What is Pong?

Create the screen.

You will need to import pygame, create variables that will store the dimensions of the screen, initiate the pygame module using pygame’s init method, set a caption for the window using the set_caption method, and create a variable that will run the set_mode method.

Add the game loop.

You will need to create an infinite while loop that runs in your main function.

Set a background color.

You will need to first create a constant variable that will contain an RGB color. Then, you will set the background color of the screen by executing the fill method with the desired color as the argument.

Add a paddle sprite.

You will need to start by creating two variables that will store the paddle’s height and width. Then you will need to create a surface using those values and the Surface method. Lastly, you will need blit the paddle using the blit method.

What are surfaces?

Exit the screen with the red button.

You will need to create a for loop using event’s get method as the iterating array. Then you will need to check if the array type equals QUIT, at which point you will exit the program.
You also need to add at the top of your program.

Make the left paddle move up when the W key is pressed.

You will need to create a set of boolean variables that will signify whether the player wants to move up or down. Then you will need to check the type of event and the key that was pressed and set the corresponding boolean variable. Lastly, after the for loop finishes, you will need to create a branch statement checking whether the variable is set to true.

Make the right paddle move down when the DOWN key is pressed.

This task is essentially the opposite of Task #8, so just adjust the paddle y variable accordingly when the s key is pressed.

Review the process of receiving input from the user.

Remove the trailing sprites.

You will need to move the invocation of the fill method from outside of the game loop to just after the paddle and ball are blitted.

Add an upper boundary for the left paddle.

You need to add a branch statement to your algorithm that sets the vertical position variable to 0 if it is ever less than 0.

Create variables for the ball and blit it to the screen.

You will need to create a variable for the surface and the ball’s x & y position. In this case, use a rect to contain the positional information of the ball.

What are rects?

A rect is just an object that holds a bunch of information about a rectangle. You can find the and of a rect object. For example, will be the y coordinate of the top of To create a rect you use the line

Moving the ball.

You will need to increment the ball’s rect on both the x and y using the ball_speed variable.

Bounce the ball off the bottom wall.

You will need to have a branch statement that checks if the ball’s y position is greater than the height of the screen. If so, the ball_speed’s second element needs to switch signs.

Bounce the ball off the right paddle on the x-axis.

You will need to add a branch statement that checks if the ball’s x position is greater than the right paddle’s x position. If so, the ball_speed’s first element needs to switch signs.

Bounce the ball off the right paddle on the y-axis.

You will need to add a branch statement that checks if the ball’s y position is greater than the top of the right paddle or the ball’s y position is less than the bottom of the right paddle. If so, the ball_speed’s first element needs to switch signs.

The ball comes back.

Make the ball bounce off the right paddle only when inside a hitbox.

You will need to check if the ball’s x position is within 5 pixels to the right or left of the left side of the paddle. If so, ball_speed’s first element needs to switch signs.