Top 9 python frameworks for game development

Originally posted on analyticsindiamag.

Popular video games like Battlefield 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, among others use Python programming for a number of its functionalities and add-ons. With the advancement in the gaming industry, Python language has proved to be an exceptional choice by the developers for rapid prototyping of video games.

In this article, we curated a list of the top 9 Python frameworks for game development one must know.

(The list is in no particular order)


1| Pygame 

About: Pygame is an open-source Python library for making multimedia applications like games built on top of the excellent SDL library. This library is a combination of C, Python, Native and  OpenGL. Pygame enables users to build fully featured games as well as multimedia programs with Python programming. It is highly portable and runs on nearly every platform and operating system. Some of the features are:

  • Multicore CPUs can be used easily
  • Uses optimised C and Assembly code for core functions
  • Simple and Portable
  • A small amount of code is needed

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2| PyKyra

About: PyKyra is one of the fastest game development frameworks for Python that is based on both SDL (Software and Documentation Localisation) and the Kyra engine. Along with the standard features of this framework, it also supports MPEG video, sound such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Wav, etc., direct images reading, and much more.

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3| Pyglet 

About: Pyglet is an open-sourced, cross-platform windowing and multimedia library for Python. It is a powerful Python library that can be used for developing games and other visually-rich applications on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Pyglet supports windowing, user interface event handling, Joysticks, OpenGL graphics, loading images and videos, and playing sounds and music. Pyglet runs under Python 3.5+ and also works on other Python interpreters such as PyPy.Also Read  Automation and AI can make Millennials unemployed in the coming years

Some of the features are-

  • No external dependencies or installation requirements
  • Flexible native windowing
  • Built-in support for images and audio
  • Written in pure Python

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4| PyOpenGL

About: PyOpenGL is one of the most common cross-platform Python bindings to OpenGL and related APIs. In PyOpenGL, the binding is created using the standard ctypes library. PyOpenGL is interoperable with a large number of external GUI libraries for Python including PyGame, PyQt, Raw XLib, among others. 

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5| Kivy

About: Equipped with novel user interfaces like multi-touch apps, Kivy is an open-source and cross-platform Python library for rapid development of applications. Kivy runs on Linux, Windows, OS X, Android, iOS, and Raspberry Pi and can natively use most inputs, protocols and devices including WM_Touch, WM_Pen, Mac OS X Trackpad and Magic Mouse, Mtdev, Linux Kernel HID, and TUIO. The library is GPU accelerated, and it comes with more than 20 widgets that are all highly extensible.

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6| Panda3D

About: Written in Python and C++, Panda3D is an open-source and completely free-to-use engine for realtime 3D games, visualisations, simulations, experiments and more. Panda3D includes command-line tools for processing and optimising source assets that allow users to automate and script the content production pipeline. It supports many popular third-party libraries, such as the Bullet physics engine, Assimp model loader, OpenAL and FMOD sound libraries, and more.

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7| Cocos2d

About: Written in Python, C++, and Objective C, Cocos2d is an open-source software framework that can be used to build games, apps and other cross-platform GUI based interactive programs. The Cocos2d family consists of Cocos2d-x, Cocos2d-JS, Cocos2d-XNA and Cocos2d (Python). Cocos2d-x is an open-source game framework written in C++, with a thin platform dependent layer and can be used to build games, apps and other cross-platform GUI based interactive programs. Also, Cocos2d-JS is Cocos2d-x engine’s javascript version that supports full Cocos2d-x functionality with a set of simplified javascript friendly APIs.Also Read  7 Most Popular Python Libraries And Toolkits For Desktop GUI Applications

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8| Python-Ogre

About: Python-Ogre or PyOgre is a Python binding of a C++ library for the OGRE 3D engine. PyOgre is a cross-platform and inherits speed and flexibility. Ogre is a 3D rendering engine written entirely in C++ that supports an impressive feature set and has been used to create impressive games. PyOgre actually consists of two libraries. The first being Ogre3d, which is a 3D rendering engine and the second is CEGUi, which is an embedded GUI system, 

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9| Ren’Py 

About: Written in Python and Cython, Ren’Py is a free and cross-platform engine for digital storytelling that makes it easy to combine words, images, and sounds to create visual novels and life simulation games. Ren’Py’s support for the Python scripting language allows developers to work with complex game logic. One of Ren’Py’s biggest advantages is that it runs on almost every computer system.

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Source: analyticsindiamag