Where the Player Starts

Part of the Worlds section of Coddy's Pygame journey. Lesson 4 of 35.

A level decides where the player starts, so put that in the map too: one P. While the loops read the map, the P tile gives the player's first position.

elif char == "P":
    player = pygame.Rect(col * TILE + 4, row * TILE + 4, 28, 28)

The player is a 28 pixel square, so it starts (36 - 28) / 2 = 4 pixels in from the tile's corner, in the middle of the tile. Now moving the P in the text moves the start: no numbers to work out.

The loop runs before the game loop, so player exists by the time the game loop moves it. Make sure nothing after the loops sets player again, or that later line wins.

Challenge

Easy

The map now has a P. The starter puts the player at a fixed (40, 40).

In the map loops, for P, make player = pygame.Rect(col * TILE + 4, row * TILE + 4, 28, 28).
Remove the line that puts the player at (40, 40).

Try it yourself

import pygame

TILE = 36
WALL = (120, 90, 60)
COIN = (255, 196, 0)
PLAYER = (80, 200, 120)

LEVEL = [
    "################",
    "#..............#",
    "#.C..####...C..#",
    "#..............#",
    "#....C....##...#",
    "#..##.....##.C.#",
    "#..##..P.......#",
    "#.C.......###..#",
    "#..............#",
    "####..####..####",
]

pygame.init()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((576, 360))
pygame.display.set_caption("Map from Text")
clock = pygame.time.Clock()

walls = []
coins = []
for row, line in enumerate(LEVEL):
    for col, char in enumerate(line):
        if char == "#":
            walls.append(pygame.Rect(col * TILE, row * TILE, TILE, TILE))
        elif char == "C":
            coins.append(pygame.Rect(col * TILE + 10, row * TILE + 10, 16, 16))
player = pygame.Rect(40, 40, 28, 28)

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_LEFT]:
        player.x -= 4
    if keys[pygame.K_RIGHT]:
        player.x += 4
    if keys[pygame.K_UP]:
        player.y -= 4
    if keys[pygame.K_DOWN]:
        player.y += 4

    screen.fill((30, 30, 46))
    for wall in walls:
        pygame.draw.rect(screen, WALL, wall)
    for coin in coins:
        pygame.draw.rect(screen, COIN, coin)
    pygame.draw.rect(screen, PLAYER, player)
    pygame.display.flip()
    clock.tick(60)

pygame.quit()