pygame-ce

.. image:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/main/docs/reST/_static/pygame_ce_logo.svg :width: 800 :alt: pygame :target: https://pyga.me/

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Pygame_ is a free and open-source cross-platform library for the development of multimedia applications like video games using Python. It uses the Simple DirectMedia Layer library_ and several other popular libraries to abstract the most common functions, making writing these programs a more intuitive task.

This distribution is called 'pygame - Community Edition' ('pygame-ce' for short).

It is a fork of the upstream pygame project by its former core developers, and was created after impossible challenges prevented them from continuing development upstream. The new distribution aims to offer more frequent releases, continuous bugfixes and enhancements, and a more democratic governance model.

New contributors are welcome!

Installation

To install pygame-ce, first make sure you have Python (and pip) installed and available on your PATH. Then, run the following command in your terminal or command prompt:

::

pip install pygame-ce

Note that on some platforms you may need to use pip3 instead of pip.

Linux Note: "Breaking System Packages" Error

On some Linux distributions (like Ubuntu or Debian), installing Python packages with ``pip`` can trigger a message like the following:

::

   error: externally-managed-environment
   This environment is externally managed when system packages are installed.

This means your system Python is managed by the OS, and using ``pip3`` globally might interfere with system packages.

Recommended Solutions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

1. Use ``venv`` (Virtual Environment):

   You can create a virtual environment and install pygame-ce within it.
   This way you still use system Python but create a separate environment for installed packages so that they do not conflict with or break system ones.

   .. code-block:: bash

      python3 -m venv venv      # create a venv named 'venv'
      source venv/bin/activate  # activate venv
      pip install pygame-ce     # install packages in venv

2. Use ``pyenv`` (User-level Python management):

   `pyenv <https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv>`_ lets you install and manage your own Python versions at the user level without touching the system one.
   As a plus, you can install and use multiple Python versions side by side.

3. Use ``uv`` (Fast Modern Package Installer):

   `uv <https://docs.astral.sh/uv/>`_ is a modern, fast Python package and environment manager that can serve as a replacement for both ``venv`` and ``pyenv``.

Help
----

If you are just getting started with pygame, you should be able to
get started fairly quickly.  Pygame comes with many tutorials and
introductions.  There is also full reference documentation for the
entire library. Browse the documentation on the `docs page`_. You
can also browse the documentation locally by running
``python -m pygame.docs`` in your terminal. If the docs aren't found
locally, it'll launch the online website instead.

The online documentation stays up to date with the development version
of pygame on github.  This may be a bit newer than the version of pygame
you are using. To upgrade to the latest full release, run
``pip install pygame-ce --upgrade`` in your terminal.

Best of all, the examples directory has many playable small programs
which can get you started playing with the code right away.


Building From Source
--------------------

If you want to use features that are currently in development,
or you want to contribute to pygame-ce, you will need to build pygame-ce
locally from its source code, rather than pip installing it.

Installing from source is fairly automated. The most work will
involve compiling and installing all the pygame dependencies.  Once
that is done, run the ``setup.py`` script which will attempt to
auto-configure, build, and install pygame.

Much more information about installing and compiling is available
on the `Compilation wiki page`_.


Dependencies
------------

Pygame is obviously strongly dependent on SDL and Python. It also
links to and embeds several other smaller libraries. The font
module relies on SDL_ttf, which is dependent on freetype. The mixer
(and mixer.music) modules depend on SDL_mixer. The image module
depends on SDL_image. Transform.rotozoom has an embedded version
of SDL_rotozoom, and gfxdraw has an embedded version of SDL_gfx.
Dependency versions:


+----------+------------------------+
| CPython  | >= 3.10 (Or use PyPy3) |
+----------+------------------------+
| SDL      | >= 2.0.14              |
+----------+------------------------+
| SDL_mixer| >= 2.0.4               |
+----------+------------------------+
| SDL_image| >= 2.0.4               |
+----------+------------------------+
| SDL_ttf  | >= 2.0.15              |
+----------+------------------------+

How to Contribute
-----------------
First of all, thank you for considering contributing to pygame-ce! It's people like you that make pygame-ce a great library. Please follow these steps to get started:

1. Read the `Contribution Guidelines`_ and the `Many Ways to Contribute`_ wiki pages.
2. Read the documentation on `Opening A Pull Request`_ and `Opening a Great Pull Request`_.
3. Read how to `label and link reported issues`_.
4. Check the `issue tracker`_ for open issues that interest you or open a new issue to start a discussion about your idea.

There are many more resources throughout the `wiki pages`_ that can help you get started.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the `Pygame Community Discord Server`_ or open an issue.

License
-------
**License Identifier:** LGPL-2.1-or-later

This library is distributed under `GNU LGPL version 2.1`_, which can
be found in the file ``docs/LGPL.txt``.  We reserve the right to place
future versions of this library under a different license.

This basically means you can use pygame in any project you want,
but if you make any changes or additions to pygame itself, those
must be released with a compatible license (preferably submitted
back to the pygame-ce project).  Closed source and commercial games are fine.

The programs in the ``examples`` subdirectory are in the public domain.

See docs/licenses for licenses of dependencies.


.. |PyPiVersion| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/pygame-ce.svg?v=1
   :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pygame-ce

.. |PyPiLicense| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/l/pygame-ce.svg?v=1
   :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pygame-ce

.. |Python3| image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/python-3-blue.svg?v=1

.. |GithubCommits| image:: https://img.shields.io/github/commits-since/pygame-community/pygame-ce/2.5.6.svg
   :target: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/compare/2.5.6...main

.. |DocsStatus| image:: https://img.shields.io/website?down_message=offline&label=docs&up_message=online&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpyga.me%2Fdocs%2F
   :target: https://pyga.me/docs/

.. |BlackFormatBadge| image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg
    :target: https://github.com/psf/black

.. |DiscordBadge| image:: https://discord.com/api/guilds/772505616680878080/widget.png
   :target: https://pyga.me/discord

.. _Pygame: https://pyga.me
.. _Simple DirectMedia Layer library: https://www.libsdl.org
.. _Compilation wiki page: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/wiki#compiling
.. _docs page: https://pyga.me/docs
.. _GNU LGPL version 2.1: https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html
.. _Contribution Guidelines: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/wiki/Contribution-guidelines
.. _Many Ways to Contribute: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/wiki/Many-ways-to-contribute
.. _Opening A Pull Request: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/wiki/Opening-a-pull-request
.. _Opening a Great Pull Request: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/wiki/Opening-a-great-pull-request
.. _issue tracker: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/issues
.. _label and link reported issues: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/wiki/Labelling-&-linking-reported-issues
.. _Pygame Community Discord Server: https://pyga.me/discord
.. _wiki pages: https://github.com/pygame-community/pygame-ce/wiki

.. _简体中文: ./docs/readmes/README.zh-cn.rst
.. _繁體中文: ./docs/readmes/README.zh-tw.rst
.. _Français: ./docs/readmes/README.fr.rst
.. _فارسی: ./docs/readmes/README.fa.rst
.. _Español: ./docs/readmes/README.es.rst
.. _日本語: ./docs/readmes/README.ja.rst
.. _Italiano: ./docs/readmes/README.it.rst
.. _Русский: ./docs/readmes/README.ru.rst
.. _Ελληνικά: ./docs/readmes/README.gr.rst
.. _Português (Brasil): ./docs/readmes/README.pt-br.rst
.. _Deutsch: ./docs/readmes/README.de.rst