7 months from now, myself and 6 - 7 mates are gonna start coding a 2D RPG-game as a school-project. The project will stretch over a period of 1 year, so we have plenty of time to learn stuff 
and I’m wondering…
What will we need? This question sure has loads of answers xD But we don’t know anything about game development(at least nothing useful for the project)
First off, buy Killer Game Programming in Java and/or Developing Games In Java. They’re the two best books about Java game programming I know about. I recommend buying both because they cover slightly different material.
There’s not many books specific to RPGs. There is Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX 2nd Edition, but I thought it was basically useless.
Since you’re working as a group, you should probably buy one or more books about software design, particularly one about design patterns. I plan to buy Software Architecture Design Patterns in Java. I’ve already bought Head First Design Patterns, which is good but not great. Definitely buy Code Complete 2nd edition, which is about software construction.
If you want to make an isometric game, buy Isometric Game Programming with DirectX 7.0.
You should probably get a book about Swing if you don’t know about it already.
If you each buy one of these books and then pass them around, it should be cheap.
You might want to look up Slick and other game programming libraries/tutorials on this forum. Reading the books would be a bit better though.
You should each try to program some kind of 2d game BEFORE starting on the RPG as a project. You have to do easy things, like Tetris and Pacman, before you can do anything more difficult effectively.
Trust me on this. I’ve programmed several 2d RPGs and done everything wrong. Only the last one was really finished and complete, and it was still short. Eventually, I will start on a more ambitious RPG project now that I have some experience.
Thanks alot for the help Now I know where to start xD
In addition to the technical skills, you have to be able to effectively organize yourselves. I’ve been experimenting with Scrum as a way to organize teams. I recommend that your team read The Scrum Primer and think about setting up a formal development process. (http://www.scrumprimer.com)
I also recommend learning to use a source code repository such as subversion: http://subversion.tigris.org