Local Variables

Let say we want our sprite to drift a little bit after we release the key instead of stopping immediately. We will need a speed variable in the x and in the y directions. We set the speed to the maximum when the key is down, and we reduce the speed gradually when the key is released.

def movement():
    player.set_rotation_style_left_right()

    speed_y = 0
    speed_x = 0

    while True:

        if pysc.sensing.is_key_pressed('w'):
            speed_y = -4

        elif pysc.sensing.is_key_pressed('s'):
            speed_y = 4

        else:
            # reduce the speed if neither up nor down was pressed
            speed_y = speed_y*0.9

        if pysc.sensing.is_key_pressed('a'):
            player.direction = 180
            speed_x = -4
            
        elif pysc.sensing.is_key_pressed('d'):
            player.direction = 0
            speed_x = 4
        else:
            speed_x = speed_x*0.9

        # actually move the sprite
        player.y += speed_y
        player.x += speed_x

        # wait for one frame
        yield 1/60 

player.when_game_start().add_handler(movement)

Note that the variables defined inside the function is not accessible outside the function.

Analogous Scratch Code

What you would see in the game