Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Pygame VS SDL

Compare Pygame VS SDL and see what are their differences

Pygame logo Pygame

Pygame is a set of Python modules designed for writing games.

SDL logo SDL

Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level...
  • Pygame Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-17
  • SDL Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-26

Pygame features and specs

  • Easy to Learn
    Pygame is beginner-friendly, making it accessible to those new to game development and programming. Its simple syntax allows for quick learning and development.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Pygame offers extensive documentation and tutorials, which are extremely helpful for new developers. The community-contributed examples and guides also aid in the learning process.
  • Cross-Platform
    Games developed with Pygame can run on multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, and Linux, which makes deployment much easier.
  • Active Community
    Pygame has a vibrant and active community, which means you can find plenty of resources, forums, and user-contributed codes to help you with your projects.
  • Built on Python
    Being built on Python, Pygame leverages Python's clarity and simplicity, and integrates well with its extensive libraries and frameworks, making it highly versatile.

Possible disadvantages of Pygame

  • Performance Constraints
    Pygame is not the most performance-optimized game development framework. For high-performance or graphics-intensive games, a more optimized engine might be necessary.
  • Limited 3D Support
    Pygame is predominantly designed for 2D games, lacking advanced 3D graphics support. Developers looking to create 3D games might need to look into other frameworks or engines.
  • Less Modern Functionality
    Some features provided by modern game engines, such as advanced physics engines or high-level scripting systems, are either missing or require additional libraries.
  • Lower Community Size Compared to Major Engines
    While Pygame has an active community, its community is smaller compared to major game engines like Unity or Unreal, meaning fewer resources and third-party tools.
  • Manual Memory Management
    Handling memory management, such as manually freeing up resources and optimizing performance, can become cumbersome for developers as Pygame does not automate this.

SDL features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    SDL supports multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android, allowing developers to write code once and run it on various platforms.
  • Simplified Development
    SDL provides a simple and straightforward API for handling graphics, sound, and input, making it easier for developers to create multimedia applications and games without needing to write platform-specific code.
  • Community Support
    SDL has a large and active community along with extensive documentation and tutorials, which can be immensely helpful for both new and experienced developers.
  • Extensible
    SDL is highly extensible with multiple add-on libraries available, such as SDL_image, SDL_mixer, and SDL_ttf, which provide additional functionality for handling images, audio, and fonts respectively.
  • Lightweight and Efficient
    SDL is designed to be lightweight and efficient, capable of running on a wide range of hardware with minimal overhead, making it suitable for performance-critical applications such as games.
  • Open Source
    SDL is open-source software, licensed under the zlib license, which allows developers to use, modify, and distribute their own SDL-based software freely.

Possible disadvantages of SDL

  • Limited 3D Support
    SDL is primarily designed for 2D graphics and does not include advanced 3D graphics functionality, limiting its use for 3D game development without integrating it with other libraries like OpenGL.
  • Learning Curve
    While simpler than many alternatives, SDL still requires a learning curve, especially for developers who are unfamiliar with C/C++ programming or game development concepts.
  • Less Abstracted than Some Frameworks
    SDL offers lower-level access to hardware and does not provide high-level abstractions found in some other game development frameworks, which can result in more complex code for certain tasks.
  • Controller and Input Limitations
    SDL's support for various controllers and input devices can be less comprehensive than some other libraries, requiring additional effort or third-party solutions to achieve full functionality.
  • Debugging and Profiling
    Debugging and profiling SDL applications can be more challenging compared to using certain other game development frameworks that come with integrated tools for these purposes.

Analysis of Pygame

Overall verdict

  • Pygame is a good choice for those who want to start game development in Python, especially for 2D games. Its simplicity and large community support make it an attractive option for both beginners and intermediate developers. However, for more complex or 3D game development, other engines may be more suitable.

Why this product is good

  • Pygame is a popular library for game development in Python due to its simplicity and ease of use. It provides a wide range of modules for handling graphics, sound, and input, allowing developers to create 2D games efficiently. The library is well-documented and boasts a large community that contributes tutorials, forums, and examples, making it accessible for beginners. It is also cross-platform, which means games developed with Pygame can run on multiple operating systems.

Recommended for

  • Beginners learning game development
  • Developers creating 2D games
  • Python enthusiasts interested in game design
  • Educational purposes and teaching programming concepts

Pygame videos

2019 Pygame Projects

SDL videos

Useful review features in SDL Trados Studio

More videos:

  • Review - Reviewing translations in SDL Trados Studio 2019
  • Review - Doral SDL-A All-Season TIRE REVIEW + SNOW

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pygame and SDL)
Game Development
63 63%
37% 37
Game Engine
60 60%
40% 40
Localization
0 0%
100% 100
3D Game Engine
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Pygame and SDL

Pygame Reviews

Top 6 Python Framework for Game Development | by Ankur Kumar | unikaksha | Medium
Pygame is the most popular game development framework. It’s a Python wrapper building video games based on the SDL library. The SDL library allows cross-platform access to the system’s multimedia hardware, such as audio, video, the mouse, keyboard, and joystick. Because SDL and Pygame are cross-platform, they help develop games and rich multimedia Python programs on any...
Source: medium.com

SDL Reviews

We have no reviews of SDL yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, SDL seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 19 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Pygame mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Pygame yet. Tracking of Pygame recommendations started around Mar 2021.

SDL mentions (19)

  • New Year, New Game Engine - Nikola Engine Devlog 0
    You see, for the past several years I have used many programming languages and many more game frameworks and libraries. Programming languages like Java, C#, C++, and even, sadly, JavaScript (I know...). Game frameworks like LWJGL, SDL2, Raylib, MonoGame, SFML, and many more. Essentially, I have seen it all. Out of all of them, I think SDL2 was closer to what I was looking for, though, Raylib was the one I used the... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How was Pico8 made?
    In addition to the excellent video /u/DookieChumo linked, you can also look in the manual to see some of the technologies used. It's written in C, using SDL. If you're interested in something like a devlog, you could read the changelog to see its changes and the development of features over the years. Lua is fairly easy to embed into other programs, so you can write programs that use Lua scripts to decide what to... Source: over 2 years ago
  • How does one make their own GUI from scratch? (no GUI libraries)
    You could use the cross-platform library SDL. It has Python bindings: PySDL2. Source: over 2 years ago
  • I want to become a game dev one day, can you guys help me?
    You can use SDL, which is pretty easy to get into, has straight-forward (if somewhat sparse) documentation and has lots of pretty decent tutorials - see the links on the web site. Source: over 2 years ago
  • what #include<iostream> does in C++ Program ?
    Official website is https://libsdl.org where you can read more about download and install this library because it might not work on your computer. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

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Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 4 is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.

Lilt - Interactive, adaptive translation platform