No Starch Press continues to impress me with their straightforward, high-quality, content-packed coding books, and this one is no exception. Python isn’t a natural language for computer games, but it is a useful language, and computer games are fun. This book takes advantage of all three of those facts to serve as a natural entry point into the world of Python programming. Suitable for absolute beginners, basic programming concepts are covered in adequate detail before the book launches into simple guessing and choosing games. Projects slowly gain complexity until students are able to incorporate sounds and images to make a “true” video game.
As with almost every other No Starch Press coding book I have reviewed, I am delighted with the mix of thorough explanations, detailed documentation, and visual references. Each chapter begins with a full printout of the final source code, followed by a section-by-section explanation of every core concept. It is virtually impossible to get lost in the middle of a project, and if all else fails, students can simply review the source code and query the internet for an explanation.