Java Game Edition

General Discussions
#1

I am suffering through the Visual Studio BS again, this time with C#, and I have been thinking. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a “Java Game Edition”, like all the APIs needed for game development in one place and ready to go in Eclipse or Netbeans? Much like XNA.

XNA is kind of cool because it makes development easy and I don’t have to worry about configuring anything. If Java had something equivalent for Android/PC, then I think it would be good for all of us. Maybe we could even stop suffering with Visual Studio’s shortcomings.

I know all the code for it is already done in LWJGL or jMonkeyEngine or some other API. Wouldn’t it be just a matter of a concerted effort?

If Oracle were nice enough to let people use the name “Java” in “Java Game Edition” without suing them, it would be cool too.

#2

http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/

#3

I assume you already know “Java Games Initiative”…

#4

Never heard of it, and apparently never did Google. :slight_smile:

Is it some integrated solution like XNA?

#5

–>> http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/ <<–

Actually, if you like XNA so much, why not stick with it? C# surprisingly similar to Java.

And what do you mean by “I am suffering through the Visual Studio BS again, this time with C#,”? Visual Studio is an excellent IDE.

:o

#6

Naw, not when compared with most Java IDEs. Refactoring support is minimal, and forget about incremental compilation in the background. VS was the killer app when there were no credible alternatives, but it takes all kinds of third-party commercial plugins to bring it up to speed now.

#7

There are still a few results about it.

Java Games Initiative Software Advanced Technologies Group at Sun Microsystems took care of several APIs still used nowadays. Its guys aimed to create something similar to XNA. Actually, in my humble opinion, XNA was not a good framework, JOGL, JOAL, JOCL, Java binding for the OpenMAX API and JInput are already used in higher level frameworks, I don’t see the need of something like XNA, SDL or SFML in Java.

LibGDX is fine anyway. C# is not as cross-platform as Java and OpenTk is slower than JOGL.

#8

I think this is a “open source” problem. I don’t want to pick and choose libraries here and there. If I am interested in making games, and I want to focus in making them and not worry about libraries, engines, classpath, etc. And that’s what XNA does. It is one thing to learn, in one place and tightly integrated with Visual Studio. The thing “just works”!

I understand that things like LWJGL kind of do that. But maybe it could be made “Next-Next-Finish” to get Eclipse up and a basic game running?

#9

But jME is tighly integrated with it’s IDE too. That too works, without too much more hassle than an installation.

#10

A FPS? A platformer? A top-down shooter? A driving game? Any and all of the above? Just a few clicks of a wizard away?

If you don’t want to program, you’ve got the wrong hobby.

#11

I want to program… GAMES. I don’t want to worry about what API to use, or setting a classpath variable, or downloading the right JARs, etc.

This is how good technology is: it just works!

#12

Nothing in development ever “just works”. In simple basic terms XNA is a game library for VS and C# just as LibGDX is one for Eclipse and Java. Except XNA is fiddled with proprietary nonsense and licensing fees whilst libGDX is free and open source and in general a helluva lot better.

Java is a vast programming language. XNA isn’t a programming language. If you want to develop games specifically without knowing how to program you’re in for disappointment. Although there are plenty of other software that do not require as much programming know how as XNA or LibGDX such as Game Maker or Multimedia Fusion.

If you do feel like XNA just works for you then why consider changing?

#13

It seems like your minds are broken.

How difficult is to understand how good technology looks like? Apple does it. Microsoft sometimes does it, sometimes doesn’t. Java used to do it.

Garbage Collection is all about letting the programmer focus on the problem instead of reimplementing the same damned memory management over and over. Thus the development is faster, with less bugs and simpler. And guess what, you don’t need to install it separately or configure anything, it just works out of the box.

Apparently at some point in time Java people “got it”. Now they act like Linux freaks who think confusing installation instructions of several JARs and configurations is a replacement for actual tools.

#14

Try Game Maker over at http://www.yoyogames.com/make/

It comes with simple Drag&Drop buttons, lots of tutorials, an extensive help documentation and even a highly effective built-in programming language called GML (Game Maker Language) which is both simple and awesome. Everything Game related in 1 spot. Graphics, Music, sound effects. paths, timers, room editors, code-completion, code-lookup, debugging etc. Even since version 8 some 3d features.

I used Game Maker version 4 some 12 years ago and it’s what got me into game making. It’s a lot more extensive now, try it out. The full version costs only about 15$ or some such. Nvm it’s like 40$ and then there’s some kind of studio version for 100$. There should be a free Lite version to try out though… I think.

#15

It is like talking to a door, isn’t it?

#16

Game Maker is as close to making GAMES that JUST WORKS as I know. It’s actually really powerful.

#17

In other words, no there is no such thing to java. There’s no wizard to setup a game-like code skeleton and manage all the required libraries.

Although you should get libgdx basic sample running in half an hour or so. Then never again worry about it, just save this skeleton then copy-paste it. Libgdx covers images, sound, music and input. (But you still have to setup Android and HTML5 plugins in eclipse to compile to these platforms.)

#18

perhaps you are unable to express the point you are trying to make in a manner that most people can understand?

#19

Do I need to draw?

#20

actually yes, that would be great! I am not familiar with the Microsoft game development world so perhaps a good and concise diagram would help those on this java forum who are not exposed to the XNA paradigm to understand what you are proposing