Build a Snake Game in Python in Under 50 Lines of Code

Learning Python? Enjoy a quick tutorial on how to build a super simple Snake game right in your terminal!

Pre-requisites:

• Python 3
• Your favorite text editor
• The Python curses library (install by running: pip install windows-curses)

Github repository linked at the bottom.

To get started, let’s first import the necessary libraries:

import curses
from curses import KEY_RIGHT, KEY_LEFT, KEY_UP, KEY_DOWN
from random import randint

Next, we need to initialize the game window:

curses.initscr() #initialize screen
window = curses.newwin(30, 60, 0, 0) #create new window H=30, W=60
window.keypad(True) #enable keypad
curses.noecho() #turn off automatic echoing of keys to the screen
curses.curs_set(0)
window.nodelay(True) #do not wait for the user input

Now, let’s set some global variables for the key, score, snake, and food coordinates. We will also display the first food item:

#initiate values
key = KEY_RIGHT
score = 0
#initialize first food and snake coordinates
snake = [[5,8], [5,7], [5,6]]
food = [10,25]
#display the first food
window.addch(food[0], food[1], 'O')

Next, we need to write the logic of the snake moving across the game window and growing as it eats more food:

while key != 27: # While they Esc key is not pressed
  window.border(0)
  #display the score and title
  window.addstr(0, 2, 'Score: ' + str(score) + ' ') 
  window.addstr(0, 27, ' SNAKE! ')
  #make the snake faster as it eats more
  window.timeout(140 - (len(snake)/5 + len(snake)/10)%120)
  #refreshes the screen and then waits for the user to hit a key
  event = window.getch()
  key = key if event == -1 else event
  
  #Calculates the new coordinates of the head of the snake.
  snake.insert(0, [snake[0][0] +…