pyglet = Bullet Heaven? /python

Doing Pyweek stirred up some memories of another competition I did a while back over at Shump-Dev. I did not end up completing my entry because I just could not squeeze enough performance out to get enough bullets on screen at once. Last night, while speaking with a friend about indie game development, I started to wonder how well pyglet could handle thousands of bullets on the screen at once.

This is just a quick demo, but I am already able to see that pyglet can handle it remarkably well. The shot above is not of the stress test I did (which with an average of 1k bullets on screen at once was still able to maintain a steady 60 fps), but I thought it was one of the nicer looking ones. All this needs is joystick support *hint*, *hint* and I would be in heaven.

Pyweek 6 - Results /python

The judging is complete and the results are in. Robot Underground swept the team category, which did not surprise anyone. Let's just say that I am still playing it, even after the competition. It looks as if the dev team will be releasing a new version pretty soon, so everyone keep an eye out for that.

My own entry, Chain of Command, placed 10th in the solo category. Before the start of the competition, I would not have thought top 10 was possible. Toward the end ,though, I was feeling pretty confident. From the comments I received, it was quite clear that everyone thought it was too hard. On the other hand, most people found the game innovative, pleasing to the eye, and enjoyable (ranking a 2 or 3 in fun because of the difficulty and 4 or 5 in production and polish). There were just too many people who ranked me 1/1/1 or 2/2/2 all because of the difficulty which really brought my average down.

Thanks to everyone who left detailed comments. I worked very hard on CoC, and it was wonderful to feel the appreciation. You asked for better controls, more forgiving movement, and a smooth level progression. My post-pyweek release, which is already in the works, will include all of that and more.

I had a blast, met some cool people, learned tons, and came out with a fun game. I would say Pyweek 6 was a success.