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🎮 Gameplay Basics

Overview

Alien Invasion is a classic Space Invaders-style game built with Pygame. You pilot a ship at the bottom of the screen, destroy alien fleets, and advance through progressively faster waves.

Game Flow

  1. Start the game from the main menu.
  2. Play by moving the ship and firing bullets.
  3. Advance when all aliens are destroyed.
  4. Game Over occurs when you run out of ships.

Core Mechanics

Ship Control

  • Move left and right
  • Fire bullets
  • Pause and resume the game

Alien Behavior

  • Move in formation
  • Reverse direction at screen edges
  • Drop down when changing direction
  • Speed up as the game progresses

Scoring

  • Points are awarded per alien destroyed
  • Score value increases as levels advance
  • High scores are saved automatically

Game States

The game tracks several states via Statistics:

  • Active: gameplay is running
  • Paused: gameplay is halted
  • Game Over: no ships remaining

Audio

The game includes background music and sound effects. You can toggle both at runtime using keyboard shortcuts.