<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: Pivaders v0.2 gets a shoutout
comments: True
excerpt: I get back from Wales to find the number of stars on my Pivaders Github page had tripled...
---

Along with over 400 emails and several fires raging in production of the latest issue, I came back from Wales this week to a pleasant surprise - *Pivaders* had become my most popular project on Github with nearly 1000 views and 15 stars. Hardly ground-breaking, but I'd put a lot of time into it so it was really gratifying to have it pay off.

![Google Plus](/assets/pivaders_google_plus.png "Thanks Vincent!")

The source of the spike was this Google+ post.
What this image doesn't show is that Vincent has over 25,000 people in his circles. 
No more `Google += Fail` gags from me. 

### Press Space to play
*Pivaders* (as if you don't know!) is a small *Space Invaders* clone I've written over the last couple of issues of *Linux User* with [*Python*][1] and [*Pygame*][2]. 

The original idea (which turned into the first tutorial) was to create a playable clone within 300 lines of Python. It was tough going, but I was [really pleased with the results][3]. 

Why 300 lines? We can only print so much code and I was determined to give readers the chance to copy out the entire code listing - just like the old days.

For the [second release][4] I dropped the line limitation so I could add animation and sound to the project. 

With any luck I'll have a third version done in time for our Raspberry Jam in April. If you know your onions I'd be happy to [get some feedback][05] - *Pygame*'s pretty straightforward, but I'm pretty new to structuring this kind of project. 


[1]: http://python.org "Python homepage"
[2]: http://pygame.org "Pygame homepage"
[3]: https://github.com/russb78/pivaders/releases/tag/0.1 "Pivaders v0.1"
[4]: https://github.com/russb78/pivaders/releases/tag/0.1 "Pivaders v0.2"
[5]: https://github.com/russb78/pivaders "Be gentle with me"

---<commit_msg>tweak<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: Pivaders v0.2 gets a shoutout
comments: True
excerpt: I get back from Wales to find the number of stars on my Pivaders Github page had tripled...
---

Along with over 400 emails and several fires raging in production of the latest issue, I came back from Wales this week to a pleasant surprise - *Pivaders* had become my most popular project on Github with nearly 1000 views and 15 stars. Hardly ground-breaking, but I'd put a lot of time into it so it was really gratifying to have it pay off.

![Google Plus](/assets/pivaders_google_plus.png "Thanks Vincent!")

The source of the spike was this Google+ post.
What this image doesn't show is that Vincent has over 25,000 people in his circles. 
No more `Google += Fail` gags from me. 

### Press Space to play
*Pivaders* (as if you don't know!) is a small *Space Invaders* clone I've written over the last couple of issues of *Linux User* with [*Python*][1] and [*Pygame*][2]. 

The original idea (which turned into the first tutorial) was to create a playable clone within 300 lines of Python. It was tough going, but I was [really pleased with the results][3]. 

Why 300 lines? We can only print so much code and I was determined to give readers the chance to copy out the entire code listing - just like the old days.

For the [second release][4] I dropped the line limitation so I could add animation and sound to the project. 

With any luck I'll have a third version done in time for our Raspberry Jam in April. If you know your onions I'd be happy to [get some feedback][05]. *Pygame*'s pretty straightforward, but I'm pretty new to structuring this kind of project. 


[1]: http://python.org "Python homepage"
[2]: http://pygame.org "Pygame homepage"
[3]: https://github.com/russb78/pivaders/releases/tag/0.1 "Pivaders v0.1"
[4]: https://github.com/russb78/pivaders/releases/tag/0.1 "Pivaders v0.2"
[5]: https://github.com/russb78/pivaders "Be gentle with me"

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