Java Gaming

[Indybird]

Hey guys I need a little help regarding my Java class. We have an end-of-the-year project in which we have to make a program that showcases our programming ability. Apparently making a game is the easiest. Well, if a game is the easiest then Im probably screwed. Thats where you guys come in. Before you say anything Im not asking to cheat and don't want you guys to program it. What I need to know is do you guys know of any graphics engine/game engine that is easy to use/integrate with java?

Thanks alot,
-Indybird

[DaveW]

Hahaha...a game is the easiest? Who the hell told you that?

There's nothing harder than a game to program. Honestly, nothing whatsoever. It is the most challenging area of programming, unless you take research programming into account (things like folding@home and so on).

Java, on the other hand, is a great language. Now, for reference.

In my class, we had to design a full professional product. My team, of 5 members, designed an instant messenger. We split into 2 teams, a server team, and a client team. I was on the client team and built the structure and the interface. The other member of the team built up file transfer systems and encryption. (It was a 2 man server team, the 3rd person checked the code for poor quality and bugs on both sides.)

By the end of the year, we produced Iris, which is basically an MSN clone.

Another team opted to make a game in Java. They had a 6 man team. By the end of the year, they had nothing to show for their time but the tools they developed to actually make the game: as it's a professionalism exercise, I fully expect them to pass.

There are, on the other hand, plenty of open source Java game things out there you can play around with. But you're not going to be able to use these to showcase your programming ability.

I'm pretty good with Java, and I say that without ego. If you want help with Java programming, I'd love to collaborate and give you pointers. I'll be doing some Java programming at a later point for this site, in fact: but i'm not going to go into that at the moment.

You can e-mail me anytime you want for help with Java, and I'll do what I can. Let me know exactly what it is you want to do, and i'll be able to point you towards the correct set of API's.

Either way...you're gonna hate swing. Unless you go down game road, in which case, you're gonna really hate AWT. :D

-Dave

[Indybird]

Thanks for the reply dave, but heres the problems:
A) we either do a game or something else that showcases our java skills
B) we have 4 weeks to do so

(That 4 weeks is the killer)

Now Im all bummed out because we have this one kid in our class who is absolutely insane at java and he's writing a first person shooter in java with OpenGL!

[.Maleficus.]

Either way...you're gonna hate swing
What's wrong with Swing? I think it's fun with NetBeans... Though I really have no clue how to write in Java yet. But I am reading all of Sun's tutorials :up:

[DaveW]

I don't use IDE's for interfaces. The code is unreadable and unmaintainable.

Like I said, we have to focus on professionalism.


Now Im all bummed out because we have this one kid in our class who is absolutely insane at java and he's writing a first person shooter in java with OpenGL!

I'm willing to bet he's ripping a lot of stuff from other people's work then. Hell, go for it dude. If a game's what you want to do, then do it. :) I'm not saying not to! I'm just warning you of the potential pitfalls.

-Dave

[Indybird]

Well, I dont know-Im sorda in a mass confusion about where to even start.
Do you have any ideas?

Thanks alot,
Indybird

[DaveW]

Well, you won't know the technology available unless you know what you want to do with it. So start by planning your game. I'd set my sights fairly low, something like Tetris or pac-man or something. For those, AWT is probably what you'll end up using. For something else, you might need additional plugins.

-Dave

[Scotty]

Make a Blokus (http://www.blokus.com/index.htm) clone. If you don't know what it is don't start playing its bloody addictive, even though i suck.

[Indybird]

Well, you won't know the technology available unless you know what you want to do with it. So start by planning your game. I'd set my sights fairly low, something like Tetris or pac-man or something. For those, AWT is probably what you'll end up using. For something else, you might need additional plugins.

-Dave

Thanks, where do you get AWT?

[DaveW]

AWT is built into Java. Import Java.AWT.

There's quite a few tutorials on the web telling you how to use AWT to paint to screen. Just remember you're pretty much on your own when it comes to physics, collisions, animation, everything.

-Dave