Some may think I’m scraping the bottom of the gaming barrel here, but I’d like to see the beginning of an annual, “Java Gaming Pack” or some other such thing that would include the top 10 Java games for a given year.
This would be a community project. Independent/commercial games would be considered. The gaming pack would be produced on CD, and work would be done to have it distributed through large gaming retailers (GameStop and EB come to mind) for the price of $10. Distribution with Java developer magazines?
On the CD would be the best 10 or so games from the Java community of the previous year, the most recent JRE (which, as of 1.4.2 is self-updating…at least in Windows), and online manuals for each game. Invitations to users to join the java community of gaming and programming, and links to company websites to promote web traffic, and sales of further games.
Why the $10 price tag? Whatever we can do to make it worth while for more and more people to install Java and use the great games that we know are possible. Some people will argue that offering it for $10 will appeal to only the “casual” gamer. You’re mostly right…but look at the body of Java games as it is. Have we been legitimately reaching for any other audience?
