The principles of Pygrr

Pygrr, let's introduce you properly. What are its goals, who will it be available to, and why am I making it?

What are its goals?

The goal of Pygrr is to provide an environment for beginners (even younger audiences!) to learn programming through game development. It's an easy to pick up, but powerful tool, aimed at allowing users to code their own games.

Through making games, the user will learn core Python skills, and, thus, Object Oriented Programming skills, which can be applied directly to other languages and professions. Not to mention, the skills can be applied to famous game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine! 

So why game development? Why should people learn through that? Well, the human brain loves to create things that it will use, and enjoy the final product. Combining this with the ever-famous art form of game development, it gives users a safe space to express themselves, and create a beautiful program for others or themselves to enjoy. Whenever someone learns something new, if it's not fun, they're more likely to become "burnt out", and believe that it's "too hard for them", or they're "not smart enough to do it". These are lies, as programming, when one learns it, is such a rewarding and fulfilling skill, of which anyone, and I mean anyone, can learn! 

So, that's why game development - it provides a fun, easy route into programming. But, it's not just for kids or beginners - Python and Pygrr aren't designed for children - they're powerful powerful tools that the user can continue with forever. In fact, in the past few years, Python has been the most in-demand programming language, from data science to web development...

Who can use it?

Children, adults, or teenagers can use it. The age bracket it was initially designed for was younger audiences, age 10 to 15, however, with the ongoing development, and massive scalability of it, I realised how much it can be used for older ages too. So who can use it? Anyone! I will never put Pygrr behind a pay-wall for the individual, meaning that it'll be free for a user to mess around with! This doesn't mean I'm throwing all the copyrights away, as modifying and distributing it, or redistribution is forbidden, unless you seek permission from me. Projects using Pygrr should state somewhere, be it in a YouTube description, or a blog post line, that it uses Pygrr, and a link to "https://isaactfm.com/pygrr". You can use Pygrr commercially.

In other words, anyone can use it! Your mum, your sister, your brother, your friend, your professor, the list goes on. Anyone can pick it up, hone their skills in programming and game development, or even develop whole games within it! If you do make big projects with it, feel free to send them to me, I'd love to check them out!

Why am I making it?

I began development on Pygrr, after realising how little universal tools there are for beginners. When I started out with programming, nobody linked me anything, or taught me, I had to fend for myself. I'm not asking for a medal or anything, it wasn't a good thing, and it in fact caused me to have a harder time learning the craft.

I don't want anyone else to have to do that, I want to bring a tool into the world, which one can pick up easily - the high readability and easy learning Python provides, with a fun and artistic way to learn through, which Pygrr provides.

Not only this, I want to encourage new people to programming, new people to game development. Not only is programming a highly useful skill right now, it's going up and up in need, so much so that people say that the "future is in programming". We need more people learning these skills, getting jobs in it - not to mention, programming usually comes with a big wage! 

My dream for Pygrr is for it to be released into schools and other institutions, to allow learning through it for everyone!


Isaac, over and out...

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