Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Classic Airplane Shooter Game with Pygame

This article shows how to recreate the classic WeChat "Airplane Battle" game using Python and the Pygame library, providing a complete, step‑by‑step guide and full source code.

Environment installation : You need Python 3, an IDE such as PyCharm, and the Pygame module. Install Pygame with the following command:

pip install -i https://pypi.douban.com/simple/ pygame

Player plane : The main() function creates a 480×852 window, loads the background image, and instantiates HeroPlane and EnermyPlane objects. It then enters a loop that displays the background, renders the hero plane, checks for bullet hits, updates the hero image based on the hit count, and breaks after a certain number of hits.

def main():
    global is_hit, nums
    screen = pygame.display.set_mode((480, 852), 0, 32)
    background = pygame.image.load("./feiji/background.png")
    hero = HeroPlane(screen)
    enermy_plane = EnermyPlane(screen)
    while True:
        # display background
        screen.blit(background, (0, 0))
        # display hero
        hero.display()
        # test hit detection
        hero.test(enermy_plane.bullets)
        if hero.is_hit:
            hero_nums += 1
            if hero_nums == 10:
                hero.image = pygame.image.load("./feiji/hero_blowup_n1.png")
            elif hero_nums == 20:
                hero.image = pygame.image.load("./feiji/hero_blowup_n2.png")
            # ... other frames ...
            elif hero_nums > 50:
                break

Enemy plane : Similar logic is used for the enemy plane. Its image changes according to the number of hits, and it moves and fires bullets.

enermy_plane.display()
enermy_plane.test(hero.bullets)
if enermy_plane.is_hit:
    enermy_nums += 1
    if enermy_nums == 10:
        enermy_plane.image = pygame.image.load("./feiji/enemy0_down1.png")
    elif enermy_nums == 20:
        enermy_plane.image = pygame.image.load("./feiji/enemy0_down2.png")
    # ... other frames ...
    elif enermy_nums > 50:
        enermy_plane = EnermyPlane(screen)
        enermy_nums = 0

Keyboard control : The key_control(hero) function processes pygame events. It moves the hero left with K_a or K_LEFT , right with K_d or K_RIGHT , fires a bullet on K_SPACE , and exits when the window is closed.

def key_control(hero):
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == QUIT:
            print("exit")
            exit()
        elif event.type == KEYDOWN:
            if event.key == K_a or event.key == K_LEFT:
                hero.move_left()
                print("left")
            elif event.key == K_d or event.key == K_RIGHT:
                hero.move_right()
                print("right")
            elif event.key == K_SPACE:
                hero.fire()
                print("space")

Collision detection : A BasePlane class defines common attributes. Its test(self, bullets) method checks each bullet against the plane’s rectangle and sets is_hit flags when a collision occurs.

class BasePlane(object):
    def __init__(self, screen, x, y, image):
        self.x = x
        self.y = y
        self.screen = screen
        self.image = pygame.image.load(image)
        self.is_hit = False
        self.bullets = []
    def test(self, bullets):
        for bullet in bullets:
            if (self.x < bullet.x < self.x + self.image.get_width() and
                self.y < bullet.y < self.y + self.image.get_height()):
                self.is_hit = True
                bullet.is_hit = True

The main game loop updates the display with pygame.display.update() and pauses briefly with time.sleep(0.01) . Screenshots of the running game are included.

In summary, the provided code implements a simple endless‑flow airplane shooter without power‑ups; further enhancements can be added later.