Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4th Edition Paperback – Illustrated, December 16, 2016

"Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" is a truly fantastic book. It goes far beyond just teaching game creation; it lays a solid foundation in so many fundamental programming topics that are essential for writing any kind of software, not just games. You really learn the core concepts needed to succeed.However, the way it uses game development to teach these concepts is definitely the best part! It makes learning engaging and practical. After working through this book, I genuinely feel equipped to create a huge range of projects, perhaps even anything I can imagine building.Honestly, this was the best purchase I've made in a long time, and that's saying something because I'm not usually a huge fan of reading! If you want to learn Python and programming in a fun, hands-on way that delivers real results, I highly recommend this book. It truly empowers you to start inventing your own creations.

I just finished reading "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python", and it's my new all-time favorite book for beginners who want to learn how to program. Al's outdone himself with this one. He does an incredible job of teaching the reader how to program in Python from scratch; whenever he comes to a concept that the reader may not be familiar with, he explains it clearly and thoroughly using simple English, and then demonstrates why the concept is useful.The writing in this book is tight, engaging, entertaining, and just seriously impressive, and the projects are super fun too. I particularly liked the Tic-Tac-Toe project: I thought it was really clever to have the reader implement an AI for one of their games so early on in the book, instead of burying something fun like that in a later chapter.I don't know if Al's gotten way better at writing over the past few years, or if he's gotten a great editor, or some combination of the two; but whatever the cause, this book really shines. When I read his book "Making Games with Python & Pygame" (published in 2012), I found that he sometimes explained concepts using frustratingly vague language, or introduced them in an order that bothered me, and I also noticed a few typos and bugs in that book's prose and code; I found basically zero such issues in "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python".The only main thing I wish he'd change is that he uses mixedCase for his variable and function names, but snake_case is the naming standard in Python programs (documented in PEP8). It's not obvious to me why he prefers mixedCase, and this seems like something that shouldn't have survived to the fourth edition of this book. All in all, though, this is a problem I'm more than willing to overlook, given how otherwise excellent this book is.From now on, whenever a friend asks me what the best way is of learning to program, I'm going to point them directly to this book. Keep up the great work, Al!

I'm a programmer and I'm teaching Python to my 7-year-old son. I decided to start with this book. It took us over a year to get through all the chapters. My son typed in all the code for each chapter without copying and pasting. After that I read the chapter to him, explaining the code. Then he had fun playing and modifying the games! My son's review is below:--------------------------Dear Mr. Sweigart, I really enjoyed the games in your book. There are many ways of modifying the games, like in the dodger game, you can make it so that every time your score gets to 1000, the baddies fall faster by 1. Also, you can change all the images and music to be like Zelda and you can make it 2 players. In Sounds and Images, you can make another food that makes you smaller. I like the improved hangman from chapter 9 because it has different levels of difficulty. Please continue to write more books on this topic.

Its a good book but with a warning. You learn a lot about logic and how to design your code/app. He explains each section of the code to you in detail about what it is doing. Right away he teaches you about debugging and how to use that to figure out how the code works. I'd recommend the book for any adult, I would not recommend giving it to your 10 year old kid as they may lose interest pretty quick. Some of the logic is definitely for someone with a bit of previous in school programming or past history of it. I've done simple coding and took Java in college and I even had to really think and investigate on some of the logic. I'd advise you to go over the book yourself before giving to your child to be able to help explain. Another warning is some of the code is really long, lots of typing. And I'd suggest downloading the source files as the code in the book isn't always correct to begin with so your app may not run.

In hosting a learn to code python group of students from grades 5-9, many quickly moved beyond our planned coding quests. Three top coders were awarded copies of "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python", and they immediately started coding games. The students love quests and activities that gave them immediate results and help. Students were able to make changes, expand their knowledge of coding basics, but most importantly, this book gave them the knowledge about troubleshooting their code when things did not work. We will use the book and game programs again with the next group of python coders. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn the basics of Python in a fun way. Parents can learn to code as well to help encourage their children to continue to code. Can't say enough good things about the activities in this book.