A Floor for the Gap

Part of the Game Rules section of Coddy's Pygame journey. Lesson 16 of 29.

The rocks fall faster, but they still come every 800 ms. Rocks that come more often make the game harder too. Start with a gap of a second and shrink it with time:

interval = 1000 - seconds * 60

After 10 seconds that is 400 ms, after 17 seconds it is below 0, and a timer with a gap of 0 or less stops. The game needs a floor: a smallest gap it never goes under. max gives the larger of its numbers, so it never lets the gap fall below the first one:

interval = max(400, 1000 - seconds * 60)

A timer keeps the gap it was started with. To change it, start it again: each time a rock drops, work out the new gap and call set_timer with it. The next rock comes after that gap.

if event.type == SPAWN and state == "play":
    rocks.append(...)
    seconds = (pygame.time.get_ticks() - start_time) // 1000
    interval = max(400, 1000 - seconds * 60)
    pygame.time.set_timer(SPAWN, interval)

Challenge

Medium

In reset(), start the SPAWN timer at 1000 ms.
Each time a rock drops, set interval = max(400, 1000 - seconds * 60) and start the SPAWN timer again with it.

Try it yourself

import random
import pygame

pygame.init()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((480, 360))
pygame.display.set_caption("Meteor Dodge")
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
heart = pygame.image.load("assets/images/heart.png").convert_alpha()
heart_empty = pygame.image.load("assets/images/heart_empty.png").convert_alpha()
font = pygame.font.Font("assets/fonts/pixel.ttf", 24)
big_font = pygame.font.Font("assets/fonts/pixel.ttf", 48)
WHITE = (240, 240, 240)
PLATE = (60, 60, 90)
POINT = pygame.USEREVENT + 1
SPAWN = pygame.USEREVENT + 2


def reset():
    global player, rocks, score, lives, start_time
    player = pygame.Rect(220, 300, 40, 40)
    rocks = []
    score = 0
    lives = 3
    start_time = pygame.time.get_ticks()
    pygame.time.set_timer(POINT, 1000)
    pygame.time.set_timer(SPAWN, 800)


def draw_menu():
    screen.fill((30, 30, 46))
    title = big_font.render("Meteor Dodge", True, WHITE)
    title_rect = title.get_rect(center=(240, 140))
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, PLATE, title_rect.inflate(24, 12))
    screen.blit(title, title_rect)
    hint = font.render("Press Enter to play", True, WHITE)
    screen.blit(hint, hint.get_rect(center=(240, 200)))


def draw_game():
    screen.fill((30, 30, 46))
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, (255, 196, 0), player)
    for rock in rocks:
        pygame.draw.rect(screen, (235, 80, 80), rock)
    score_text = font.render(f"{score:05}", True, WHITE)
    score_rect = score_text.get_rect(topright=(470, 10))
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, PLATE, score_rect.inflate(12, 8))
    screen.blit(score_text, score_rect)
    for i in range(3):
        if i < lives:
            screen.blit(heart, (10 + i * 40, 10))
        else:
            screen.blit(heart_empty, (10 + i * 40, 10))


def play_frame():
    global rocks, lives, state
    keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
    if keys[pygame.K_LEFT]:
        player.x -= 6
    if keys[pygame.K_RIGHT]:
        player.x += 6
    player.clamp_ip(screen.get_rect())

    seconds = (pygame.time.get_ticks() - start_time) // 1000
    speed = 3 + seconds // 5
    kept = []
    for rock in rocks:
        rock.y += speed
        if rock.colliderect(player):
            lives -= 1
        elif rock.top <= 360:
            kept.append(rock)
    rocks = kept
    if lives <= 0:
        state = "over"
    draw_game()


def draw_over():
    draw_game()
    message = big_font.render("Game over", True, WHITE)
    screen.blit(message, message.get_rect(center=(240, 160)))
    hint = font.render("Press R to play again", True, WHITE)
    screen.blit(hint, hint.get_rect(center=(240, 200)))


reset()
state = "menu"

running = True
while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False
        if event.type == POINT and state == "play":
            score += 1
        if event.type == SPAWN and state == "play":
            rocks.append(pygame.Rect(random.randint(0, 456), -24, 24, 24))
        if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
            if event.key == pygame.K_RETURN and state == "menu":
                reset()
                state = "play"
            elif event.key == pygame.K_r and state == "over":
                reset()
                state = "play"

    if state == "menu":
        draw_menu()
    elif state == "play":
        play_frame()
    else:
        draw_over()
    pygame.display.flip()
    clock.tick(60)

pygame.quit()