switching between game screen and form

One of my little projects is to produce a simple language to generate platform style games. The idea is that people can create their own games quite easily and the system will tie the various screens together into a coherent whole. I created the new language, I’ve written a tiny interpreter that reads the “program” and generates the screen. The idea being that anyone can create a screen or that schools could even use it as an easy 1st step into programming.

What I’m stuck on is how to generate a nice form interface to the user so that I can allow them to edit their “program”, provide a few controls but then switch into game mode so they can actually play the screen. I’ve never done forms before and I’m not sure what’s possible. I’d prefer something that’s real easy to learn.

Mike

Are you working in plain Java or using a framework/game engine? If it’s plain Java then probably just using Swing is the easiest way to go at it (although it has its quirks). Getting a nice layout to work is the hardest part here. There’s countless tutorials on Swing on the web.