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Mission Python: Code a Space Adventure Game! Kindle Edition

by Sean McManus (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 176 ratings
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Program a graphical adventure game in this hands-on, beginner-friendly introduction to coding in the Python language.

Launch into coding with Mission Python, a space-themed guide to building a complete computer game in Python. You'll learn programming fundamentals like loops, strings, and lists as you build Escape!, an exciting game with a map to explore, items to collect, and tricky logic puzzles to solve. As you work through the book, you'll build exercises and mini-projects, like making a spacewalk simulator and creating an astronaut's safety checklist that will put your new Python skills to the test. You'll learn how to use Pygame Zero, a free resource that lets you add graphics and sound effects to your creations, and you'll get useful game-making tips, such as how to design fun puzzles and intriguing maps. Before you know it, you'll have a working, awesome game to stump your friends with (and some nifty coding skills, too!). You can follow this book using a Raspberry Pi or a Microsoft Windows PC, and the 3D graphics and sound effects you need are provided as a download.
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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    10 - 12 years
  2. Print length
    280 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    5 - 6
  5. Lexile measure
    1020L
  6. Publisher
    No Starch Press
  7. Publication date
    October 16, 2018
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  12. ISBN-13
    978-1593278571
  13. See all details
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From the Publisher

Mission Python space image

Make Your Own Space Adventure

Code and play a puzzle-based adventure game that takes place on a space station.

Pygame Zero, Python, learn to code, Python game, programming

Escape the Space Station

Find your way out before running out of air.

Door frame animation steps

Program the Animation

Learn to code the moving parts yourself.

mission debrief

Complete Your Mission

Follow along with exercises and debrief at the end of each chapter.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sean McManus has managed to put Python programming language within easy reach."
—Teach Secondary

"Mission Python takes a reader from their first steps in programming to completing their first game."
—Custom PC Magazine

"If you’re looking for additions to your computer science education or gifts for your budding programmer, I’d generally recommend anything from No Starch Press, but Mission Python is one of my new favorites."
—GeekMom

"A great book to get into coding a game in Python."
—Othelo Vieira, OtheloVieira.com

About the Author

Sean McManus is an experienced computer book author, with extensive experience in writing coding books for children. His children's titles include Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps, and Super Skills: How To Code in 10 Easy Lessons. He co-wrote Raspberry Pi For Dummies with Mike Cook. Sean has been a Code Club volunteer, helping junior school children to learn programming in weekly sessions.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B072STNXT8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ No Starch Press (October 16, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 16, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 18478 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 176 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Sean McManus

Sean McManus

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Sean McManus writes inspiring books about business and technology.

He is the author/co-author of Mission Python, Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps, Coder Academy, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps, Raspberry Pi For Dummies, iPad for the Older and Wiser, Web Design in Easy Steps, Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser, The Customer Service Pocketbook, The Interviewer's Pocketbook, Social Networking for the Older and Wiser, and Small Business Websites That Work.

His novel Earworm, published on Amazon in 2015, is a techno-thriller that takes a slice through the music industry: from the boardroom to the stage; from the studio to the record fair. The story explores how fans relate to their favourite bands, how businesses can use technology to manipulate consumers, and what would happen if the music business disappeared overnight.

He has written for magazines including Musician, Future Music, Making Music, Melody Maker, Raspberry Pi Geek, The MagPi, The Author, Press Gazette, Internet Magazine, Personal Computer World, Internet Works, Marketing Week, Start & Run Your Business, and Business 2.0. His first published pieces were program listings and programming tutorials in Amstrad Action and Amstrad Computer User.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
176 global ratings
Really good quality
5 Stars
Really good quality
I loved it. The book was like brand new! The book is in good quality and it doesn't have any scribbles.
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Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful for teaching kids programming
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
I am an engineer and part of my job is programming with Python. I bought this to learn some programming along with my 12 year old daughter and it has not disappointed. The helper sites are still active and the concepts in this book plus the learning to make a game (even a relatively simple one) have advanced her programming knowledge. Not only that, but she's applied the basic programming concepts to other STEM courses she is taking. The book was not out of her range on its own, but leaving her on her own was never my design. Sharing the programming development was my target.
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T Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars Great to learn lists and dictionaries in Python
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
The book covers the steps to build a large and multifaceted project. If you go through all of it, you will have a good understanding of Python and particularly data-generated games. The book makes heavy use of both lists and dictionaries, with lots of nesting, to create the needed data structures.

