Shadow Runner

Shadow Runner is a simple 2D endless runner game built in Python using Pygame. The player automatically runs across the screen while avoiding obstacles, collecting coins, and staying ahead of a shadow that constantly chases from behind. As the game continues, the speed gradually increases, making it harder to survive and achieve a higher score.

I created this project to get more experience with Python and object-oriented programming while also learning how real-time game loops and game mechanics work. The goal was to build a complete game from scratch that was both fun to play and helped me improve as a programmer.

Features

• Endless side-scrolling gameplay
• Jumping system with gravity-based physics
• Randomly generated obstacles and collectible coins
• Shadow enemy that follows the player throughout the game
• Three difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, and Hard)
• Pause and help menus
• High score system that saves locally between sessions
• Increasing game speed over time to make the game progressively more difficult

Controls

Key	Action
Space / Up Arrow	Jump
P	Pause or Resume
Enter	Start or Restart
1 / 2 / 3	Select Difficulty
B	Return from Help Menu
Q	Quit from Game Over Screen

Running the Game

Requirements:

• Python 3
• Pygame

Install Pygame:

pip install pygame

Run the game:

python3 shadow_runner.py

What I Learned

Building this project helped me become more comfortable with:

• Object-oriented programming and designing classes.
• Creating and managing a real-time game loop.
• Handling keyboard input and event-driven programming.
• Implementing collision detection using pygame.Rect.
• Simulating simple physics like gravity and jumping.
• Working with random object generation and difficulty scaling.
• Reading from and writing to local files for persistent high scores.
• Organizing a larger Python project into manageable components.

Future Improvements

Some features I would like to add in the future include:

• Animated sprites instead of simple shapes.
• Sound effects and background music.
• Parallax scrolling backgrounds.
• New obstacle and enemy types.
• Power-ups or temporary abilities.
• Online leaderboards.
• Additional game modes and maps.

Technologies Used

• Python 3
• Pygame
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

This project was built as a personal learning experience to strengthen my Python programming skills and gain hands-on experience developing an interactive application from start to finish.