can python be used to create professional games

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12 comments, last by kubera 11 years, 3 months ago

Is it possible to create professional, commercial games with python?

If not, is there any other engine/language that is both professional, fast, and easy to use?

My CVMy money management app: ELFSHMy game about shooting triangles: Lazer of Death
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The only thing that makes an app 'professional and commercial' is when the author(s) polish it and bring it to market. Doesn't matter what language is used.

Python has been used in a ton of commercial products. It's been used in tons of games, and lots of art packages and other programs as an embedded scripting language.

Check out Panda3D if you want to see a good engine for it. There is also PyGame, and Blender's built in game engine if you just want to prototype something quickly.
It's been used in tons of games,

do you know any examples? all i seem to find are all open-source and free.

My CVMy money management app: ELFSHMy game about shooting triangles: Lazer of Death

Anything (within reason) is possible, and there are even a number of successful commercially available games developed using Game Maker and similar packages, so there's no reason a skilled developer couldn't do the same using Python assuming they choose a project of reasonable scope and put in the requisite effort.

There are two significant difficulties you might be likely to face using Python to create your games, although both can be worked around:

  • Python can sometimes be slower than some other languages, largely due to it's interpreted nature. Possible solutions to this include using alternative distributions such as PyPy, Cython or IronPython, or making use of modules written in lower level languages (often C or C++) for performance critical tasks.
  • Distribution isn't as straight-forward as with a compiled language where you end up with an executable file you can deliver. This is also a solvable problem however, using packages such as py2exe, PyInstaller, etc.

Python has actually been used in a number of big commercial games, usually as a scripting language on top of an engine implemented in a lower-level language -- a good example of this is the Panda3d engine, which is written in C++ but can be programmed using Python, and was used for a couple of Disney MMOs amongst other projects.


If you're happy to use Python, then yes, you should absolutely proceed with it, and yes, you can make a professional quality commercial game if you put in the time and effort to do so.

If you're looking for alternatives you might consider Unity, which can be programmed with C#, UnityScript (similar to JavaScript) or Boo (similar to Python), or even something like Construct 2 or Game Maker.

- Jason Astle-Adams

EVE Online uses Stackless Python

It's been used in tons of games,

do you know any examples? all i seem to find are all open-source and free.

The two Disney MMORPGs I mentioned above are ToonTown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean Online, both of which are built on Panda3d. EVE Online purportedly uses a lot of Python code in a variant of the language called "Stackless Python" -- see the quote about halfway down this page on the Python site. Civilization IV used Python for scripting. I'm sure there are probably other examples. smile.png

- Jason Astle-Adams

Define professional? A triple A game will hardly be written in python, as you will use some comercial expensive engine such as Unreal or CryEngine.

If you mean a comercial game, then yes, you can use python. Here are my 2c:

- If you intent on using Panda3D, you should know that it compiles for desktop and web browser, has been used for Toontown and pirates of the caribbean online. The biggest pain using Panda3D is the model format (egg). There is a project to add support to OBJ files.

- I don't know of any commercial game using pygame, but I haven't used it in a long, long time. I also know there is an android subset (link: http://pygame.renpy.org/ ). I do remember someone compiled it for IOS, but can't find the link, sorry wacko.png

- There is also Kivy, a framework exclusively for mobile. They have made a few games to check if Apple Store would accept them, here is a link with more info: http://kivy.org/#contest

- AFAIK Unity3d accepts a python-like language named boo.

EDIT: must remember to press F5 before posting, went to check for links when the post had only one reply.

Currently working on a scene editor for ORX (http://orx-project.org), using kivy (http://kivy.org).

A more useful question you could ask might be "is Python reasonably well suited to the game I want to create, and are there libraries available that meet my needs?"

...and to answer we'll need to know what type of game(s) you're interested in creating. :-)

(Posted from mobile.)

- Jason Astle-Adams


It's been used in tons of games,

do you know any examples? all i seem to find are all open-source and free.


They used it in Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

Imagine your favourite game moddable through python...
But games completely implemented in Python I don't know about...

Demonware use Python.

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