I have used it with high schoolers and advanced middle schoolers with good success.

I like to separate the large data structures into different files and import them. Then I can give these files to students to skip all that typing. However, this does cause some issues with how image paths are handled by Pygame Zero in the Mu editor. It can be solved by importing the needed pgzero functions in the data files.

Overall, the game design is good and the project is very educational.
6 people found this helpful
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Bryan W
4.0 out of 5 stars very informative
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
so far it's a great book. I'm new to development and I'm using this to learn python. The book/author do a great job of highlighting concepts in an easy to read way. I will say that I had difficulty getting my environment to even run the game in the first place, and there is not much guidance in the book in regards to mac users. I was having major compatibility issues between python, pygame zero, and my mac os. Thankfully there is information out there to assist, but one of the best things I did was find mu-editor, which is made specifically for this sort of application of python!

can't wait to complete the book! thanks :)
3 people found this helpful
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Kacey P.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fiancé loves it
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2019
Verified Purchase
Got this for my fiancé as a Christmas present. He’s always wanted to learn how to make video games, and I thought this would help him get started. He’s also an astrophysicist, so the topical similarity was kinda cute haha. He absolutely loved it. He got through the book in a week alongside his normal work. He had some issues getting it started with Linux, but we eventually got it figured out. The writing style was great for beginners. Highly recommend.
11 people found this helpful
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Christian Mijangos
5.0 out of 5 stars Really good quality
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
I loved it. The book was like brand new! The book is in good quality and it doesn't have any scribbles.
Customer image
Christian Mijangos
5.0 out of 5 stars Really good quality
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2021
I loved it. The book was like brand new! The book is in good quality and it doesn't have any scribbles.
Images in this review
Customer image
Customer image
One person found this helpful
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Kumapi
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, even for an adult!
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2020
Verified Purchase
Absolutely loving this book. It’s a great introduction to python for me as a beginner. As an adult, I still find the game and learning how to build it very fun and engaging. Kudos to the author as well for explaining things in a simple, but entertaining fashion.
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Jeremy Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Great coding book
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
My teenager loved using this book. He has spent the last several weeks working on it and finally finished the game. He hates reading and doing school work, but he loved doing this so it must be great!
2 people found this helpful
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A. S. Aakesson
4.0 out of 5 stars Not sure yet...
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2020
Verified Purchase
Not so easy to setup for Mac users.
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Jake
5.0 out of 5 stars Mächtige Anleitung wie man ein 2D Grafik-Adventure mit Python - Pygame Zero entwickelt!!
Reviewed in Germany on July 24, 2023
Verified Purchase
Mission Python von Sean McManus führt den Leser/User durch die Entwicklung eines
2D Grafik Adventure mit Python und Pygame Zero.

Er erläutert alle erforderlichen Schritte der Programmierung anhand des Original-Codes.
In Mission Python werden Techniken der 2D Programmierung mit Pygame Zero vorgestellt
die ich bisher in keinem anderen Buch gefunden habe! Besonders hervorzuheben sind die
Techniken die es ermöglichen nahezu beliebig große Karten im Spiel zu entwickeln.
Der vollständige Code wird dem User zur nicht kommerziellen Nutzung zur Verfügung gestellt.

