andrewstephengames / pixper

Introduction to Pixper

Pixper is a 2D graphical game in which the objective is to collect all apples generated on a board resembling flatlands, while avoiding dangerous obstacles and entities.

The game is controlled entirely via WASD, although you can also use the key Q to quit. The project was made in Python using pygame, pygame-menu and sqlite3, in addition to the standard Python3 libraries.

Screenshots

Game's beginning

The end of the game, in this case a win

The game's initial menu

The game's stats submenu

How do I play?

The game is only available for Windows and Linux. A port for Android is planned.

Instructions for Windows

• Download: https://andrewstephen.xyz/pixper.zip
• Unzip the file
• Go into the main directory
• Run main.exe (in case Windows complains about the program being malicious, run anyway, the reason for such an error is that I have not purchased a certificate to verify this program with Microsoft - in case that sounds spooky to you - read the Building on Windows instructions - you can "compile" a build of your own)
• Enjoy!

Building on Windows

• Install Python: https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
• Install pip: https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installation/
• Install git: https://gitforwindows.org/
• Open Powershell or Windows Terminal, NOT cmd
• pip install pygame pygame-menu auto-py-to-exe
• Alternatively, run py -m pip install pygame pygame-menu auto-py-to-exe
• cd C:\Users\_your username_\Downloads
• git clone https://github.com/andrewstephengames/pixper
• For the script location select C:\Users\_your username_\Downloads\pixper\
• You can select either One directory or One file, though One directory works better
• Tick on Additional files and select the C:\Users\_your username_\Downloads\pixper\res directory
• In the right side box make sure that you input ./, otherwise the game will not start, as it doesn't know where the assets are
• Leave everything else on default
• You should now have a main directory under the current working directory, and inside of it you can find the main.exe executable
• Enjoy!

Instructions for Linux

• Open your favorite terminal emulator
• sudo apt install python3-pip (Debian/Ubuntu - for other distros look up distroname install pip)
• pip install pygame pygame-menu
• git clone https://github.com/andrewstephengames/pixper
• python main.py
• Enjoy!

Building on Linux

• pip install auto-py-to-exe
• auto-py-to-exe
• For the script location select path where you cloned the repository/pixper/
• You can select either One directory or One file, though One directory works better
• Tick on Additional files and select the path where you cloned the repository/pixper/res directory
• In the right side box make sure that you input ./, otherwise the game will not start, as it doesn't know where the assets are
• Leave everything else on default
• You should now have a main directory under the current working directory, and inside of it you can find the main executable
• Enjoy!

Background

Because of the nature of the project, the codebase is very messy. You have been warned. The game was meant initially only for my computer science certification in high school, although at the recommendation of my teachers I modified it for some contests also. As such, because of time limitations and because I had to study for the final exam in high school, I had to forgo any and all programming conventions that could have made my code at least half-readable.

On that note, for one of the contests that was national, I forked my own project in order to translate it to French (I went to the French language section to guarantee at least 3rd place, and I got 2nd place) and also changed some of the assets in order to make it friendly for the contest's evaluation commission. The fork's name is pixper-fr.

This project was made completely solo, including the textures, logic, database, menus, command-line functionality, distribution and documentation. It ain't much but it's honest work. Feel free to fork.