Building Stardust Crusade – A Python Game Project (2024) In 2024, as part of the Computer Science E214 module at Stellenbosch University, I worked in a team of three to design and develop Stardust Crusade, a Space Invaders-style game built in Python using object-oriented programming. The project involved building a fully functional game from the ground up, with a strong focus on structuring systems rather than just getting features to work. Some of the key components we developed included: • A real-time game loop handling input, rendering, and game state updates • Modular object-oriented systems for player control, enemies, projectiles, and powerups • A collision detection system for accurate gameplay interactions • Dynamic difficulty scaling and probabilistic enemy behaviour • A persistent leaderboard system using file handling • Multi-threaded audio for non-blocking sound playback I was heavily involved in developing core gameplay systems, particularly enemy behaviour, projectile mechanics, and collision detection, as well as contributing to the overall architecture of the game. One of the more interesting challenges was ensuring everything worked smoothly in real-time — balancing game responsiveness, performance, and feature complexity without relying on high-level game engines. We also worked within Stellenbosch’s custom libraries (stddraw and stdaudio), which standardised development and meant we had to implement much of the functionality ourselves rather than relying on frameworks like Pygame. The project ultimately achieved full marks for implementation and functionality, and it was a great introduction to thinking about software as a structured, real-time system rather than just code. #Python #GameDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #ObjectOrientedProgramming #StellenboschUniversity Gameplay clip below 👇 Key features shown: • Real-time game loop and enemy behaviour   • Dynamic health bar (top left)   • Score tracking system (top right)   • FPS counter for performance monitoring   • Projectiles, shields, and collision mechanics   • Leaderboard system integration  

Huh, sort of the same game I created in my Grade 12 CS class. Pretty Good.

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