I just wondered who in here is actually developing a Java game professionally right now (and I mean professional in the strictest sense that making Java games is your actual profession). Right about now I feel strangely alone. Will anyone else make the leap?
Cas 
Magicosm is commerical I think?!??
I don’t think most people want to make the leap, they want to hobby it up and then accidently fall into having written a popular game that they can charge for…
Kev
In my case it will most likely always stay a hobby. Not about to quit my job to start a game company, and not going to deal with the poor pay and horrible hours of working for a major game house. Right now, I get paid well, and have lots of time off to work on game programming. This has the added benefit of keeping it an enjoyable hobby that I can put aside at any time.
I have friends (2) who went to EA, and quickly decided that professional game programming is not where it’s at for them. Working for the big guys apparently sucks. And right now, it’s too scary to think about starting my own, with the economy the way it is.
[quote]And right now, it’s too scary to think about starting my own, with the economy the way it is.
[/quote]
In times of economic recession the best thing you can do is start up on your own. There’s no job security in permiedom. That’s the very reason I made the leap, although I still need to contract on the side at this stage. I hope by this time next year I won’t need to.
Cas
Well, in my case I have a very secure job due to it’s security level, etc.
Running your own company doesn’t really give you that either. My company (not game related) is still around after 16 years, but it hasn’t been easy and most fail in under 5 years.
Professionally Java performance is very important to my work, and that is also of interest here so there is some commonality of interest. I have also been disappointed in the games available for my son (who has learning difficulties) and wondered if I could do better.
I’m afriad I’m already committed to one side business. So for the time being, I’ll just keep chucking out gaming technology, hoping that one day I’ll free up enough time to do a commercial game. Make no mistake tho, I think that games in Java are going to be as big as server side Java has been. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the early days of Win9x gaming.
Another side that concerns me is I get a lot more than just a paycheck from my current position. There are plenty of benefits, including holiday, annual leave, retirement, health insurance, dental insurance etc. The thought of having to pay for insurance privately brings a shiver up my spine. As well as never getting a chance to leave town.
I got into programming and in particular game programming later than most (I already have another degree and career behind me…) but I’d like to at least try to make a go at gaming for a living one of these days. It seems to me with things like j2me, the xbox, dirt cheap gba deving, even places like garagegames and such, that there are more opportunites these days.
“Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.”
– Gail Sheehy
I only wait on the ok from our legal guy to plaster this, yours, and any other forum I can find with info about our new company.
So, are you really living solely off of proceeds from Alien Flux, Cas? No day job, or spouse’s career to keep you afloat? How are sales doing anyway?
Paul
My day job is actually reasonably game-related. We’re building some kind of platform for games (I won’t get into the boring details here) in java, and I was involved in writing the “demo-games” for that platform.
So technically, I got paid for writing java games. 
And not all of them in j2me.
As for Wurm, we’ve got a definite commercial intrest, but we won’t start the company until we can start charging for Wurm.
Since I’m still recovering from the demise of my last company (which was totally not game related BTW), I won’t be starting for myself again for some time to come.
This is all just for fun to me.
Besides I’m aware I’ve got a long way to go until I got what it takes to create good quality games that are little more than 'fly through a freaky tunnel in space collecting “things” while avoiding “other things” ’
Erik
I’m in the video industry… previously writing software for effects and editing hardware, now writing software for high end video capture and streaming solutions. And I get to do it in Java :)… maybe some day I’ll post a WebStart link, but it isn’t game related and doesn’t do much unless you have our hardware or can connect to a server that does.
For me gaming has always been an interest and I tinker with gaming things as a hobby. A friend and I have goofed around with game projects off and on, but we haven’t ever had enough time to finish something before circumstances draw us away from it. One of these days we will get something done. We were thinking of doing something when there was talk of a Sun sponsored java game contest… I wonder if that is ever going to get off the ground again.
[quote]My day job is actually reasonably game-related. We’re building some kind of platform for games (I won’t get into the boring details here) in java, and I was involved in writing the “demo-games” for that platform.
