pip install pygame choking on SDL dependency

[metulburr]

If your test run fine then pygame works. You are just having an issue with livewire's API, not pygame.

The window appears, but no background image.

In pygame to display anything, you have to 1) blit it and 2) make sure the screen is updated. Since i have no idea where this is in their code, i cannot say exactly how they do that.

in my opinion, you should probably just learn pygame instead. Livewire is just a wrapper to pygame. If you end up getting into it, you would have to relearn pygame's API anyways to do more complex tasks. Also Pygame's API is very well known, documented, and discussed in all places. Ive seen kids 8 years old and up use pygame effectively. Livewire is not the same. There are tons of pygame wrappers. For some reason people think they need to make their own wrapper and publish them for beginners to use to make it easier on them. However it makes it harder because you find hardly anyone who uses it and poorly documented (as you have found out).

Based on their website it appears there is even a cost

The cost for 2018 is £252, which is 90% of the YP fee.

Pygame is free. The docs are free. The tutorials and help learning it is free. The software is free. In fact you could even close source your game. Pygame is LGPL specifically so you can use it in close-sourced projects. (source from the horses mouth)