Oh, cool, they use LWJGL 
Mike
Interesting deployment technology. Seems much more slick that java webstart.
yup, java web start generally sucks for distribution to the masses.
Does anyone have any real recent experience with webstart?
all the time people are talking about how they suck, but so far we have had no problems with webstart deployment.
any concrete examples with the recent versions?
perhaps princec could share some of his experience with puppygames, since they provide webstart distribution for his games (sadly they also seem to hate that distribution channel from their comments in the update posts)
There are hardly any relatively successful games distributed only by Java Web Start. I can think of about half a dozen that use GetDown.
There are a few reasons to avoid jws:
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Mentioning Java is pretty taboo in the gaming world as it instantly attracts trolls that will claim that its slow, bloated and would run better if it was written in c/c++. So the less users know about what programming languages it uses the better.
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The last thing you need while distributing your game is a massive Java advert which distracts from your game. JWS has a massive THIS IS JAVA dialog while loading your game.
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JWS has been pretty unreliable in the past, it uses .jnlp files that are text/xml based. On many computers these just open up in the browser (as text/xml) or just download instead of launching as expected. e.g. jnlp files still just download on Chrome instead of launching. Further there are some serious downloading and caching problems somewhere in jws, although it runs fine most of the time there are times where it just fails to run the first time and you have to run it a second or third time just to get it working. Not to mention other issues like filling up the add/remove applications list with all the jws apps you have run.
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Its a rather unfamiliar tech to most users i.e. starting an external download dialog outside the browser.
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Also have a read of the Rationale on the GetDown page as to why they thought jws wasnāt good enough and needed to be replaced, here.
Having said that its a pretty good tech to distribute stuff amongst fellow java devās.
Thats pretty f* sweet. As we all knew - get some proper artists. Java isnāt the thing holding anyone back.
If you never mention Java, this will never change, these prejudices will never disappearā¦
People have to know that Java rocks ;D
I committed a fix for Chrome but an employee of Google committed and validated his worse fix, sorry 
I think that Java WebStart has some more annoying limitations than what you said, the desktop mechanism rarely works, it is not supported on Linux distros not using Gnome as a window manager. However, I havenāt reproduced the bug āthere are times where it just fails to run the first time and you have to run it a second or third time just to get it workingā.
but it is quite simple.
GetDown is more complicated to use. Each deployment solution has its advantages and its drawbacks. Java WebStart is extremely simple but it cannot be used for games requiring GBs of data (other bugs/limitations can be avoided, some workarounds exist). IzPack is the most complete installer for Java applications but it has no real auto update feature and it quickly becomes very complicated to use when some native libraries are required.
Instead of advising a particular technology, I rather advise you to choose the one that fits the best your needs. IzPack is a good solution for polished softwares that need no or a very few updates and/or that are very big (several GBs). Java WebStart (+ some workarounds to install/deinstall your software correctly and add shortcuts) is a good solution for softwares in alpha, beta or RC phase that need frequent updates. GetDown is a good replacement of Java WebStart and has some additional features. Some critics about Java WebStart on the GetDown pages are not true anymore even though I would like Java WebStart to become more reliableā¦
Isnāt that the truth. Each deployment tech has its own advantages and disadvantages. Webstart in particular is extremely easy to setup ā it requires no special libraries, simply upload (and sign if you are using native libs) and create a jnlp file and you are ready to go. The idea has so much potential yet the current implementation seems incomplete. Hopefully, webstart will get some more love in the future.
Do you see technologies like Flash showing massive Adobe adās or a system tray icons on every use? end users donāt care what its made with or the tech powering it. They just want the content and they prefer it uninterrupted. Those interested in how a cool game or app was made can easily find that out and donāt need an ad to remind them. Besides no amount of bolted on advertising is going to repair javaās image, its good results and success stories (like Minecraft) that are going to do that.
Maybe a little for the developer, but not for the end user.
I donāt feel ashamed to be using java in our games, on the contrary we want to raise awareness of the benefits of java and try to remove the stigma that java has.
Success stories like minecraft will repair java image if people know they are made with java, if every developer that has some success tries to hide it nothing will ever change. There may be no obligation to do that, and you believe that it would be bad for business but showing that minecraft is made in java, that it is powered by lwjgl, etc would help the community a lot.
Also it may be the best option right now to embed a jvm with your installer but that will never help make the java runtime be on more machines. If every developer made his own embeded flash plugin without using the one installed in the browser, flash would not be installed in all those machines and they would not be in the dominant spot that they are now.
Just as an example this is a blog post making some analysis of unityās penetration, in the post the author compares unity with flash, and at some point uses minecraft in an example, talking about the problem of having to download an exe, and how that is less friendly than having a browser plugin, never knowing that minecraft is made in java, and that it is available as an applet. This is not just a problem of a person being misinformed, but of java developers actively trying to hide the fact that they are using java.