Hello Java-Gaming :)

[andyMak]

How are we all? how all is well.

I am a newbie yay me. i have just signed up to this site and thought i would say hi

so a little about me and history...

I've just recently turned 30 and live in Brisbane Australia.
When i was 10 my father came home with a massive box, inside? a commodore 64, oh how i smiled.
One day my father made a new friend, it turns out he knew programming and i guess to get me out of the house my father organized for me to have lessons. i made a game where you were a scuba diver and had to retrieve the treasure. there was an octopus guarding the treasure and a ship dropping torpedos.

after that game i didn't touch anymore coding until i got my first job as a receptionist when i was 17 or so. the guy next to me was an IT guy and worked with  Vb all day. when the managers were not looking we would make silly rpg's and horse racing games in Vb3 (or6 i can't remember).
after this i found beer! and wasted my time until i was about 23 / 24. it was then i discovered that anyone could make websites (previous to this i thought it was done in some company somewhere with expensive equipment or something). i taught myself html, css and PHP and fell in love with web development. then i found "Macromedia" flash MX.. WOW! i can make animations!!... later, OMG i can make games!!.. i made a r-type style game with baaaad graphics, then i creaped a fly swatting game. i then joined a collab and make a "don't whizz on the electric fence" game.

i found more beer and wasted a few more years.

about 2 years ago i sat at work and thought.. "really!? this is my life? staring at a spreadsheet all day long!??" Badda Bing badda boom i joined University. the first year was nothing, i knew everything they were teaching so much to the point that i was just logging in getting assignment completing and gaining HD.. i started getting bored, then came the Java unit.. at first i hated it.

i lost interest in uni about 5 months ago and left. i have been working one day a week in our online services team where i did a web dev role. then one day they asked how i would go making a flash game.

i gave it my best go, i was able to finish this game and debug it to no bugs (so far)
the client loved this game and my confidence boosted.

i started learning more java and Actionscript3 until about 2 weeks ago i thought.. i think i would like to make games.

i then found Ludum Dare and thought WOW this sounds awesome so now i'm frantically trying to learn game programming so i can participate

i am kind of starting with Actionscript as i find it easier to learn so hopefully i can learn the core concepts of game development and then head into java with it.

but now i'm starting to think i should just dive right in with pong and Java.. i tried searching for tutorials but they were all different so i was confused on the correct way of doing things. then in found this site and here i am.. im going to go through your threads and see if i can find a good beginner start to Game programming in java

i'm also have way through Buckys (the new boston) java tutorials alot of fun , some thigns i find wrong, some confuse me alot (interfances and enums)


so anyway hope to stay and have fun here and learn alot

cheers

[Jimmt]

Welcome to JGO
now go start making some games

[Longarmx]

Wow. Very interesting story. Unfortunately, my story isn't as great. Started programming objective-c about a year ago but found it too hard, so I quit. Then I found java. I had read somewhere that it was a lot easier language to learn than objective-c. I tried it and LOVED it. Then, same as you, I came across Ludum Dare. I was really excited. I made my first game with that competition and I found a lot of techniques for coding such as game loops, inheritance, and general good habits. Since then, I have just been messing around with little projects, starting games then losing interest in them. I guess that I am just waiting for the right idea to come to mind  I hope you really enjoy java gaming as it is easy (in most places) and just the right language for someone that wants to quickly start making games.

Good luck ,
Longarmx

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[andyMak]

Wow. Very interesting story. Unfortunately, my story isn't as great. Started programming objective-c about a year ago but found it too hard, so I quit. Then I found java. I had read somewhere that it was a lot easier language to learn than objective-c. I tried it and LOVED it. Then, same as you, I came across Ludum Dare. I was really excited. I made my first game with that competition and I found a lot of techniques for coding such as game loops, inheritance, and general good habits. Since then, I have just been messing around with little projects, starting games then losing interest in them. I guess that I am just waiting for the right idea to come to mind  I hope you really enjoy java gaming as it is easy (in most places) and just the right language for someone that wants to quickly start making games.

