Right, im 16 and ive been playing the game runescape and i decided to get a cupple of books over xmas to start learning java for myself on my own it was quite confusing but i got thing hang of things. I created a few applications but now i have mostly forgotten what to do. I have a great game designed but i dnt have a clue where to start =\ can anyone help?
note: I’m trying to find someone to write an article to solve exactly this kind of question - an overview and introduction to java games development, full of pointers of where to look first, and giving the very basic structure of a java game, enough to get someone started (i.e. just a basic 20-line game-loop would be better than nothing).
So, if you find anyone to help you, please also urge them to email me at ceo @ grexengine.com - and then we’ll get an article up on JGF where it will help everyone else like you who similarly wants help finding out how and where to start.
PS for general games programming, check out flipcode.com (the most influential of the hobbyist games development sites, full of tutorials etc) and you might want to try gamedev.net too, possibly look out for the nehe OpenGL tutorials as well. I would guess if you do a search on these forums for posts containing “flipcode” you’ll find one of the threads started by other people with the same questions as you, and all the replies they received. Remember to set the “days to search” to 300 (it has a STUPID default of 7).
thanks for the advise if any1 else has nething 2 add then dnt hesitate.
[quote]note: I’m trying to find someone to write an article to solve exactly this kind of question - an overview and introduction to java games development, full of pointers of where to look first, and giving the very basic structure of a java game, enough to get someone started (i.e. just a basic 20-line game-loop would be better than nothing).
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A ‘simple’ tutorial such as that is actually quiet a daunting task: How little knowledge do you assume?
If you assume to little then you are writing a tutorial about java syntax and ‘This is an array! This is oop!’
If you assume too much then it won’t be useful to a beginner. I actually wrote/started to write such a tutorial. It uses awt/applets though so its not so useful nowadays.
I think the fullscreen framework on the wiki is an excellent resource; it shows a user one way to things in Java.
The idea is to avoid discussing syntax at all, and to avoid describing specifics except where they will always be used.
For instance, you can provide the source code for a main game loop in 20 lines, and the explanation in 2 or 3 paras.
But for the most part people really need an article that has sections like:
- learning java: points people to some resources, gives advice on where is best to start, e.g. “start with the JFC trails on sun.com”
- getting started with games development: gives people some background, like describing the main game loop, listing the major components of a game “rendering, game-logic, input-handling, network send/receive” and giving an overview of how they fit together.
- where to start: explains that it’s best to try and write a simple game you know well as your first game - never try to write a Quake clone as your first game, try pong or tetris instead.
- references for going further in particular directions, e.g. “when you’re ready to do 3D development, start by going through the NeHe tutorials, which will teach you OpenGL, which is always worth knowing”
etc.
The key is to write an article on the basis of “Something is better than nothing” and to keep it as simple as possible without just presenting a list of URL’s - people need explanation/summary of what they’re being referred to, and some judgement as to it’s quality, and as to WHO should read that link and WHY.