How to turn the sprite in pygame while moving with the keys

See How do I rotate an image around its center using PyGame? for rotating a surface. If you want to rotate an image around a center point (cx, cy) you can just do that:

rotated_car = pygame.transform.rotate(car, angle)
window.blit(rotated_car, rotated_car.get_rect(center = (cx, cy))

Use pygame.math.Vector2 to store the position and the direction of movement. Change the position by the current direction when w respectively s is pressed. Change the angle of the direction vector with rotate_ip, when a respectively d is pressed:

keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
if keys[pygame.K_w]:
    position += direction
if keys[pygame.K_s]:
    position -= direction
if keys[pygame.K_a]:
    direction.rotate_ip(-1)
if keys[pygame.K_d]:
    direction.rotate_ip(1)

See also:

  • Motion and movement
  • Image rotation while moving

Minimal example: repl.it/@Rabbid76/PyGame-CarMovement

import pygame
pygame.init()
window = pygame.display.set_mode((500, 500))
clock = pygame.time.Clock()

car = pygame.image.load('CarRed64.png')
position = pygame.math.Vector2(window.get_rect().center)
direction = pygame.math.Vector2(5, 0)

run = True
while run:
    clock.tick(60)
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            run = False

    keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
    if keys[pygame.K_w]:
        position += direction
    if keys[pygame.K_s]:
        position -= direction
    if keys[pygame.K_a]:
        direction.rotate_ip(-1)
    if keys[pygame.K_d]:
        direction.rotate_ip(1)

    window.fill(0)
    angle = direction.angle_to((1, 0))
    rotated_car = pygame.transform.rotate(car, angle)
    window.blit(rotated_car, rotated_car.get_rect(center = (round(position.x), round(position.y))))
    pygame.display.flip()

pygame.quit()
exit()