Introduction:

Remember the super fun Contra game where you fight aliens and jump through crazy levels? Well, guess what? You can make your own version of it using Python! Yup, Python can do some cool stuff with a library called Pygame.

In this blog, I’ll show you how to make your very own Contra game step by step. Don’t worry if you’re new to programming – I’ll keep it simple and easy to understand.

And guess what? I’ll give you all the code you need! So, you can play around with it, change things up, and make your own version of Contra. It’s going to be awesome!

So, let’s get started! Grab your computer, open up Python, and let’s make some gaming magic happen!

Game Instructions:

Controls:

• A: Move Left
• D: Move Right
• S: Drop to a lower platform
• R: Quick restart
• SPACE: Jump
• Left Mouse Button: Shoots in the direction determined by the mouse position
• Right Mouse Button: Dash
• Mouse Move: Direction of shooting

Powerups:

• F: Resets cooldown of Dash
• B: +1 Health
• Bird: (Powerdown) Causes the player to drop down if taken when on a platform

Rules:

• Get to the end of the Level and defeat the bot tanks
• You will die if you lose all your health
• Each bullet hit will decrease your Health by 1
• Hitting an enemy unit will instantly kill you

Notes on mechanics:

• Running soldiers will be difficult to see underwater. (Only their head is visible)
• Jump, Right, and Dash for longer distance
• The bird powerup will trigger only if you are walking on a platform while activating. Hence jumping directly on top of the powerup will not activate as you are not on a platform. This can be used to prevent unwanted drops to death
• Trying to drop when on water will cause you to drown and die!!
• Direction of shooting is determined by the mouse position. Mouse above/below the player shoots a bullet at an angle of +/- 45 degrees from the ground.
• Right Mouse Button activates Dash when it is out of cooldown. Its cooldown is depicted in the top center of the screen. Use this ability to cross broken bridges, for example.
• A random powerup drops in front of the player every 2 seconds. If it goes out of the screen behind the player, it disappears.
• Snipers shoot only when the player is in front of them.
• Soldiers who run across the screen are generated randomly every 3 seconds in front of the player.
• All global settings are present in the ‘settings.py’. They can be changed by the player to make the game more challenging.