hey, I just tried Conquer on my MacOS computer. It looks cool. Once I got it going it was quite fun.

You should give a selection box that displays all the available AI types. Your method of adding/removing players was not intuative to me. It was confusing. I think the default should be to start a game with 1 human and 1 AI, which is what I was expecting. In the game, a tutorial on top of the planet display with some text pointing at planets would very helpful to start out with.

Sounds and music would be nice. Try www.soundrangers.com for some cheap sounds.

When a game is over I would like a link to the randomize planets section.

Your text fields don't support the arrow keys or highlighting.

American History Lux is a strategy game that lets you replay the wars that shaped American history.

   

AHL includes the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the Mexican-American War, the US Civil War, three separate World War theaters, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and finishes with the Iraq War. Historical information is provided for all the wars, along with links to the wikipedia for more. Beautiful graphics and thematic music round out it out. Go play American History Lux.

Sorry I don't have a webstart link, but here is a Windows/Linux installer JAR (14 MB), a Mac OS X package (14 MB), and the PC distributed Windows installer that includes a private JRE (25 MB).

Hey,
I just wanted to say that I very much enjoyed playing all the 4k games. Miners especially (although it always crashes on level 4 start for me), but a lot of the others were very cool too.

Kudos to all the authors and the contest organizers. 

Hello,
I would like to introduce all you Java AI hackers to the Lux SDK. This is a developer kit to create AIs for my strategy game Lux. It includes the API as well as the full source code to all the AIs that I have written (and come with the game). Lux is similar to the board game Risk, but generalized so that you can play on any map. The game costs some money, but anybody interested in playing around with the SDK can email me and I will hook you up with a free license.

I welcome any feedback or questions you have about the SDK. Here's the link:
http://sillysoft.net/sdk/

I would also like to see the web server return java-gaming.org as the domain, instead of displaying the IP address 192.18.37.44 in the address bar. This can be done by adjusting the apache configuration.

There are no 'special' requirements if you just want to commercially release and distribute some software written in Java. You just have to make it and release it 

I'm not 100% sure about the rules for distribution a JVM with you product, because I don't do it. I don't think there are any fees though.

I'll be a judge (although I don't know much about LWJGL internals). I would be testing on a 1.6Ghz powerbook with 1 gig RAM running OSX 10.4

I've used JProfiler and it helped me out quite a bit. It has a 30 day free demo period.

You should use the util.prefs.Preferences class to store your time played. This will put it in the registry for Windows, in a prefs file for macos and do something equivalent on Linux. If you want to make it even harder for hackers then you can store a second copy of the count somewhere in the filesystem. Then check them both when you start up and use the one that has counted further. Set them both the the proper count at exit.

I've used exe4j to make a windows exe file out of a jar file. It worked nicely. It does cost some money though. I think that JSmooth is a free alternative, but it wasn't as polished when I looked at it.

For a good free cross-platform java installer you should take a look at IzPack.

In order to get a really functional Java running on any of the console's there would need to be some support from the console maker. There was some news back in 2001 that Sony would get java on the ps2, but it never happened.

http://java.sun.com/features/2001/06/sony.html

Currently the color of a link after you have followed it is black with no underline. This makes it look exactly like normal text. I suggest changing this so that links can be easily seen even after they have been followed.

You don't have to pay anything upfront with Plimus. They just take a % out of each sale. Look into it, it will simplify things a lot for you.

Lux is a commercial game that is pure Java. It hasn't made it into a retail box yet, but it's been successful online so far...

I use swing because it provides many good components that I want. They aren't totally pretty, but they work well.

Any updates?

Well I honestly never expected to be chosen at all, I was really surprised. I think it would be worthwhile to submit Super Dudester next time around. It's nice and polished with cool graphics and sound (some awards are for those).

It does cost $100. Sorta like gambling, you may lose it for nothing, but you have the chance to win back many times that.

I think this is great news. I can't wait to see the new forum.  

A little while ago the 2005 Independent Games Festival Finalists were announced. This is a a competition meant to "reward innovation in independent games". All the games must be self-funded without any money from a publisher.

There were 20 games selected in 2 different categories. One game in each category is written in Java, which gives it 10% of the total. Pretty good thinks I. One more sign showing that java is making solid inroads into the indie game scene. I think this is where java has the best chance of progress, since new game devs don't have a big investment in C++ stuff already.

Anyway, the 2 java games are War! Age of Imperialism and Lux (bias alert - Lux is my game ). I don't know how 'innovative' they are, since both are really computerized versions of boardgames. Still, I think it's a good sign for java gaming.

Making little 2D games in your spare time can be both fun and an excellent learning experience. This is regardless of what your day job is.

It wasn't among your platforms, but I would be happy to test it on the macintosh if (when?) you want.

It is good that java on PS2 is being talked about between sun and sony. What I am hoping is that they are using the experience to work out a way for java to run on the next generation PS3. Imagine how cool that announcement would be...  

Wow! This is the first I have heard of this. I think that is awesome. I have been concerned that 1.5 wouldn't become widespread for a long while yet, but this will definitely speed things up a lot.

Yes, a copy of Alien Flux is one of the contest prizes. Thanks to Cas for donating it.  

Hello all,

I have just launched a contest to promote my shareware java game Lux. The contest is running for the last 2 weeks of October, and I have named it Luxtoberfest!

There are 11 different games and utilities being given out as prizes. You can win by ranking well on the multiplayer ladder, creating cool plugins, or for sportsmanlike conduct. You can get the full Luxtoberfest details at the Sillysoft Contest Page

My game Lux is a turn-based strategy game. The gameplay is like the board game Risk, but there are lots of different maps and it's easy to play online. More information and a free demo can be found at sillysoft.net

Thanks for reading. Any feedback you have is welcomed.

--
Dustin Sacks
Sillysoft Games

Seeing this topic made me really happy. I really don't like the current YaBB board. Judging by the other forums I hang around in both phpBB and vBulletin are good. I prefer vBulletin by a smidge, so it got my vote. If there is an active java forum software then it would be good to use it. If it's not under active development then I would say don't use it just because it's in java.

Also, the sooner a new board replaces this one the better. It would be bad if nothing happened for multiple months...

I have always wanted to attend Burning Man. I would be interested in hearing about it afterwards.

I was in EA's Montreal office the other day, and I can assure you that there was no dress code. Some people were in shorts and/or sandals.

I have never had a job where I was required to wear a suit or tie. I imagine I would get used to it, but I think it would be weird and unsettling at first.

I don't know where you have looked, but I would say your best bet would be to search out forums specifically for artists. I don't know of any off hand. The http://www.gamedev.net forums have a section for art, but I am sure there are more specific ones out there.

What I have done is used a dedicated piece of code to ask the user where they would like mod/resource files placed, as well as a few other config details. It runs once at the beginning and then never again. It is called the installer.