Faster Over Time

Lesson 18 of 40 in Coddy's Make Games with Pygame course.

A game gets harder as it goes on. Here the blocks fall a little faster every 10 seconds.

pygame.time.set_timer(event_type, ms) posts an event of that type every ms milliseconds. Make your own event type with pygame.USEREVENT, which is a number pygame leaves free for you:

SPEED_UP = pygame.USEREVENT + 1
pygame.time.set_timer(SPEED_UP, 10000)
fall_speed = 3

for event in pygame.event.get():
    if event.type == SPEED_UP:
        fall_speed += 1

The event arrives in the event loop with the others, once every 10 seconds. Then the block falls with block.y += fall_speed instead of a fixed 3. A new game starts slow again, so the restart also sets fall_speed = 3.

Challenge

Medium

Below the font, make SPEED_UP = pygame.USEREVENT + 1 and start a timer for it every 10000 ms.
Set fall_speed = 3 before the loop and use it for the fall.
Add 1 to fall_speed when a SPEED_UP event arrives.
Set it back to 3 when R starts a new game.

Try it yourself

import random
import pygame

pygame.init()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((480, 360))
pygame.display.set_caption("Catch the Blocks")
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
font = pygame.font.Font(None, 32)

basket = pygame.Rect(200, 330, 80, 16)
block = pygame.Rect(220, 0, 20, 20)
score = 0
lives = 3
paused = False

running = True
while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
            if event.key == pygame.K_p:
                paused = not paused
            elif event.key == pygame.K_r and (lives == 0 or score == 10):
                score = 0
                lives = 3
                basket.x = 200
                block.y = -20
                block.x = random.randint(0, 460)

    if lives > 0 and score < 10 and not paused:
        keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
        if keys[pygame.K_LEFT]:
            basket.x -= 8
        if keys[pygame.K_RIGHT]:
            basket.x += 8
        basket.clamp_ip(screen.get_rect())

        block.y += 3
        if block.top > 360:
            block.y = -20
            block.x = random.randint(0, 460)
            lives -= 1
        if block.colliderect(basket):
            block.y = -20
            block.x = random.randint(0, 460)
            score += 1

    screen.fill((30, 30, 46))
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, (80, 160, 255), basket)
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, (235, 80, 80), block)
    score_text = font.render(f"Score: {score}", True, (240, 240, 240))
    screen.blit(score_text, (10, 10))
    lives_text = font.render(f"Lives: {lives}", True, (240, 240, 240))
    screen.blit(lives_text, (370, 10))
    if lives == 0:
        message = font.render("Game over", True, (240, 240, 240))
        screen.blit(message, message.get_rect(center=(240, 160)))
    elif score == 10:
        message = font.render("You win!", True, (240, 240, 240))
        screen.blit(message, message.get_rect(center=(240, 160)))
    if lives == 0 or score == 10:
        again = font.render("Press R to play again", True, (240, 240, 240))
        screen.blit(again, again.get_rect(center=(240, 200)))
    if paused:
        message = font.render("Paused", True, (240, 240, 240))
        screen.blit(message, message.get_rect(center=(240, 160)))
    pygame.display.flip()
    clock.tick(60)

pygame.quit()