LibZ - 2D Java Game Library

Engines, Libraries and Tools
#1

Hi JGO!

I am creating a 2D game library called LibZ.
LibZ is completely written from scratch and does not use any external resources also it is open-source :D.
It is FREE, That means no monthly costs and no royalty fee for both personal and commercial projects!

The current features are:

  • path finding (own A* implementation ;))
  • top-down and side-scroller
  • per pixel rendering
  • Instead of sprite sheet’s we use separate images
  • audio
  • keyboard and mouse input
  • custom game scale
  • draw text (Custom font possible)
  • map loading

TODO:

  • editor?
  • lighting support

You can find the source on Github
Download the latest version Here
Documentation

#2

Do you mind showing off some projects that have been created with your library? The “Games build with LibZ” link in your documentation leads to a 404

#3

Yes, I will put some videos and demos online soon.
(Likely tomorrow)
And sorry for the dead link still working on the documentation.

EDIT: Little unfinished demo Super Mario Bros remake

#4

Mario’s jump velocity is too high, for me (IMHO)

#5

You should look at the Free Fall, his jump is weird.

#6

[quote]Mario’s jump velocity is too high, for me (IMHO)
[/quote]
I know, but this works the best. It has been lowered a bit now.

[quote]You should look at the Free Fall, his jump is weird.
[/quote]
It’s more realistic now.

#7
  1. Guy makes engine
  2. Guy makes demo-game
  3. People nitpick demo-game
#8

Riven, are you really surprised at this? Every conversation where I try to relate to something they take it for the analogy and not for the meaning.

You should know how to use a computer before going into game art, its like trying to go into programming and not knowing how to use a computer
I am not trying to program I am doing art

wat.

#9

Most of Questica was done in MS Paint, and all of my games are written by an idiot who doesn’t know how to use a computer

#10

We’re not nitpicking the demo game. The demo game was made using the LibZ game library, so we’re pointing out a mistake in the LibZ physics code.

The gravity is a little robotic. I once participated in a game dev competition and I was using Adobe Flash. I decided to implement gravity myself, so I just plotted an imaginary quadratic graph and used the values to simulate gravity. When you throw an object into the air, it starts off pretty fast and then it slows down, only to speed up again when falling. I simulated that using a parabola. You could try that, or you could go a step further and use the actual equations to simulate gravity.

That aside, the demo looks awesome. Keep up the great work!

#11

Looks cool! Are you going to make a full game with it?

#12

Yes, I am planning to make a full game with it (multiple actually).
But I want to extends LibZ before I will make full games.

LibZ has no physics and no lightning for example.

Also i am planning to make an sprite- and map editor. (it will more likely to be a engine rather then an library ;))

Also I made a little update video about the SMB demo: Youtube

Feel free to post your thoughts, positive or negative I am happy to hear and learn from them to extend LibZ.

#13

The time has come!

I added Android support ;D
However, it’s in an early face and doesn’t have the same functionality as the Desktop version yet!

There is no build available yet, but the code is available on GitHub.
I am making the Android version as close as possible to the Desktop version for the tool I will make in the (near?) future.
The goal of that tool is: “Write once build everywhere.”.

It’s the start of something great sometime (I hope).

  • winspeednl
#14

Hi!
I spent some time reading the tutorial for your library.
Why does it render pixel by pixel? Isnt that really slow?

#15

It isn’t that slow.
But it is slower that for example OpenGL.
I am planning to move away from pixel per pixel rendering but this was the easy way since I didn’t want to use any library.

But @TheMeatMan what do you think of easyiness of the library, is it easy to understand/work with?

#16

You should really rethink sprite-sheets. They’re your friend.

#17

In the order of 1000x slower than hardware accelerated drawing.
That is what I’d consider really slow.

#18

True, But for small projects it is fine.
It is still an early version, so who know what i will implement :wink:

#19

I added support for sprite-sheets and separate images.
You add a Sprite as an image first and then you could cut them in different pieces, supporting different sprite sizes.