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Welcome to the Pylot Wiki. Pylot is currently a very simple game and there is little to say about it at this point. It is essentially a clone of Asteroids at this stage, but with a few differences from the original. I will enumerate the main features differentiating it below.

Pylot just entered Alpha stage, which means it is very much a work in progress but is open for testing. I am not an expert programmer by any means - I have had a small amount of formal training but this is really just a hobby for me. I'm sure there's many ways to do this better. Not only do I not mind if you take my code and make it better, I encourage it. I just ask that you give credit where credit is due.

Pylot is coded in Python 2.7.2, using the Pygame libraries. My main reason for using Python is the ease of use, and not having to worry about memory clean-up. I know that there are better languages for programming games, but I hope that Python will be adequate for the aims of this project. Again, people are welcome to make a C++ project or whatever based on my code.

Features

Randomly-generated asteroid shapes
Semi-realistic physics - I've taken some liberties as I'm not mathematically inclined, but I've tried to make the physics at least feel realistic. Note that mass currently isn't factored into the calculations - even though objects do have a mass variable, it doesn't do anything currently. I will get around to that eventually.
Recoil on firing - adds an extra challenge, as you need to occasionally thrust to correct for the recoil. In future versions you be able to acquire a powerup that negates this effect, and use energy weapons that don't have recoil.

Graphics

The graphics are simplistic - all of the images are generated by the engine instead of using premade bitmaps. As the project develops, I will eventually use bitmaps to define terrain.

The font I am using for game messages and the HUD is just the default Python font, so it still looks pretty homebrew. I am open to suggestions for better fonts. The current font is just a placeholder - some day I will spend a bit of time making the UI a bit prettier.

Sound

All sounds were generated using DrPetter's sfxr.

Control

Main Menu:

Mouse or arrow keys: move cursor
Left click or Enter: select/change option
'Esc': previous menu / quit Pylot

In Game:

Ship points towards the mouse cursor

Left-click: fire
Right-click: thrust

'Esc': quit to main menu

'm': use keyboard control (off by default)

If keyboard control is on:

'a': rotate left
'd': rotate right
's': kill rotation
'Return': fire

Project Admins:

• Fleegle2000