registered event handlers.  But we want to use a polling approach in
this example, checking periodically if a key is down.  One way to accomplish
that is to maintain a dictionary of keys.  First, we need to initialize the
dictionary in the constructor::

        self.keys = dict(left=False, right=False, up=False)

Then we need to write two methods, `on_key_press()` and `on_key_release()`.
When pyglet checks a new event handler, it looks for these two methods,
among others::

    import math
    from pyglet.window import key
    from . import physicalobject, resources

    class Player(physicalobject.PhysicalObject)

        def on_key_press(self, symbol, modifiers):
            if symbol == key.UP:
                self.keys['up'] = True
            elif symbol == key.LEFT:
                self.keys['left'] = True
            elif symbol == key.RIGHT:
                self.keys['right'] = True

        def on_key_release(self, symbol, modifiers):
            if symbol == key.UP:
                self.keys['up'] = False
            elif symbol == key.LEFT:
                self.keys['left'] = False
            elif symbol == key.RIGHT:
                self.keys['right'] = False

That looks pretty cumbersome. There’s a better way to do it which we’ll see
later, but for now, this version serves as a good demonstration of pyglet’s
event system.

The last thing we need to do is write the `update()` method.  It follows the
same behavior as a PhysicalObject plus a little extra, so we’ll need to call
PhysicalObject's `update()` method and then respond to input::

    def update(self, dt):
        super(Player, self).update(dt)

        if self.keys['left']:
            self.rotation -= self.rotate_speed * dt
        if self.keys['right']:
            self.rotation += self.rotate_speed * dt

Pretty simple so far.  To rotate the player, we just add the rotation speed
to the angle, multiplied by dt to account for time.  Note that Sprite objects’
rotation attributes are in degrees, with clockwise as the positive direction.
This means that you need to call `math.degrees()` or `math.radians()` and make
the result negative whenever you use Python’s built-in math functions with
the Sprite class, since those functions use radians instead of degrees, and
their positive direction is counter-clockwise.  The code to make the ship
thrust forward uses an example of such a conversion::

        if self.keys['up']:
            angle_radians = -math.radians(self.rotation)
            force_x = math.cos(angle_radians) * self.thrust * dt
            force_y = math.sin(angle_radians) * self.thrust * dt
            self.velocity_x += force_x
            self.velocity_y += force_y

First, we convert the angle to radians so that `math.cos()` and `math.sin()`
will get the correct values.  Then we apply some simple physics to modify the
ship’s X and Y velocity components and push the ship in the right direction.

We now have a complete Player class.  If we add it to the game and tell pyglet
that it’s an event handler, we should be good to go.

Integrating the player class
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The first thing we need to do is make player_ship an instance of Player::

    from game import player
    ...
    player_ship = player.Player(x=400, y=300, batch=main_batch)

Now we need to tell pyglet that player_ship is an event handler.  To do that,
we need to push it onto the event stack with `game_window.push_handlers()`::

    game_window.push_handlers(player_ship)

That’s it! Now you should be able to run the game and move the player with the
arrow keys.


Giving the player something to do
---------------------------------

In any good game, there needs to be something working against the player.
In the case of Asteroids, it’s the threat of collision with, well, an asteroid.
Collision detection requires a lot of infrastructure in the code, so this
section will focus on making it work.  We’ll also clean up the
player class and show some visual feedback for thrusting.

Simplifying player input
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Right now, the Player class handles all of its own keyboard events.
It spends 13 lines of code doing nothing but setting boolean values in a
dictionary.  One would think that there would be a better way, and there is:
:class:`pyglet.window.key.KeyStateHandler`.  This handy class automatically
does what we have been doing manually: it tracks the state of every key on the
keyboard.

To start using it, we need to initialize it and push it onto the event stack
instead of the Player class.  First, let’s add it to Player‘s constructor::

    self.key_handler = key.KeyStateHandler()

We also need to push the key_handler object onto the event stack.  Keep pushing
the player_ship object in addition to its key handler, because we’ll need it
to keep handling key press and release events later::

    game_window.push_handlers(player_ship.key_handler)

Since Player now relies on key_handler to read the keyboard, we need to change
the `update()` method to use it.  The only changes are in the if conditions::

    if self.key_handler[key.LEFT]:
        ...
    if self.key_handler[key.RIGHT]:
        ...
    if self.key_handler[key.UP]:
        ...

