I've made a few minor changes.  I've also added some theme music.  I don't know if it works.  I think there's something wrong with my computer, not the code.  Once again, excuse the amateur composing.

I'm pretty happy to have actually completed a PyWeek and created a game that is at least somewhat complete and fun :D

I've tested the game on Ubuntu 12.04, Windows 7, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and it runs great on all 3. However, it would be really helpful if some of you could test the game (download here: Little Red Riding hood) and tell me whether it runs on your machine. Thanks!


Below is a screenshot of the title screen and the first interesting level:
 

Final day already, which kinda is the first day for me as well this time. I didn't get to work on pyweek on Sunday, then had to work Monday through Friday. With no free evenings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday :( So what I did was use Thursday evening and Friday evening for playing around a bit with pyjs, a python to javascript compiler.

This allows me to write a game in 100% standard Python3, but then translate it into Javascript (a rather slow Javascript as it's completely dynamic like Python). The result seems to only work fast enough in Firefox and on a rather fast i7. Still, I wanted to try Python3 instead of Python2 as well as something new besides just the standard CPython so I'm happy.

Now the game itself is nothing great. The idea is that you walk around but it's a one-way-trip, i.e. you can never step back. The map behind the player simply disappears. This screenshot should make it clear (I hope to improve graphics a bit still and not just have all black tiles):

Today I spent a very long time tracing and tuning the animation of a horse from Muybridge's originals. I think on balance it was worth it, as chasing up to the train before the level starts is pretty epic:



There were also a few minor tweaks, such as these gold bars and health crates:



All in all, I think we're in pretty good shape. We still have a lot to land in tomorrow's final push, but I'm always amazed at how much difference a Pyweek Saturday can make.

Finally got around to implement the fire animation.... took me a while and it could easily use the entire CPU if not carefully tuned. I fear I will not be able to finish this game. At the moment its playable, the console says if you win or loose (=burn), but its not quite a gameplay yet. Just make sure its not a one way trip into the fire. Use the mouse left button to extinguish the fire. Oh, the source can be found here: https://bitbucket.org/dr0id/pyweek-games/src

Overall a fairly good night on the game considering the (worthy) distractions and lingering cold. Started off with a little more work on the main character so they face 4 directions and are able to fire the ray gun in 4 directions. Moved that back to a beam weapon - just being realistic about time on that one. The Martians were tweaked and there is a horizontal 'dead' version of them too.

Plans for tomorrow are to get the ray gun to kill the upright Martians, making the Martians move and harm the player somehow. Add the tentacles too. Would be good to get the tripods in there - maybe just for show. 

Sound is the last bit - have a title screen track downloaded that suits it well. If all that is complete - perhaps add something more than survival as a goal.

First screenshot is the title screen work in progress and the second is in game. Hope I feel better tomorrow and have a good last session :-)

I spent most of the first two days looking for ideas, inspiration, something that I could implement... and it was completely useless. I was completely paralysed.

Then I started to wonder if that was the problem. I always end doing nothing because... I don't start anything at all or I get lost in a vague idea that I can't implement. So, what if I just start doing the first thing that comes to my mind? And that's what I'm doing.



I know I can't finish a complete game. Basically because two reasons: first of all I'm not a graphic artist, but at the same time I so perfectionist that I kind of need it to look "reasonably good" (meaning: time waste!), and secondly the game genre I'm implementing needs an engine + a game script, and I don't think I'll have time for both. Well, at least I'll try to submit something playable!

So far I have a player, a basic engine, the game loop and all the menu, score, hit count, and "game over" bits. I have one day left to create some enemies (graphic frustration guaranteed!), power ups, and write an script for at least one stage.

I've created all the media with mtpaint, gimp and audacity (wait for the explosions!); and I'd love to compose a sound track with soudtracker, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time (and the inspiration!)

Finally I'm discovering how cool is PyGame. This is my first "serious" project with it and I've found it makes a lot of stuff for you (in fact it does a little bit too much, feels like it's spoiling the fun of programming a game!).

Wish me luck!

I've finished the first level of the game.  I would appreciate feedback.  Also if anyone should look at my code, please feel free to comment and advise.

P.S.
Please excuse the amateur pixel art.  I'm a programmer (also amateur), not an artist.

I have a few more mechanics planned, but so far, I quite like the gameplay. The white and black tiles give a lot of room for designing really interesting levels. A couple of the levels I have so far are quite nice.

TODO:
-Create 3 more levels.
-Add a title screen
-Implement two more game mechanics (if I have time/motivation)
-Compose some music (if I have motivation)

Uffff, now the scrolling seems to work (after some gooblings making the code fail) and now I have more or less clear how to use pymunk for my porpuses.
I hope during this afternoon I will be able to adjust the parameters to make it playable and funny and put more screenshots here; also spend the whole day tomorrow improving some graphics and fixing details...

Dreaming is free :-)