I’m sure there are some in here that would like to see all the games hosted on Java4K.com and that they can be played instantly as an embedded Applet, just like ordinary Flash games. What do you think?
I’m personally for this, but it’s a question if the programmers are ready for this.
These days applets have a better user experience than webstart.
If the Java4K competition has the primary goal of ‘speading the word’, then applets are a must.
If it’s not the primary goal, let the devs pick their favorite tech.
Applets with Plugin2 are awesome, no reason to use java web start over them. Especially now with flash on the scene.
do i smell an all out 4k war in 2010? (flash v java)
hehe inded my opinion on this is aeasy to know APPLLLETTTS ( if so I will try all of yours excelent games this time 
)
Although working with applets sounds like a pain and I’d rather use webstart, I think using applets will be good for the competition. It’s less buttons to click for the user, one less dialog to confuse the uninformed, and a much more unified way of presenting the games.
So I’ll just stomach my personal distaste for applets and vote for them anyway.
I voted that it shouldn’t be a requirement, but applets are good. I’m potentially reconsidering my vote, that an applet requirement might be a good thing. 4k games have no applet start-up time whatsoever, so it’s great for user experience. I’m sort of tired of having my downloads folder stuffed with so many jnlp files.
Given that you can take an applet and wrap it in a suitable .jnlp file and turn it into a webstart app with no actual code changes, I think it’s entirely reasonable to require submissions in applet form, and for people to provide a webstart version along side that if they want to.
+1
+1
(and your Windows Programs/Software listing with dozens of un-uninstallable JNLP entries)
-1. Hate applets.
that does annoy me.
however I think that it should be the developers choice.
if they know all of these things then they might be swayed towards applets.
correct me if I am wrong, but weebstart cannot be blocked by school ;D.
also since I dont have java enabled on chrome, for applets I have ot switch over. for webstartI jsut download the jnlp, annoying but usually worth it.
I don’t see any worth in the additional rule. Why make it any harder to develop for no gain? Click link to go to webstart - click link to go to page with applet on.
The competition is about fun games in small sizes, not about distribution methods. Are we going to go on to stop allowing a 4k jar version?
Nonsense I say, nonsense!
Kev
I think it’s a very good idea to make the competition more accessible. =)
Is that what the 4K contest is for now? Wish someone had said.
Does using applets do that too now? I realised it that applets are now the second comming of god but more accessible too - awesome.
Kev
Yay for Applets only! The whole comp contained on one site! No pop-up windows! No uninstalling of Java executables! Just click and play! Woohoo!!!
Hm, that’s a bit unfair eh, Kev? :-*
I said:
If …, then applets.
If …, then let the dev pick.
I’m not picking any side on it.
One might argue that the more rules there are, the more creative we get… that’s the whole point of 4K, but I think I’m stretching it a bit too far here
i think the above is a pretty good point, submit as applet and if you really want webstart then provide a jnlp too.
I’m a pretty unfair person, so that’s probably par for the course. In this case however I was just re-asking the question. Given the logic was “if the primary goal is spreading the word” then “pick applets”, the consensus seems to be applets are where we should go - then that reaffirms the suggestion that the primary goal is to spread the word. Hence, re-asking.
One might also argue that the rules in 4k are there to keep us focused on getting something finished and being productive. I’m not sure how enforcing applets does that.
Kev
I honestly think that post 6u10 things have gotten so much better on the applet front, that that should be the preferable method to show the innocent bystander. Especially 4K where we don’t need native libs, and there is not really a need to specify a JRE version.
For anything serious I’d pick Webstart for deployment (if I could either pick applets or webstart) for numerous reasons, like not losing your user when he clicks [prev] or presses F5 after the applet lost focus, and for the simple reason that while the Java Plugin might be finally stable now, the browsers themselves are littered with bugs, which affect applets.
If the goal is to promote J4K among non-Java folks, applets might be the best option, because it feels just like Flash: embedded in a webpage, no JavaWebstart GUI with a progressbar.
I’m in no position to state whether the goal of J4K is to promote Java games, and I can imagine that ‘the next guy’ can point out some very compelling reasons to pick Webstart, in which case it would have been a mistake to restrict deployment to applets.
One big advantage of Webstart is that it has versioning built in. Certainly in the past I’ve had issues with the browser caching the .jar files with my applets, which made them frustrating to develop.
Webstart also seems to be more flexible in the handling of applets. My 4k submission this year is an applet, but while it works in Webstart I didn’t get it to work embedded in an HTML page. I think I probably could have done, but at a cost in bytes.