Now we can remove the `on_key_press()` and `on_key_release()` methods
from the class. It’s just that simple.  If you need to see a list of key
constants, you can check the API documentation under
:class:`pyglet.window.key`.

Adding an engine flame
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Without visual feedback, it can be difficult to tell if the ship is actually
thrusting forward or not, especially for an observer just watching someone
else play the game.  One way to provide visual feedback is to show an engine
flame behind the player while the player is thrusting.

Loading the flame image
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The player will now be made of two sprites.  There’s nothing preventing us
from letting a Sprite own another Sprite, so we’ll just give Player an
engine_sprite attribute and update it every frame. For our purposes,
this approach will be the simplest and most scalable.

To make the flame draw in the correct position, we could either do some
complicated math every frame, or we could just move the image’s anchor point.
First, load the image in resources.py::

    engine_image = pyglet.resource.image("engine_flame.png")

To get the flame to draw behind the player, we need to move the flame image’s
center of rotation to the right, past the end of the image.
To do that, we just set its `anchor_x` and `anchor_y` attributes:

    engine_image.anchor_x = engine_image.width * 1.5
    engine_image.anchor_y = engine_image.height / 2

Now the image is ready to be used by the player class.  If you’re still
confused about anchor points, experiment with the values for engine_image’s
anchor point when you finish this section.

Creating and drawing the flame
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The engine sprite needs to be initialized with all the same arguments as
Player, except that it needs a different image and must be initially invisible.
The code for creating it belongs in `Player.__init__()` and is very
straightforward::

    self.engine_sprite = pyglet.sprite.Sprite(img=resources.engine_image, *args, **kwargs)
    self.engine_sprite.visible = False

To make the engine sprite appear only while the player is thrusting, we need
to add some logic to the if `self.key_handler[key.UP]` block in the `update()`
method::

    if self.key_handler[key.UP]:
        ...
        self.engine_sprite.visible = True
    else:
        self.engine_sprite.visible = False

To make the sprite appear at the player’s position, we also need to update
its position and rotation attributes::

    if self.key_handler[key.UP]:
        ...
        self.engine_sprite.rotation = self.rotation
        self.engine_sprite.x = self.x
        self.engine_sprite.y = self.y
        self.engine_sprite.visible = True
    else:
        self.engine_sprite.visible = False

Cleaning up after death
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

When the player is inevitably smashed to bits by an asteroid, he will
disappear from the screen. However, simply removing the Player instance
from the game_objects list is not enough for it to be removed from the
graphics batch.  To do that, we need to call its `delete()` method.
Normally a Sprite‘s own `delete()` method will work fine without modifications,
but our subclass has its own child Sprite (the engine flame) which must
also be deleted when the Player instance is deleted. To get both to die
gracefully, we must write a simple but slightly enhanced `delete()` method::

    def delete(self):
        self.engine_sprite.delete()
        super(Player, self).delete()

The Player class is now cleaned up and ready to go.

Checking For collisions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To make objects disappear from the screen, we’ll need to manipulate the game
objects list. Every object will need to check every other object’s position
against its own, and each object will have to decide whether or not it should
be removed from the list.  The game loop will then check for dead objects
and remove them from the list.

Checking all object pairs
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We need to check every object against every other object.  The simplest
method is to use nested loops.  This method will be inefficient for a large
number of objects, but it will work for our purposes.  We can use one easy
optimization and avoid checking the same pair of objects twice.
Here’s the setup for the loops, which belongs in `update()`.
It simply iterates over all object pairs without doing anything::

    for i in range(len(game_objects)):
        for j in range(i+1, len(game_objects)):
            obj_1 = game_objects[i]
            obj_2 = game_objects[j]

We’ll need a way to check if an object has already been killed.  We could go
over to PhysicalObject right now and put it in, but let’s keep working on
the game loop and implement the method later. For now, we’ll just assume that
everything in game_objects has a dead attribute which will be False
until the class sets it to True, at which point it will be ignored and
eventually removed from the list.

