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The Basics - Class and Object

Classes and objects

Before you start building a game, you should know how to draw different objects and modify them based on the way they need to look and move on computer screen.

In order to build objects, you need to first decide how they should look, what role they should perform in your game, and how player can control their movement on screen. You can do this by creating a class for each object you want on screen. Before objects are created in a program you must define their class. A class is what tells how an individual object will look and behave. It contains the attributes and methods that its object can use while the program is running (in this case it is a Pong game). You only need to define a class once, after which you can use it to create as many objects as you want.

You cannot use a class directly in a program; a class must have an object as its manifestation that is used in program. All aspects related to visuals and movement are called the "attributes" of the object that you see on computer screen. All aspects related to control of an object are called "functions" of the object.

First, define the class for the paddle used in game. To do this, use the following code:

class Paddle(pygame.Rect):
    def __init__(self, velocity, up_key, down_key, *args, **kwargs):
        self.velocity = velocity
        self.up_key = up_key
        self.down_key = down_key
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    def move_paddle(self, board_height):
        keys_pressed = pygame.key.get_pressed()

        if keys_pressed[self.up_key]:
            if self.y - self.velocity > 0:
                self.y -= self.velocity

        if keys_pressed[self.down_key]:
            if self.y + self.velocity < board_height - self.height:
                self.y += self.velocity

Let’s try to understand the code in more detail.

Name the class

class Paddle(pygame.Rect)

This is how you name the class "Paddle". Now, notice the pygame.Rect inside (). You might have already imagined that in order to draw the paddle on a computer screen you need to draw it like a rectangle, then define its dimensions and position on screen to make it look like a paddle. The (pygame.Rect) statement allows us to tell the Python compiler to draw this object like a rectangle and provide all rectangle’s attributes to it like WIDTH and HEIGHT. This helps us make use of all attributes available to the Rectangle class in the Pygame library.

Add attributes

def __init__(self, velocity, up_key, down_key, *args, **kwargs):

You don’t need to worry about args and kwargs for now - just focus on the core attributes of the Paddle class.

The __init__ function allows you to setup the class with the attributes you want to see in its objects. You can define additional attributes here in addition to what you already get from the Rectangle class. Let’s add attributes like velocity, up_key, down_key to represent the speed at which paddle can move, and the keys needed for the upward and downward movement of the paddle.

class Paddle(pygame.Rect):
    def __init__(self, velocity, up_key, down_key, *args, **kwargs):
        self.velocity = velocity
        self.up_key = up_key
        self.down_key = down_key
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)

Add methods

move_paddle() is a method. We use this method to get paddle to perform move actions. In this case, move_paddle() moves the paddle either upward or downward depending on the key pressed, and at a certain speed.

def move_paddle(self, board_height):
        keys_pressed = pygame.key.get_pressed()
        if keys_pressed[self.up_key]:
            if self.y - self.velocity > 0:
                self.y -= self.velocity
        if keys_pressed[self.down_key]:
            if self.y + self.velocity < board_height - self.height:
                self.y += self.velocity

Now that you have defined how the paddle should look and how it should move, feel free to take a look at the Ball and Pong classes. In the next activities, you will modify certain aspects of these classes to personalize the Pong game to your preferences.