So technically, I got paid for writing java games. And not all of them in j2me.
As for Wurm, we’ve got a definite commercial intrest, but we won’t start the company until we can start charging for Wurm.
[/quote]
I passed your demo onto some of my friends at Bethesda Softworks (Morrowind) and didn’t tell them it was Java until after they talked about how impressive it was. Back in the game some 4 years ago I led an R&D effort into build a professional game engine in Java but there was no support from Sun, little true interest from companies outside of those who wanted to spin cars and panties in a web browser, and too much money in buying versus building. Eventually we stopped working on it, but we were very far along when we did. If you keep pushing forward I’m certain that my friends will contact you at some point
Omg, the Daggerfall people looked at Wurm? :o
faints
Well, I’ve got to say there’s no way I could live off of Alien Flux yet - having sold a staggering 25-odd copies so far - but these things take a lot of time to mature, so I’m told, and I’m prepared to stick it out. What’s another year of being broke anyway
Interestingly I’m using the LWJGL to do another realtime TV graphics generator for APTN again. It’s a client/server system which allows them to run graphics sequences and whatnot on cue, and design them with a WYSIWYG OpenGL editor. Lifted straight out of the game 
Anyway, that’s paying the bills for the next 3 months.
If there’s a message in all this, it’s that taking the plunge takes an abominably long time, and you need to get paid doing something tedious while you’re waiting.
Cas
Well Mind2Machine is completely dedicated to java gaming, and we are preparing a plane racing retail game on the basis of the OpenMind engine, so we’re hoping to get into Java gaming by the big door. We’ve already written a 200 pages game design covering every aspect of the game : graphics, physical simulation, fuzzy ai …
Like puppygames, we can’t make a living of java gaming for now and we have to use other sources of revenues, mostly living of small broadcast 3D contracts. But we’re convinced Java gaming has a bright future, it’s just a matter of time. The question is : will the company manage to reach these blessed times ?
We are currently working on raising public funds in order to be able to spend our full time on Java gaming. Also, we’ll soon be sending the game design to producers. We’ve already been meeting some producers in the early stages of the project : some (those on the PC market) just don’t care about Java as long as the game works and is done for a reasonable price, some just don’t want to hear about it, because it closes the console market, which is a rapid and reliable source of revenues. Professional game developers and IT directors we’ve met simply don’t beleive in Java because they beleive it a slow language. So I guess the right strategy, like it’s been said in this topic, is to show the game first before talking about the technology.
Anyway, if Java closes the console market, the PC market will be quite as big after 2004 according to the studies I’ve read, so I beleive not going on the console market is not necessary a business suicide.
One thing is sure for me : selling Java games is not going to be easy, and it’ll be harder for us to convince the producers than if we had a c++ game. But I just can’t stand c++ and I want to design quality games, so for me the path is clear and it’s Java.
Alban
I’m doing my master’s project at a J2ME game company…
I got Morrowind when I bought my graphics card and it struck me as a game that could have been programmed in Java. Even though they use shaders for the water surface, the main features of that title is the writing and the scale of the content. I’m even including a case study on the game in my thesis about MMORPG quests.
[quote]Well, I’ve got to say there’s no way I could live off of Alien Flux yet - having sold a staggering 25-odd copies so far
[/quote]
Hmmm… for shame forum users! I mean it. How many members here? I’m one of the 25 and enjoying the game. Has Cas helped anyone here with questions or by helping provide the LWJGL? Of course he has. So, if you’ve been thinking about buying the game but are putting it off… don’t wait any longer:)
Sorry Cas, presumptious of me but as a colleague once said “we’ve got to eat our own dogfood.” Not sure if that applies here but if we all say we believe in Java games let’s show it.
Bill
Wouldn’t that be slightly patronising? Buying it because we know its Java, or because we know who wrote it? Wouldn’t that be a bit of an insult, and shouldn’t we simply be buying it cause its a great game to our tastes?
What you should be saying is:
“You guys should really check this game out, its brilliant, and you are going to be throwing your money as Cas to get a copy of the full thing!”
Kev