Java Game Maker

General Discussions
#1

I am currently debating if to move from building small games, to starting a new project. The idea is to build a game IDE (in a sense similar to Adobe Flash, Game Maker or Greenfoot) but at building 2D games in Java, especially applets.

It’ll have the usual caveats like a text editor and will be able to export games as both stand alone desktop apps and in a folder as a HTML page with the applet embedded (i.e. ready for you to place on your site). There will be a content management section where you can customize what images/sounds are used, pre-loaded when it starts up, should be included in applet or streamed, etc. There would also be a panel where you can run individual sections of you game inside of the IDE whilst you are developing it, for example to test your new ending screen without having to run the entire game. You could also add and move around game objects to it whilst your developing your game. For example you could load up a level section, drop enemies directly into the level, play it for a few minutes before pausing and adding more enemies or power-ups with the editor.

The overall aim is to provide features for helping the management and development of small 2D games.

What are people’s thoughts on this? Would you be interested in a game editor?

#2

Everyone who has ever written one game notices that there’s a lot of stuff that can be reused in the next game. If you’ve written a bunch of similar games, it’s natural to start thinking about making it a system.

If I were you, I’d think carefully about just how much need there is for similar games, and how dissimilar games could be and still fit in your framework. It sounds like you have a particular pac-man like model in mind. If you really see a need/market for endless variations of pac-man like games, then sure - go for it. It certainly seems to work for variations on Monopoly, for example. It would be a shame to spend a lot of time building a doomsday machine factory only to find that only only one doomsday machine was actually needed.

#3

[quote=“ddyer,post:2,topic:34427”]
I’m aiming to allow all 2D games; platformers, shoot-em-ups, puzzle games, beat-em-ups and even pac-man. But I do kinda agree a little with your point, I don’t want to add lots of features which only apply to one sub-set of games. For example I don’t think a beat-em-up would take advantage of you being able to add game objects whilst your in development, as much as a shoot-em-up would.

#4

Don’t do it.

You’ll be hurting. It’s so much work. Either make a very powerful and specific engine (like an awesome shooter engine, or RPG engine, or whatever), or just use something like PulpCore.

#5

I understand Demonpants’ point of view. Maybe you will succeed, I hope you will but it is already very difficult to create a game editor that is specific to FPS for example (I know what I’m talking about, go to the showcase section…), it is even harder to make a generic 2D game editor.

#6

Yeah, Julien is a good person to ask about this. He’s just been making a 3D FPS engine from scratch for years and I think has found it quite difficult, but possible.

I myself tried to make an RPG engine a few years back, to the same effect. Incredibly time-consuming and worse than a lot of the already-made options. I worked on it for like 2 years before I abandoned it (out of disinterest, not out of being “defeated”).

All that being said, I learned a whole lot on everything I did, even semi-redundant stuff. For example on the RPG engine and I built an entire 2D/3D engine from scratch for the iPhone, I came back with huge amounts of improved understanding. But after the fact I often say to myself, “why didn’t I just use this already-made alternative?”

So, do you want make an engine so you can learn, or are you honestly trying to make something other people will find useful? I’d recommend shooting for the former, but not the latter.

#7

[quote=“Demonpants,post:6,topic:34427”]
Learning is good, and whatever happens I’ll learn lots of stuff, but I’m shooting for the latter.

#8

Ok. As far as I know, you use JMonkeyEngine 2 (I don’t know if it is still the case), it means that you don’t reinvent the wheel :slight_smile: Do you plan to handle the artificial intelligence too?

#9

I’ve never used JMonkey, I use my own library instead.

[quote=“gouessej,post:8,topic:34427”]
No, or at least I have no plans to add this in the first few versions.

#10

Why don’t you use an existing 2D engine? You could save some time and concentrate on high-level features. Is your library better than Slick or JGame?

#11

[quote=“gouessej,post:10,topic:34427”]
At the time I started it I was building it to be used on top of the features in Greenfoot. I then moved it over so it was stand-alone and now I’m at a point where I don’t see any real gain in switching to another library. Especially when I know mine inside out and it does most of what I need.

[quote=“gouessej,post:10,topic:34427”]
I’ve not used either of these, I’ve only ever glanced over them. But when I was first writing my library I was really unhappy that most game libraries I found online (and this isn’t aimed specifically at ones for Java) only provided functionality for graphics, sound, controls, collisions and a few others. Very few include components to help with the games structure, and the examples I have seen that do tend to do it in a very much hands off approach. You are often left to design and build how the different bits of your game will all fit together. I wanted a library that did it for you so I could concentrated more on the game logic.

I also don’t like the third-party certificates I am asked to accept with certain libraries when run as an applet because by default my JVM rejects them (I know I can go change this but I shouldn’t have to). IMHO this puts off potential users.

#12

That’s the difference between a game library and a game engine. You’re building an engine, Slick is a library.

#13

I’ve also been thinking of building this as a NetBeans plugin, rather then an entirely new IDE.

#14

You wouldn’t be making an IDE, would you? I don’t think that would really make sense. You want to build some developer tools, perhaps a level editor, etc. that piggy-back onto an IDE, and some importable libraries. Doing an IDE is a gigantic undertaking.

#15

If I did it stand alone then no, I wouldn’t be building an IDE just like NetBeans or Eclipse. It would have lots of different tools aimed at game development. But it would also need some project management stuff (like navigating through files and classes) and a text editor. I’d get these for free if I built it as a plugin.

#16

My Game Dev Kit info:

http://allbinary.axspace.com/

Play the JNLP versions of the games I made with it:

http://allbinary.axspace.com/AllBinaryArcadeGames.html

I could be convinced to opensource it, but I would need a way to monetize it.

I also wrote Freeblisket E-Commerce Solution and I feel the same way about it.

If I have the money I would make other game sites look like a joke with my E-Commerce program integrated into my game dev kit.

I could own the J2SE, J2ME, and Android world.

Instead I am currently working to build a robot army since I am not allowed to make money because of the new **** Regime.

#17

I hope you open source the robot army - or have plans to deal with Will Smith.

#18

Are there any games that let you build a robot army?
Missed opportunity if not.

#19

As it happens… and also we were thinking of making a hands-off giant robot battle game along the lines of Gratuitous Space Battles based on the Droid Assault game too :slight_smile:

Cas :slight_smile:

#20

A good start – but I want to watch as my metal army marches against cowering fleshies!
Make that cyborgs, not robots, since then they can power-up by harvesting human parts.
Surely that’s not too much to ask? :wink: