[Tutor] simon game issues

[Matthew Ngaha]

Hi guys. my Python tutorial set me a task to recreate a simon game
using livewires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agUABjGAJww
this is quite long, i understand if you can't help right away

summary:
i create 4 squared shaped objects(red, blue, green, yellow) as
instances for a class derived from the Sprite class
i create 4 animation objects to represent the 4 colour shaped objects.
the animations get brighter in colour so the user can understand which
colour he has to follow
the animations also light up when the user presses the keyboard key
they are assigned too.
they are instances for a class derived from the Animation class.
i have also included 4 sound files, assigned to 1 animation object to
be played each time that animation lights up

My problems:
everytime i want to play a sequence for the user to follow. i run into
this problem. i create 1 animation say red, so the user can see the
1st colour he has to follow. then i put a timed delay time.sleep(1)
before i display the next animation, say blue. i have tried many other
timing methods to achieve this, but once there is some sort of timer,
the whole screen pauses for the duration of the timed delay (but the
sound files play simultaneously during that freeze) then after that,
the sequence is displayed at the same time. not 1 after the other. so
even though i put the timer after the creation of the 1st animation,
the timer for some reason happens before it. is there a way i can get
around this?

I also start the game/program by displaying the 4 square objects
(Sprite Class) before adding their animation. after the creation of
the sprites i play the animation sequence. The problem is they play as
soon as the game starts before the Sprites are even displayed, and
also simultaneously (not in a sequnce) making it confusng. so after
creating the sprites, i added a timer so the animations happens after
the sprites are shown. But again because of this timer, which is meant
to occur after the creation of the sprites, when i start the game, i
get a blank screen for the duration of the timer((but the sound files,
again play simultaneously during that time). After that i still don't
get the sprites, i get their animatons instead, then finally the
sprites are displayed. i dont understand, the Sprites are meant to be
the 1st things on the screen, is there a solution?

Getting user input:
the last problem i have is when the user presses a key to select a
colour. i have the script check for the key press, then return the
colour to a function/method called def result(self, color): that
determines if he got the right colour. if he does i increase score by
1. to check results i create 2 lists. one with all 4 colours:

self.animation = [Pressed.dict_red, Pressed.dict_blue,
Pressed.dict_green, Pressed.dict_yellow]
then i create an empty list to append the sequence in the order i
randomly played them, so i can check if the user got each colour:
self.get_animation = [] < they append from the 1st list above and my
result function uses it to check colours

here's how it goes.
if keyboard for colour red is pressed:
create red animation:
send results back to result method: self.game.result(red)

my result method and its class:
self.stage = 3       ..#say if we were on stage 3. i would play 3
colours. stage 4 would be 4 colours

self.counter = -1         .....#to correctly index list
def result(self, COLOUR):
    self.counter += 1    #count is now at 0
    self.end_testing = self.stage        ..#this will count down from
the stages value. once it reaches 0, there is no more colours to check
for

    if COLOUR in self.get_animation[self.counter]:
        self.score.value += 1
        self.end_testing -= 1

even though i am using a counter here to count down: self.end_testing
< i have used while and for loops also. My problem is none of these
work because a keypress from the user, even if tapped, registers as
multiple key presses, the self.score that i increment by 1 flies to
about 40 from 1 key press. as a result my counter i use to index the
list is way out of range. i tried to add a time.sleep(.03) as soon as
a key is pressed, so it would register once. it managed to limit it to
4 presses, so self.score would equal 4 after 1 press, 8 after 2.. in
that i started my counter at -4. then the code self.counter /= 4 would
give me 0. after the next 4 presses, my counter would be at 4, the
same code self.counter /= 4 would give me 1. after the next 4 presses,
my counter would be at 8, the same code self.counter /= 4 would give
me 2. this successfully fixed my indexing issue, but it needs A LOT of
if statements and it is getting to confusing. isnt there a way to make
1 key press mean 1? and not 40? other wise how can i keep track of the
score. any help? do i quit this exercise and blame it on the program
just not following my instructions?