Leider ist der Titel bisher nicht auf Deutsch erschienen ...
One person found this helpful
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hectorei19
4.0 out of 5 stars Muy bueno para seguir aprendiendo
Reviewed in Spain on August 19, 2020
Verified Purchase
Libro muy interesante para aprender a la vez que creas un juego con Python.
Como digo en el título, es muy bueno si quieres seguir aprendiendo. Personalmente, si empiezas de cero, optaría primer por otras opciones.
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hectorei19
4.0 out of 5 stars Muy bueno para seguir aprendiendo
Reviewed in Spain on August 19, 2020
Libro muy interesante para aprender a la vez que creas un juego con Python.
Como digo en el título, es muy bueno si quieres seguir aprendiendo. Personalmente, si empiezas de cero, optaría primer por otras opciones.
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Customer image
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One person found this helpful
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Jason James
5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Companion For Any Budding Coder
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book goes covers a great deal in a very logical order from ensuring the coding environment is correct to game theory, platform games, graphics and game engines; everything an aspiring young game developer could hope for in a worthy companion text. Sean's writing style makes it easy to follow along and there are countless code listings to copy and try for yourself; there's a ton of online resources too. The reader is left wondering what else they might be able to create using Sean's ideas as a guide. The book is not a trivial exploration of game design or Python and whilst the final outcome lacks some of the flare of modern games, with a little time and our new found skills my two children (aged 11 and 13) and I are looking forward to playing the game we've created and seeing where our imaginations might take us next.
3 people found this helpful
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Karin Liau
5.0 out of 5 stars Unterhaltsamer Einstieg in die Spieleprogrammierung mit Python
Reviewed in Germany on June 13, 2020
Verified Purchase
Mission Python ist ein großartiges und charmant geschriebenes Buch von Sean McManus, mit dem man von Grund auf in die Programmierung eines Computerspiels rein auf Basis von Python und dem Zusatzmodul Pygame Zero einsteigen kann. Beides ist kostenfrei und für alle gängigen Computerplattformen erhältlich.

Schritt für Schritt wird man an die Erstellung eines 2D-Weltraum-Abenteuerspiels herangeführt, das überraschend interessant und komplex ist. Von der Einrichtung der Programmierumgebung auf dem eigenen PC bis zum letzten Feinschliff der Spiels wird man in zwölf Kapiteln durch die verschiedenen Bestandteile des Spiels, wie Aufbau der Levelkarte, Ausstattung mit Umgebungselementen und Items und Implementieren des spielbaren Charakters, begleitet. Je nachdem, wie viel Zeit und Energie man investieren möchte, kann man entweder jede einzelne Codezeile selbst eingeben oder die bereitgestellten Skripte verwenden. Denn sowohl alle Skripte, als auch alle verwendeten Grafiken und Soundeffekte werden auf der Website des Verlags No Starch Press zur Verfügung gestellt.

Beide Zugangsweisen werden durch die detaillierten und teilweise mit sehr guten Schemata angereicherten Erläuterungen unterstützt. Quasi nebenbei lernt man Grundlagen der Programmierung, wie den Umgang mit Schleifen und Bedingungen, die Organisation von Daten und ihre unterschiedlichen Typen sowie die Bedeutung von Funktionen kennen. Die Besonderheit bei grafischen Spielen ist, dass zusätzlich noch die Handhabung von Grafiken, Steuerung, Animation und ähnliches hinzukommt.

Insgesamt habe ich großen Spaß daran gehabt mich durch dieses Werk zu arbeiten und mir damit auch einen Kindheitstraum erfüllt, mal ein komplettes Spiel zu programmieren. Natürlich war es mehr ein Nachbauen, jedoch vermittelt das Buch ein gutes Gespür dafür, was alles zur Entwicklung eines Spiels dazu gehört und auf welche Weise bestimmte Anforderungen gelöst werden können. Zudem gibt der Autor an mehreren Stellen Vorschläge, wie das Spiel auf einfache Weise individuell modifiziert werden kann.

Das Buch richtet sich an Jugendliche ab elf Jahren. Da es komplett auf Englisch verfasst ist, wäre es für jüngere Jugendliche in Eigenarbeit möglicherweise zu anspruchsvoll. Ich kann es mir aber sehr gut als gemeinsames Teamprojekt zwischen älteren und jüngeren Jugendlichen oder Eltern mit Kindern vorstellen.
5 people found this helpful
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MR IAN C BROWN
5.0 out of 5 stars Great to do together !
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
My son (12) and I have been going through this together - we really like the “play it first, then build it step by step”approach. We have been able to add out own ideas to the project as we went along and it has inspired a number of other “projects” that we will start in the future. My son says it is sooo much more fun that the ICT he does at school. So if you are interested in doing something together or if your kids show an interest in coding that isn’t being fulfilled at school this is the book for you !
4 people found this helpful
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