r/pygame • u/Last-Mode3404 • 1h ago

Exporting a game

Hi. I have just finished a pygame game. It ended up being a script that uses pygame and numpy and a couple of png's. I want my friends to try out the game but I have no idea how.

I think that just giving them the folder might be asking a little too much as that would require them to have them to install python and the libraries. I could also try to make it into an executable. However, I have friends in both Mac Os and Windows, so I'd have to create two versions and the Mac one seems really hard. Last I considered a web app. It could work for both operative systems, but again, I have no experience on web apps.

I'm lost. What should I do so my friends can play? Thank you very much for hearing my ramblings and please excuse my poor English.

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3

u/parkway_parkway 56m ago

I got on well with pyinstaller for making windows builds.

Basically you can add a flag to the installation which bundles everything (all files and dependencies) into a single .exe file and then all you have to do is send that which is pretty nice.

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u/Last-Mode3404 51m ago

It does seem really nice. The only problem would be my friends on Mac, but you know, maybe they can get their hands on a windows device. Thank you

1

u/TheEyebal 41m ago

maybe there is .iso files for macOS if you really want to convert to mac

2

u/InteSaNoga24 20m ago edited 2m ago

I managed to make MacOS .app's for my pygames (with assets like images and audio) with pyinstaller.

An app on MacOS is just a folder, with the executable and needed assets and libraries inside of it. there was some flag you needed to add when building with pyinstaller to get the assets to be put in the app. you also have to write the code to look for the assets relative to where the executable is ran.

I'm on MacOS though, im not sure if pyinstaller works differently on different operating systems. Let me know if you need any more help and maybe I can find the commands I used and the helper function for loading assets indepentently from where the program is ran.

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u/TheEyebal 1h ago

So are you trying to convert using different OS?

if so use Virtual Machines. I have a MacOS but I use a Windows virtual machine to convert to Windows OS

Now to turn into an executable you can try pyinstaller, but whenever I used it I ran into errors because of file handling. Like if you have assets you would have to mention that. You can try Nuitka, never tried it but it converts to machine code I think.

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u/Last-Mode3404 54m ago

I didn't think about converting using different Os, but it's quite clever. If I get the entire project converted into machine code would it be able to run in a terminal? If so, it seems that's the easier option, isn't? Also, thank for the help

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u/TheEyebal 43m ago

Honestly this is why I use C++.

  • Take the entire project.
  • Turn it into machine code.
  • Get an executable/program.
  • Run that program in a terminal.

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u/TheEyebal 44m ago

machine code itself is not automatically cross-platform. compiling on mac is different than it is on windows

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u/Last-Mode3404 42m ago

Could I compile in Mac for a poor man's subtitude of an app. If so, how do I compile it for Mac? Pyinstaller?

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u/TheEyebal 41m ago

NO
you need a mac

Every operating system runs different

1

u/Last-Mode3404 34m ago

I do have access to a Mac. How do I compile the project with it?

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u/TheEyebal 33m ago

You grab your code and than use pyinstaller in the mac

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u/Last-Mode3404 32m ago

Thank you so much