Hello JGO forum!
I’m new to this forum and actually this is my 1st time posting at a forum, so if i make any mistakes please excuse me and correct me so i learn. 
Sorry if my english is bad but i’m trying my best!
Hmm, let me explain the situation:
I’m a student in Computer Science and i will work another student at our graduation thesis : a Java game!
We want to make an Online-Multiplayer top-down 2D with capture the flag concept (2 or 4 players).
We have a deadline until March, about 5-6 months. So, because it’s serious project for us, i will be asking severals questions about this so you can help us!
We know the basics about Java and we want to read books, learn and start creating as soon as possible.
We are almost sure that we are going to use libgdx as our game engine.
After an online search we 've done, we started reading David Brackeen’s Developing Games in Java (http://www.brackeen.com/javagamebook/)
and then Learning Libgdx Game Development by Andreas Oehlke
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Libgdx-Development-Andreas-Oehlke/dp/1782166041
and maybe Killer Game Programming in Java.
My first questions are:
- Is a game engine necessary for our project? I mean, is it really gonna make our lives easier or harder?
- If we ll eventually use Libgdx, what is the best way to start? Start learning about java game programming basics or learning about Libgdx ?
As far as i m reading the David Brackeen’s book, i find it difficult to understand the whole code. I understand the concept of thinking at most times but not the whole code and it’s realy confusing :-\
- So what should we do ? Keep reading and experimenting with this book’s code to undestant it or look for other tutorials on the internet?
I know it’s difficult to give me straight answers here, but we would really appreciate an opinion from anyone experienced in Java Game Programming! ;D
Thank you all in advance!!!