PySpaceWar

PySpaceWar is an open-source game, loosely inspired by Spacewar, Gravity Wars, and a bit by Star Control (I and II).

Two ships duel in a gravity field. Gravity doesn't affect the ships themselves (which have spanking new anti-gravity devices), but it affects missiles launced by the ships.

You can play against the computer, or two players can play with one keyboard. There is also a Gravity Wars mode, where the two ships do not move, and the players repeatedly specify the direction and velocity of their missiles.

Screenshots

News

June 30, 2008: Released version 0.9.4:

New icon by Jakub Szypulka.
Add sound effects and support for background music (now if I only had some music...).
Show an animation (expanding bubble) when ships respawn.
Allow up to two keys to be bound to the same action.
Use 800x600 by default; if your computer is fast enough, you can change to a better video mode; if not, give a better first impression by avoiding sluggishness.
Change the options menu: show the current state (e.g. "missile orbits: on") instead of the action that would change it ("hide missile orbits"). Add an option to toggle sound propagation in vacuum (or, in practical terms, whether you hear a sound when a missile hits the computer-controlled ship or when it explodes).

December 25, 2006: Released version 0.9.3:

Keyboard controls can now be customized.
Keyboard controls and video mode options are stored in a config file.
Added the -w command line option, in case you desire to override the config file.
Looks like some accidental dependencies on Python 2.4 crept in.

Download

The latest release is 0.9.5. I consider it to be stable, but it hasn't received much testing yet. I would love to hear feedback. I would love it even more if someone could contribute some music or sound effects.

Quick Start

Download the game, and make sure you have all the dependencies installed (Python, PyGame). Unpack the tarball or zip file, and run pyspacewar. There is no need to compile anything.

Default Controls

Credits

Player 1 (white)
LEFT, RIGHT	rotate
UP	accelerate in the direction you're facing
DOWN	accelerate in the opposite direction
RCTRL	launch a missile
RALT	brake (lose 5% speed)
1	enable/disable computer control
Player 2 (green)
A, D	rotate
W	accelerate in the direction you're facing
S	accelerate in the opposite direction
LCTRL	launch a missile
LALT	brake (lose 5% speed)
2	enable/disable computer control
Other
F	toggle full-screen mode
ALT+ENTER	toggle full-screen mode
O	hide/show missile orbit trails (speeds up drawing)
PAUSE	pause the game (useful for taking screenshots)
ESC	escape to menu
F12	show frame rate and a bunch of timings for optimisation work
+, -	zoom in/out
mouse wheel	zoom in/out
left click	escape to menu
right drag	drag the viewport around

Planet images are borrowed from an open-source on-line strategy game IGE - Outer Space.

Icons were contributed by Jakub Szypulka and licenced under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 licence.