Gaming Project

If you have experience with Java then Java would be your best option imo.

Quote:

Original post by SimonForsman If you have experience with Java then Java would be your best option imo.

i agree. i'd stick with java.

If you have extensive knowledge of Java that would take too long to relearn on another language/platform, then stick with Java. But if you've only used Java casually and you have some flexibility with your platform choice, and you don't have to run in a browser, you should take a look at Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express. Having used it myself (you can find some of my projects on my site, in my signature) I can say that it's one of the cleanest graphics API's I've used, and especially if you're doing 2D stuff, the ease of use and flexibility are hard to beat.

IMHO java is the way to go for a 2D game, if you are already experienced in it. There are a couple of great books with source code, which basically give you a lot of reusable code, which is also explained in the book itself (good luck getting XNA sourcecode ;). My favorite two are:

Killer Game Programming in Java: an O'Reilly book that walks you through the code of a couple of games, going from pong to isometric games to java 3d.
Developing Games in Java, by Dave Brackeen: the first part constructs a complete platform game, in the second he builds a pure java 3D engine :D

Both books are excellent, and can provide you with a lot of the nitty gritty work.

For 3d, you can still go with java. The main options are lwjgl(light weight java game library) , jogl(openGL for java, if you're brave) or jMonkeyEngine. IMHO, the RPG part will be challenging enough without the 3d. Baldur's Gate anyone?

Okay, so is Java the best way to go then? I am prepared to learn a completey new language if it can do better stuff for me.