A Ball Class

Lesson 38 of 41 in Coddy's Make Games with Pygame course.

The ball is a Rect plus two numbers, and the jobs it does: move, bounce, be drawn. Make it a class, as you did for your sprites: a class keeps data and the functions that use it together.

class Ball:
    def __init__(self):
        self.rect = pygame.Rect(293, 193, 14, 14)
        self.vx = 5
        self.vy = 4

    def move(self):
        self.rect.x += self.vx
        self.rect.y += self.vy

ball = Ball() makes a ball object and runs __init__. Inside the class, self is the object, so self.vx is this ball's own vx. Functions in a class are methods: ball.move() calls one.

Outside the class, the ball's Rect is now ball.rect and its speed ball.vx and ball.vy, so the paddle and scoring code reads them there. The game plays the same as before.

Challenge

Hard

Make the ball a class that moves and draws itself.

At the top, write class Ball with __init__ (self.rect, self.vx = 5, self.vy = 4), move() (move and bounce off the top and bottom) and draw(surface).
Make ball = Ball(), and call ball.move() and ball.draw(screen) in the loop.
Everywhere else, write ball.rect, ball.vx and ball.vy.

Press Play: the game plays exactly as before. Then Check.

Try it yourself

import pygame

pygame.init()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 400))
pygame.display.set_caption("Pong")
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
font = pygame.font.Font(None, 36)

ball = pygame.Rect(293, 193, 14, 14)
vx, vy = 5, 4
left = pygame.Rect(20, 160, 12, 80)
right = pygame.Rect(568, 160, 12, 80)
left_score = 0
right_score = 0
waiting = False
winner = None

running = True
while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.key == pygame.K_SPACE:
            if winner is None:
                waiting = False

    keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
    if keys[pygame.K_w]:
        left.y -= 6
    if keys[pygame.K_s]:
        left.y += 6
    if keys[pygame.K_UP]:
        right.y -= 6
    if keys[pygame.K_DOWN]:
        right.y += 6
    left.clamp_ip(screen.get_rect())
    right.clamp_ip(screen.get_rect())

    if not waiting:
        ball.x += vx
        ball.y += vy
        if ball.top <= 0 or ball.bottom >= 400:
            vy = -vy
        if ball.colliderect(left):
            vx = abs(vx)
            vy = (ball.centery - left.centery) // 6
        if ball.colliderect(right):
            vx = -abs(vx)
            vy = (ball.centery - right.centery) // 6
        if ball.left > 600:
            left_score += 1
            ball.center = (300, 200)
            vx = -vx
            waiting = True
        if ball.right < 0:
            right_score += 1
            ball.center = (300, 200)
            vx = -vx
            waiting = True
        if left_score == 5:
            winner = "Left player wins!"
        elif right_score == 5:
            winner = "Right player wins!"

    screen.fill((30, 30, 46))
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, (80, 160, 255), left)
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, (235, 80, 80), right)
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, (255, 196, 0), ball)
    score = font.render(f"{left_score} : {right_score}", True, (240, 240, 240))
    screen.blit(score, score.get_rect(center=(300, 30)))
    if winner is not None:
        message = font.render(winner, True, (240, 240, 240))
        screen.blit(message, message.get_rect(center=(300, 120)))
    elif waiting:
        message = font.render("Press Space to serve", True, (240, 240, 240))
        screen.blit(message, message.get_rect(center=(300, 360)))
    pygame.display.flip()
    clock.tick(60)

pygame.quit()