Hello dear GameDev :)
I've been on here before in various forms with various questions, but I have a feeling my current endeavor is going to require me to call upon these forums more than I've needed to in the past.
Long story somewhat condensed, I've got a real problem when it comes to game design: first, I feel that as a designer I should have a thorough understanding of all the fields involved in a game project, and second I have trouble asking someone for something I can't do myself. The two last disciplines I need to learn are programming and music, and I've just started learning Python as my very first language. Huzzah.
What I'm curious about is how far Python can go in terms of programming a game - all of it, including physics, display, everything. I'm aware this sort of question gets asked a lot in many different ways, people ask about learning python vs C/++, what's been done in Python before, and so on; I hope to get a more fine-tuned answer by phrasing it as follows:
If I wanted to, could I recreate Contra in Python and have it run just as well? What about something more like Street Fighter? If I wanted to get crazy , could I recreate something as graphically heavy as FF7 and have it run as smoothly? What about an early PS2 game like Unreal Tournament, or even something like Morrowind? Specifically, at what point does a game built in python become noticeably less viable than a game built in a compiled language such as C and its variants?
The reason being that, if I've learned anything about making games, at least a good 70% of what anyone would call good "graphics" is based on visual design rather than 98x buffered triple anti subsurface tessellated omfg quantum engine capabilities; I strictly want to know if its possible to make a good performing game on par with PS2 graphics entirely within the Python language. If so, then I can work on learning Python for more than it's scripting uses.
P.S. I know Blender is written in Python. Is it all in Python, or does it rely on other languages as well for rendering or something? Side curiosity.