Basic Application

Below is the basic pygame application. You'll want to remember how to make it.

import pygame  # imports the module

# RESIZABLE is only needed if you want a resizable window
from pygame import RESIZABLE

# initializes imported pygame modules, always needed when using pygame
pygame.init()

# creates resizable pygame window that is 500 pixels wide and 400 high
# sets the caption of the window to "My first pygame app!"
flag = RESIZABLE
window = pygame.display.set_mode((500, 400), flag)
pygame.display.set_caption("My first pygame app!")

# this is where the game loop begins
run = True
while run:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        # checks if the close button is pressed
        # if so, exit the game loop
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            run = False

# deactivates pygame modules, opposite of pygame.init()
pygame.quit()

View code on GitHub.

Running this program will create a resizable black window that is 500 pixels wide and 400 pixels tall.

Code Breakdown

• Line 1 - Import pygame.
• Line 4 - Imports RESIZABLE, which is a constant that is used later.
• Line 7 - Initializes the pygame module, which you always have to do.
• Line 11 - Sets flag to RESIZABLE, which we imported. It is called 'flag' because pygame.display.set_mode can take from 1 to 5 parameters. The first parameter is necessary and is a tuple/list of height and width, and the second option parameter is any "flags" (such as if the window should be resizable or not); these flags should be pygame.(flag).
• Line 12 - Creates the variable window and sets it equal to the screen (of type pygame.Surface) returned by pygame.display.set_mode.
• Line 13 - Sets the window's caption to "My first pygame app!"
• Line 16 - Sets the variable run to True.
• Line 17 - Is the start of our game loop.
• Line 18 - Is what we use to get pygame events, which are discussed later.
• Line 21 - If the pygame event is QUIT, update the game state (from running to not running anymore).
• Line 24 - Deactivates the pygame module. While it isn't needed to make your code run (unlike pygame.init()), you should still use it at the end of your code.

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2.1 - Getting Started

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2.3 - Drawing and Moving