To perform the actual check, we’ll also need to call two more methods that
don’t exist yet. One method will determine if the two objects actually collide,
and the other method will give each object an opportunity to respond to
the collision.  The checking code itself is easy to understand,
so I won’t bother you with further explanations::

        if not obj_1.dead and not obj_2.dead:
            if obj_1.collides_with(obj_2):
                obj_1.handle_collision_with(obj_2)
                obj_2.handle_collision_with(obj_1)

Now all that remains is for us to go through the list and remove dead objects::

    for to_remove in [obj for obj in game_objects if obj.dead]:
        to_remove.delete()
        game_objects.remove(to_remove)

As you can see, it simply calls the object’s `delete()` method to remove it
from any batches, then it removes it from the list.  If you haven’t used list
comprehensions much, the above code might look like it’s removing objects
from the list while traversing it.  Fortunately, the list comprehension is
evaluated before the loop actually runs, so there should be no problems.

Implementing the collision functions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We need to add three things to the PhysicalObject class: the dead attribute,
the `collides_with()` method, and the `handle_collision_with()` method.
The `collides_with()` method will need to use the `distance()` function,
so let’s start by moving that function into its own submodule of game,
called util.py::

    import pyglet, math

    def distance(point_1=(0, 0), point_2=(0, 0)):
        return math.sqrt(
            (point_1[0] - point_2[0]) ** 2 +
            (point_1[1] - point_2[1]) ** 2)

Remember to call from util import distance in load.py.  Now we can write
`PhysicalObject.collides_with()` without duplicating code::

    def collides_with(self, other_object):
        collision_distance = self.image.width/2 + other_object.image.width/2
        actual_distance = util.distance(self.position, other_object.position)

        return (actual_distance <= collision_distance)

The collision handler function is even simpler, since for now we just want
every object to die as soon as it touches another object::

    def handle_collision_with(self, other_object):
        self.dead = True

One last thing: set self.dead = False in PhysicalObject.__init__().

And that’s it! You should be able to zip around the screen, engine blazing
away.  If you hit something, both you and the thing you collided with should
disappear from the screen.  There’s still no game, but we are clearly
making progress.


Collision response
------------------

In this section, we’ll add bullets.  This new feature will require us to
start adding things to the game_objects list during the game,
as well as have objects check each others’ types to make a decision about
whether or not they should die.

Adding objects during play
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

**How?**

We handled object removal with a boolean flag.  Adding objects will be
a little bit more complicated.  For one thing, an object can’t just say
“Add me to the list!”  It has to come from somewhere.
For another thing, an object might want to add more than one other
object at a time.

There are a few ways to solve this problem.  To avoid circular references,
keep our constructors nice and short, and avoid adding extra modules,
we’ll have each object keep a list of new child objects to be added to
game_objects.  This approach will make it easy for any object in the game
to spawn more objects.

Tweaking the game loop
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The simplest way to check objects for children and add those children to
the list is to add two lines of code to the game_objects loop.
We haven’t implemented the new_objects attribute yet, but when we do,
it will be a list of objects to add::

    for obj in game_objects:
        obj.update(dt)
        game_objects.extend(obj.new_objects)
        obj.new_objects = []

Unfortunately, this simple solution is problematic.  It’s generally a
bad idea to modify a list while iterating over it.  The fix is to simply
add new objects to a separate list, then add the objects in the separate
list to game_objects after we have finished iterating over it.

Declare a to_add list just below the loop and add new objects to it instead.
At the very bottom of `update()`, after the object removal code,
add the objects in to_add to game_objects::

    ...collision...

    to_add = []

    for obj in game_objects:
        obj.update(dt)
        to_add.extend(obj.new_objects)
        obj.new_objects = []

    ...removal...

    game_objects.extend(to_add)

Putting the attribute in PhysicalObject
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

As mentioned before, all we have to do is declare a new_objects attribute
in the PhysicalObject class::

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        ....
        self.new_objects = []

To add a new object, all we have to do is put something in new_objects,
and the main loop will see it, add it to the game_objects list,
and clear new_objects.

Adding bullets
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

**Writing the bullet class**

For the most part, bullets act like any other PhysicalObject, but they have
two differences, at least in this game: they only collide with some objects,
and they disappear from the screen after a couple of seconds to prevent the
player from flooding the screen with bullets.

