[java] New Java Game programmer online!

Hi there! I'm a 19 year old software engineering student from sweden who developed a passion for java a couple of years ago. Since then I have dabbled with many kinds of languages (the latest being erlang) but always fallen back on Java. I would recommend for starters to do something really trivial like snake. Just to get the skills to draw graphics in Java. The only book I have ever used has been Learn Java in 21 days which got me started with java. From then I've just been reading stuff on the internet and studied the API. When i have felt the need for something I've just used google or asked at some forum is google wasn't enough. Many of the difficulties you are going to face are not specific for Java but for all programming languages and so google becomes even more handy :) I have heard nothing but good things about Brakeen's book but haven't had the opportunety to look into it yet.

I'm an 18 year old unemployed oxygen sponge who lives with his parents. I started programming Java when I was about 15, and since then have developed a bunch of games here. I'm learning C++ now, but I have fond memories of Java... decompiling obfuscated code, reverse engineering, recompiling and signing the resulting applet... ah yeah I miss those days =o| hehe

Java in 21 days might be a good place to start- thats where I got started. It is pretty basic, and learning more than the book provides will require an extra effort on your part- searching the net, looking through big thick reference books that weigh a ton- but its pretty gratifying work.

Personally I would stay away from game programming books, they tend to assume you know the language already. And once you know the language, it should be pretty clear how to write a game without someone telling you. After all, a game is just an application; takes input (say, keyboard), responds to input (updates your characters position in the game world, for examply), generates output (draws your character on the screen), etc.

It would be useful to know- how much Java do you know at the moment? What kind of stuff have you done so far?

Hi!
Thank you for your replys. I did not know there are people of my age in this forum. I thought there were mainly people in the age of 30 to 40 here.

Well, the biggest program so far was a window with a panel and some buttons. The content of the panel would change whenever the user clicks on a button. This was somehow a textbased RPG simply without text but with buttons instead :)

The other program was some sort of "virtual animal" that the user had to feed, lay to sleep and other interaction (completely text-based). I did this with c++ because input with Java is so goddam difficult (Inputreader etc. C++ has a fine "cin"-function that will do input).

Well, besides some small test programs, this was all. What would you advice me?
Greetings, Alex

na, java isn't that complicated... depends on how much you work with it...

as written before, start simple. aim at your tamagotchi game in java with graphics... let it be ugly, write some ugly code, just make it work... use google, use java.net, java.sun.com, and especially http://www.galileocomputing.de/openbook/javainsel4/ ... you're german as myself, so you can read this... and it is good... there you get your basics for java...
download yourself eclipse (eclipse.org) if you haven't got it already and start... just start, and don't think about how it could be done in c or something else... use google, use the book or ask here...
if you have done all this you can start optimize, cleanup, learn real java coding...

to brackeens book:
as written in another thread, that book is awesome, if someone can understand... me myself thinks it is one of the best written, best understanding books ever... maybe i am subjektive because i do java all day long (uh, damn, i have to work ^^°), but when you have finished some basics, read some chapters from the book, you will understand brackeen and his ideas...

so, if there are anymore questions, go on, ask...

Best place to start is the sun dedicated java games dev forums at:

http://www.javagaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi

For some inspiration and articles and FAQs and free technologies, you might also want to try out:

http://javagamesfactory.org

(ugly but about to get a major facelift)

Hi!
Well, thank you for links, thoughts and offers! I think this "don't care about how you would implement it in C is a very good advice. Maybe that is what is slowing down my Java learning process... I don't think Java yet :)
I will come back here and ask as soon as questions arise.
Thank you!
Alex

If you haven't already done so, you should do the entire "The Java Tutorial". It will give you a good grounding in Java. You can also try some of the short courses list too. After that, you should start small. You have already taken the first step with your simple games that you made. Move onto the next step with an arcade style game such as Tetris or Space Invaders. These games feature constant action, which is the next big milestone. After that if you want to move into more advanced graphics, you can look at LWJGL, which gives you direct access to OpenGL from Java. OpenGL is not just for 3D either. You can quite easily make 2D games with it as well. Then your 2D game will have the advantage of hardware acceleration.

Don't be afraid to repeat a step either. ie if you made Tetris and you don't feel you have learned enough, start from scratch and make it again or make Space Invaders or Asteroids, etc...

The only way to learn the stuff you are reading is to constantly program.

One last thing. When you try to make anything like Tetris or bigger, you should write down a little outline of what it is going to do. It doesn;t have to be a huge 200 page design doc, just a couple of paragraphs or pages that visually describe what is going on.

Quote:

Original post by Anonymous Poster captain, you seem to know what you're talking about. Would you like to write a webpage for the javagamesfactory we could use as a "Where do I start writing games in java?" page? We've got other bits and bobs that we'd need to merge in as well, but perhaps you could seed it? Alternatively, if you'd like to have a go at something more extensive, with only your name on it, you could write an article answering that question... (www.javagamesfactory.org)

I'll have to think about it. I am pretty busy right now, trying to help out with LWJGL.

Hey man I just wanted to say I agree with Jester, but if you need to start even slower with tic-tac-toe, pong, or hang-man. These tpyes of games. They shouldn't take more than a weekend or two to make. And it will help you develop confidence to make the harder programs, it seems this is more of what your lacking. Just keep adding a little copmlexity to the next game you do until you feel like you can tackle something a bit bigger.

Quote:

Original post by Wrathnut ...start even slower with tic-tac-toe, pong, or hang-man.

Tic-tac-toe gets two thumbs up from me for helping familiarize yourself with a language and its API. :) Not quite as simple as "hello world," but not so complicated that it bogs you down before you finish. Go with Wrathnut's idea!

hehe .i have a brainchild .who can use jsp,servlet and javabean to make a game ...use IE to play it ..use &#106avascript to contral..use servlet to play on line and make graphis...<br/>so.....