The problem:
- Your game requires external files that have to be outside the jar
- Your game requires native libraries
- Your game requires OS-specific code
- Your game requires command line arguments
- You still want to deploy as a single jar file
The solution: SvgExe!
http://staticvoidgames.com/SvgExe/flowchart.png
SvgExe is a tool that helps you create standalone, self-extracting jar files that automatically deploy external files and native libraries for the correct system. It has a step-by-step GUI for developers and cleans up after itself automatically, so your users never have to worry about more than one file.
I created this mostly to be used by Processing developers after Processing stopped supporting exporting applications for multiple systems, but I figured some Java developers might find a use for it as well, especially with the Java 7u51 “security fix” for applets and webstarts. I have an example tutorial that uses SvgExe to deploy a LWJGL game here.
SvgExe is also open-source on GitHub, and it might make a perfect jumping-on point for people who want to get into open-source development on a smaller project.