Serve

Lesson 35 of 40 in Coddy's Make Games with Pygame course.

After a point, the ball should wait in the middle until a player is ready. A flag says whether it waits:

waiting = False

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:
            waiting = False
    # paddles move always
    if not waiting:
        # the ball moves, bounces and scores; a point sets waiting = True

The paddles stay outside the if, so players can get ready while the ball waits. Space is a once per press action, so it comes from a KEYDOWN event.

While the ball waits, show Press Space to serve near the bottom, centred at (300, 360).

Challenge

Medium

Before the loop, set waiting = False.
Put the ball's movement, bounces and scoring under if not waiting:, and set waiting = True after each point.
A KEYDOWN event for pygame.K_SPACE sets waiting = False.
While waiting, show Press Space to serve centred at (300, 360).

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

running = True
while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = 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())

    ball.x += vx
    ball.y += vy
    if ball.top <= 0 or ball.bottom >= 400:
        vy = -vy
    if ball.colliderect(left):
        vx = abs(vx)
    if ball.colliderect(right):
        vx = -abs(vx)
    if ball.left > 600:
        left_score += 1
        ball.center = (300, 200)
        vx = -vx
    if ball.right < 0:
        right_score += 1
        ball.center = (300, 200)
        vx = -vx

    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)))
    pygame.display.flip()
    clock.tick(60)

pygame.quit()