Pygame - rendering multiline text using Sprites - python-2.7

Question

Struggle is that I am capable of rendering one line of text with Sprites in Pygame, I am also capable of rendering multi-line text, but without the Sprites, but I can't figure out way how to render multi-line text using Sprites.
I've got this for rendering one line text using Sprites (I am going to skip the basic for running Pygame code - background, init etc.):
class Score(pygame.sprite.Sprite):
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def update(self, lives, score):
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self.text = "LIVES: %d SCORE: %d" % (lives, score)
self.image = self.font.render(self.text, True, self.color)
self.rect = self.image.get_rect()
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def main():
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score = pygame.sprite.RenderUpdates()
score.add(Score())
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while 1:
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score.clear(screen, background)
score_list = score.draw(screen)
pygame.display.update(score_list)
score.update(lives, score)
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I just want to know if it's even possible to do it using my render method or if I should focus on doing it some other way?
And maybe one related question; Is this method the right way to render objects (images) in Pygame?
Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

You could render the strings with FONT.render first, then create a transparent surface and blit the separate text surfaces onto it. To figure out the width of the transparent base image, you can use the .get_width() method of the separate text surfaces and for the height you can use FONT.get_height().
import pygame as pg
pg.init()
screen = pg.display.set_mode((640, 480))
clock = pg.time.Clock()
FONT = pg.font.Font(None, 40)
BLUE = pg.Color('dodgerblue1')
class Score(pg.sprite.Sprite):
def __init__(self, pos):
super(Score, self).__init__()
self.lives = 3
self.score = 0
self.rect = pg.Rect(pos, (1, 1))
self.update_image()
def update_image(self):
height = FONT.get_height()
# Put the rendered text surfaces into this list.
text_surfaces = []
for txt in ('lives {}'.format(self.lives),
'score {}'.format(self.score)):
text_surfaces.append(FONT.render(txt, True, BLUE))
# The width of the widest surface.
width = max(txt_surf.get_width() for txt_surf in text_surfaces)
# A transparent surface onto which we blit the text surfaces.
self.image = pg.Surface((width, height*2), pg.SRCALPHA)
for y, txt_surf in enumerate(text_surfaces):
self.image.blit(txt_surf, (0, y*height))
# Get a new rect (if you maybe want to make the text clickable).
self.rect = self.image.get_rect(topleft=self.rect.topleft)
def main():
score = Score((100, 100))
all_sprites = pg.sprite.Group(score)
done = False
while not done:
for event in pg.event.get():
if event.type == pg.QUIT:
done = True
elif event.type == pg.KEYDOWN:
if event.key == pg.K_s:
# Increment the score and update the image.
# It would be nicer to turn the score into a
# property and update the image automatically.
score.score += 1
score.update_image()
all_sprites.update()
screen.fill((30, 30, 30))
all_sprites.draw(screen)
pg.display.flip()
clock.tick(30)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
pg.quit()