Java Gaming books

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

Well, hello everyone. Like the title says, this is about Java Gaming books.

I’m very new to Java gaming. In fact, the closest thing to a “game” that I’ve done was the “Sink a Dot Com” tutorial from Head First Java (which is like a console Battleship game). So, I’m looking for a book for a beginner, but one isn’t afraid of going into complex concepts.

I’m looking right now at Beginning Java 5 Game Programming. Has anyone used this book? What about Killer Game Programming in Java? Out of the two, which would YOU buy? Killer Game Programming is 3x as long, so I imagine it covers more than Beginning Java 5 Game Programming…

(And to not revive an old dead thread I saw…) What’s the best way to learn about AI programming? Internet tutorials, or books? I looked for some books, but they all seemed too old to be good for current use (2003/2004).

Thanks in advance guys.

#2

Developing Games in Java is one of my favorites.

http://www.brackeen.com/javagamebook/

The author also frequents these forums.

#3

Thanks for the suggestion Eliwood. I’ll definitely take a look at that. I’m a bit worried by the publish date though. 2003? There’s got to have been some improvements since then.

It does sound like it covers a lot of nice stuff though…

#4

The other suggestion everyone always gives is “Killer Game Programming in Java”. Neither book uses generics or other Java 5 features, though both mention them.

I have both “Developing Games in Java” and “Killer Game Programming in Java”, but I still plan to buy a newer book after I move. I just don’t want to miss anything.

I also plan to buy "Pro Java 6 3D Game Development: Java 3D, JOGL, JInput and JOAL APIs (Expert’s Voice in Java) " as an ebook from apress.com (btw, ebooks are usually half-price on apress.com). It looks decent, but the reason I’m going to buy it as opposed to another java game programming book is that it’s an ebook.

That book seems to only be about 3D games though, which is why I probably won’t buy it for a while.

I added “Practical Java Game Programming” to my Amazon.com wishlist, but it doesn’t look like that great of a book. I think there was one particular section I wanted to read (I can’t remember what it was), which makes it worth the bargain price. “Beginning Java 5 Game Programming” doesn’t look to great to me.

#5

I just found out that “Beginning Java 6 Game Programming” is already available for preorder on Amazon.com, so I can’t recommend buying “Beginning Java 5 Game Programming”. I assume it’s some kind of update to the Java 5 book.

“Developing Games in Java” and “Killer Game Programming in Java” are both good options even though they’re a few years old. Maybe start with one of them and then buy the other book for Java 6.

#6

That’s what I tried to start with, but I wasn’t able to find any tutorials that sparked my interest. I’m reading the Space Invaders one right now though.

So Killer Game Programming in Java looks like it’s pulling ahead? It looks like the author is the same person who did Pro Java 6 Game Programming, and one of the Amazon reviews said there was overlap in the topics… Maybe I’ll do what you suggested, and buy the Java 6 book as an eBook. It does look like it has some nice topics covered.

Thanks for all the input guys.