First, make a new submodule of game called bullet.py and start a simple
subclass of PhysicalObject::

    import pyglet
    from . import physicalobject, resources

    class Bullet(physicalobject.PhysicalObject):
        """Bullets fired by the player"""

        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            super(Bullet, self).__init__(
                resources.bullet_image, *args, **kwargs)

To get bullets to disappear after a time, we could keep track of our own
age and lifespan attributes, or we could let pyglet do all the work for us.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer the second option.
First, we need to write a function to call at the end of a bullet’s life::

    def die(self, dt):
        self.dead = True

Now we need to tell pyglet to call it after half a second or so.
We can do this as soon as the object is initialized by adding a call to
:meth:`pyglet.clock.schedule_once` to the constructor::

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(Bullet, self).__init__(resources.bullet_image, *args, **kwargs)
        pyglet.clock.schedule_once(self.die, 0.5)

There’s still more work to be done on the Bullet class, but before we
do any more work on the class itself, let’s get them on the screen.

Firing bullets
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Player class will be the only class that fires bullets,
so let’s open it up, import the bullet module, and add a bullet_speed attribute
to its constructor::

    ...
    from . import bullet

    class Player(physicalobject.PhysicalObject):
        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            super(Player, self).__init__(img=resources.player_image, *args, **kwargs)
            ...
            self.bullet_speed = 700.0

Now we can write the code to create a new bullet and send it hurling off
into space.  First, we need to resurrect the on_key_press() event handler::

    def on_key_press(self, symbol, modifiers):
        if symbol == key.SPACE:
            self.fire()

The `fire()` method itself will be a bit more complicated.  Most of the
calculations will be very similar to the ones for thrusting, but there
will be some differences.  We’ll need to spawn the bullet out at the
nose of the ship, not at its center.  We’ll also need to add the ship’s
existing velocity to the bullet’s new velocity, or the bullets will
end up going slower than the ship if the player gets going fast enough.

As usual, convert to radians and reverse the direction::

    def fire(self):
        angle_radians = -math.radians(self.rotation)

Next, calculate the bullet’s position and instantiate it::

    ship_radius = self.image.width/2
    bullet_x = self.x + math.cos(angle_radians) * ship_radius
    bullet_y = self.y + math.sin(angle_radians) * ship_radius
    new_bullet = bullet.Bullet(bullet_x, bullet_y, batch=self.batch)

Set its velocity using almost the same equations::

    bullet_vx = (
        self.velocity_x +
        math.cos(angle_radians) * self.bullet_speed
    )
    bullet_vy = (
        self.velocity_y +
        math.sin(angle_radians) * self.bullet_speed
    )
    new_bullet.velocity_x = bullet_vx
    new_bullet.velocity_y = bullet_vy

Finally, add it to the new_objects list so that the main loop will pick it up
and add it to game_objects::

    self.new_objects.append(new_bullet)

At this point, you should be able to fire bullets out of the front of your
ship.  There’s just one problem: as soon as you fire, your ship disappears.
You may have noticed earlier that asteroids also disappear when they touch
each other.  To fix this problem, we’ll need to start customizing
each class’s `handle_collision_with()` method.

Customizing collision behavior
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There are five kinds of collisions in the current version of the game:
bullet-asteroid, bullet-player, asteroid-player, bullet-bullet,
and asteroid-asteroid.  There would be many more in a more complex game.

In general, objects of the same type should not be destroyed when they collide,
so we can generalize that behavior in PhysicalObject. Other interactions will
require a little more work.

**Letting twins ignore each other**

To let two asteroids or two bullets pass each other by without a word of
acknowledgement (or a dramatic explosion), we just need to check if their
classes are equal in the PhysicalObject.handle_collision_with() method::

    def handle_collision_with(self, other_object):
        if other_object.__class__ == self.__class__:
            self.dead = False
        else:
            self.dead = True

There are a few other, more elegant ways to check for object equality in
Python, but the above code gets the job done.

Customizing bullet collisions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Since bullet collision behavior can vary so wildly across objects, let’s add
a reacts_to_bullets attribute to PhysicalObjects which the Bullet class can
check to determine if it should register a collision or not.
We should also add an is_bullet attribute so we can check the collision
properly from both objects.

(These are not “good” design decisions, but they will work.)

First, initialize the reacts_to_bullets attribute to True in the
PhysicalObject constructor::

    class PhysicalObject(pyglet.sprite.Sprite):
        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            ...
            self.reacts_to_bullets = True
            self.is_bullet = False
            ...

    class Bullet(physicalobject.PhysicalObject):
        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            ...
            self.is_bullet = True

Then, insert a bit of code in `PhysicalObject.collides_with()` to ignore
bullets under the right circumstances::

    def collides_with(self, other_object):
        if not self.reacts_to_bullets and other_object.is_bullet:
            return False
        if self.is_bullet and not other_object.reacts_to_bullets:
            return False
        ...

Finally, set self.reacts_to_bullets = False in Player.__init__().  `TheBullet`
class is completely finished!  Now let’s make something happen when a bullet
hits an asteroid.

Making asteroids explode
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Asteroids is challenging to players because every time you shoot an asteroid,
it turns into more asteroids.  We need to mimic that behavior if we want our
game to be any fun.  We’ve already done most of the hard parts.
All that remains is to make another subclass of PhysicalObject and write
a custom `handle_collision_with()` method, along with a couple of maintenance
tweaks.

Writing the asteroid class
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create a new submodule of game called asteroid.py.  Write the usual constructor
to pass a specific image to the superclass, passing along any other parameters::

    import pyglet
    from . import resources, physicalobject

    class Asteroid(physicalobject.PhysicalObject):
        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            super(Asteroid, self).__init__(resources.asteroid_image, *args, **kwargs)

Now we need to write a new `handle_collision_with()` method.  It should create
a random number of new, smaller asteroids with random velocities.  However,
it should only do that if it’s big enough. An asteroid should divide at most
twice, and if we scale it down by half each time, then an asteroid should stop
dividing when it’s 1/4 the size of a new asteroid.

We want to keep the old behavior of ignoring other asteroids, so start the
method with a call to the superclass’s method::

    def handle_collision_with(self, other_object):
        super(Asteroid, self).handle_collision_with(other_object)

Now we can say that if it’s supposed to die, and it’s big enough, then we
should create two or three new asteroids with random rotations and velocities.
We should add the old asteroid’s velocity to the new ones to make it look
like they come from the same object::

    import random

    class Asteroid:
        def handle_collision_with(self, other_object):
            super(Asteroid, self).handle_collision_with(other_object)
            if self.dead and self.scale > 0.25:
                num_asteroids = random.randint(2, 3)
                for i in range(num_asteroids):
                    new_asteroid = Asteroid(x=self.x, y=self.y, batch=self.batch)
                    new_asteroid.rotation = random.randint(0, 360)
                    new_asteroid.velocity_x = (random.random() * 70 + self.velocity_x)
                    new_asteroid.velocity_y = (random.random() * 70 + self.velocity_y)
                    new_asteroid.scale = self.scale * 0.5
                    self.new_objects.append(new_asteroid)

While we’re here, let’s add a small graphical touch to the asteroids by making
them rotate a little.  To do that, we’ll add a rotate_speed attribute and give
it a random value.  Then we’ll write an `update()` method to apply that
rotation every frame.

Add the attribute in the constructor::

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(Asteroid, self).__init__(resources.asteroid_image, *args, **kwargs)
        self.rotate_speed = random.random() * 100.0 - 50.0

Then write the update() method::

    def update(self, dt):
        super(Asteroid, self).update(dt)
        self.rotation += self.rotate_speed * dt

The last thing we need to do is go over to load.py and have the asteroid()
method create a new Asteroid instead of a PhysicalObject::

    from . import asteroid

    def asteroids(num_asteroids, player_position, batch=None):
        ...
        for i in range(num_asteroids):
            ...
            new_asteroid = asteroid.Asteroid(x=asteroid_x, y=asteroid_y, batch=batch)
            ...
        return asteroids

Now we’re looking at something resembling a game.  It's simple, but all of
the basics are there.


Next steps
----------

So instead of walking you through a standard refactoring session,
I’m going to leave it as an exercise for you to do the following::

* Make the Score counter mean something
* Let the player restart the level if they die
* Implement lives and a “Game Over” screen
* Add particle effects

Good luck!  With a little effort, you should be able to figure out most of
these things on your own. If you have trouble, join us on the pyglet
mailing list.

Also, in addition to this example game, there is yet *another* Asteroids clone
available in the `/examples/astraea/` folder in the pyglet source directory.
In comparison to this example game excercise we've just completed,
Astraea is a complete game with a proper menu, score system, and additional
graphical effects.  No step-by-step documentation is available for Astraea,
but the code itself should be easy to understand and illustrates some nice
techniques.