Good luck ,
Longarmx

Hey Thanks man

I hope i find it easy, i find Actionscript really easy mainly because the movieclips are there, i can create and animate in it and instantiate the movieclip

in jave i'm kinda scared as i have never worked with graphics so i have no idea how it works.
i'm looking at creating 2d games, hopefully one day something like rayman origins style. so i'm hoping there's someway i can make an animation in flash and then use that somehow. i'm guessing it's just a bunch of images stored in an array of some sort and using a timer to change images when required if so then i shouldl be able to save each frame of animation as a gif

but for now i'm working on pong.. i'm trying to find out if there's a difference between java and applets as i found a tutorial for pong very detailed but it is for java applet project


the dumbest thing i have done is quit school and i quote "when will i ever need algebra or trig!? pfft waste of time"  12 yrs later.. ohhh damn this is why i need it
cheers

[ra4king]

Welcome to JGO andyMak!

Your story is pretty awesome and I'm glad it led you here! Game making is really fun but don't be discouraged by the boring parts

I think your current priority is to completely learn Java and play with it. Don't get ahead of yourself with a lot of graphics until you have solid knowledge of the language.

Then you have 2 options: learn Java2D, which is the built-in graphics library in Java, or go with OpenGL. Java2D is really useful and featured-packed but unfortunately, it's really slow and unpredictable. I usually recommend starting with it because it lets you more easily learn game-making concepts and design. OpenGL is lower level than Java since it's an interface with the graphics card, however since you have direct access to the graphics card, it's really freaking fast!

For more info and explanation, read this post.

I wish you good luck in your quest for game making (and getting rich! )

[andyMak]

What do you suggest?

would i benefit from going straight to Java2d? or should i dive right in to openGL and forget java2D..?

[ra4king]

My biased opinion is to start with Java2D after you fully learn Java. Here's a post for tips and tricks.

Others suggest you use Slick2D. Slick2D has a Java2D-like API but with the added bonus of using LWJGL underneath (LWJGL lets you access OpenGL from Java). The same easy-to use interface, but with the speed and power of OpenGL.

Pure OpenGL may be a little too complicated right now, but once you learn basic game design, you should challenge yourself to begin learning it. Here's a link you should bookmark to learn OpenGL.

By the way, you should read the post I linked to earlier, it explains all of this

[arnaud_couturier]

My biased opinion is to start with Java2D after you fully learn Java.

I would advice: start with Java2D WHILE you're learning java, so that it motivates you, and you have concrete problems to solve.
Learning a language just for the sake of learning is boring.

Also Java2D is quite fast. You can draw thousands of sprites at a reasonable pace (30+ fps).

[gimbal]

My biased opinion is to start with Java2D after you fully learn Java. Here's a post for tips and tricks.

I would agree. But I would go a step further and demand that you know the theory behind images and pixelbuffers. Anybody can load images using ImagEIO and draw images using the Java2D API, but only those informed of the theory behind it all will understand why image A draws correctly, why image B gets a black background and why 10 copies of image C for some reason causes the framerate to collapse.

[ReBirth]

Welcome to JGO!

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[andyMak]

Hi Guys,

thanks for all the responses

i was hoping you'd recommend java2d as i feel it would be best to first learn the core java

i agree with learning a language is boring unless you have goals.

but yes my plan is to finish the 80  videos of beginner java. i kinda like finding big posts or tutorials on a game i don't understand then go learn more and come back to it to see how much i understand now.. it gives me the feeling that i'm actually learning

[Jimmt]

You don't necessarily have to watch all of them. At a point in your programming life/career, you'll just start coding stuff and learning what you need.

[gimbal]

you can't learn programming from watching videos anyway, no matter how hard people want to believe it is that easy. You can only get to the point where you can begin to learn; we used to read books to do that.

[Jimmt]

Books are better, I have to admit.

[andyMak]

Books are better, I have to admit.

yes i have a book to read

i use the videos to see the syntax and concepts.

i know i wont learn everything but i will leave things like event listeners and then i know to go play with them and hopefully get errors so i can see how to fix the errors

[SwampChicken]

G'day andyMak & welcome aboard.

[andyMak]

G'day andyMak & welcome aboard.

Thanks buddy guy:)

[aazimon]

Welcome. Glad you found us.