A Ball Class

Lesson 38 of 40 in Coddy's Make Games with Pygame course.

The ball is a Rect plus two numbers, and four jobs: move, hit a paddle, reset, draw. 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.

The main loop then reads like the rules of the game: ball.move(), ball.hit(left, 1), ball.hit(right, -1), ball.reset(), ball.draw(screen). The game plays the same as before.

Challenge

Hard

Rewrite the ball as a class Ball at the top of the file, with:

__init__: self.rect, self.vx = 5, self.vy = 4
move(): moves and bounces off the top and bottom
hit(paddle, way): on a collision, self.vx = way * abs(self.vx) and the angle shot
reset(): back to the middle, vx flipped
draw(surface)

Make ball = Ball() and use its methods in the loop. Replace ball.left with ball.rect.left and so on. The game must play the same.

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()