Where to begin??

[Dobby90]

just after finishing my first year in college and have a good understanding of Java OO Programming

my question is where would be the best place to extend my Knowledge of game design. i have ideas for the game but don't know where to start with it.

is there any books or tutorials ye would recommend??

which would be better Eclispe or NetBeams?? and what game engine is best for Newbies??

[Jimmt]

Holy ***, the amount of new users coming in is way more than before
Eclipse/Netbeans is your preference, I'd recommend trying both before choosing one. They both have their merits. With Java, we don't really use game engines unless you build it yourself, we instead use libraries - libGDX if you want fast-developing, high-level programs that can be ported to android/html/ios or LWJGL if you want a low-level library that will really teach you the ins and outs of graphics programming.
(Are you happy HeroesGraveDev )

[alaslipknot]

hi,
read this

-which one Eclipse or NetBeans :
it doesn't matters, i used both of them but i find myself more comfortable with eclipse .

-what game engine is best for Newbies :
it depends... i personally suggest that you first start with Java2D just to understand the principles of game programming and then you can choose between many other options (mainly Lwjgl or LibGdx)

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

[Jimmt]

Actually, Java2D is not a great starting choice because what you learn there often doesn't translate well into other libraries. (Theres a link somewhere, can't find it)

[Dobby90]

thanks lads will have a look and try ye're suggestions 

[alaslipknot]

(Are you happy HeroesGraveDev )

xD i hope this will not be again a 2 pages topic about lwjgl vs libgdx cause i will really be :

we don't really use game engines

he still can use Jmonkey, it's a java engine (the best i think ..)
 

Actually, Java2D is not a great starting choice because what you learn there often doesn't translate well into other libraries. (Theres a link somewhere, can't find it)

yes i confirm that, i just think that Java2D is kinda more friendly and easy to start with just to be familiar with java but he said that he have a good understanding of Java OOP, so yup, you can skip it

-in case you want to know why use Lwjgl or LibGdx (it's a very long discussion but it was kinda fun  )
-in case you want to know our opinions about Jmonkey

[kpars]

This advice is probably horrible, but I probably wouldn't start with a game engine. I started doing all of my stuff playing around with pure Java code.

And as for your IDE, I would choose eclipse

[alaslipknot]

This advice is probably horrible

no 

[Dobby90]

-in case you want to know why use Lwjgl or LibGdx (it's a very long discussion but it was kinda fun  )

long discussion is right..

after reading it i will just try the both and figure out which i prefer and is more suitable for me 

[Axeman]

after reading it i will just try the both and figure out which i prefer and is more suitable for me 

That´s the spirit: More "programming games" and less "thinking about the best way to get started programming games".

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

[ra4king]

Holy ***, the amount of new users coming in is way more than before

This is why I have literally stopped reading threads anymore unless the title is interesting...

[Jimmt]

Holy ***, the amount of new users coming in is way more than before

This is why I have literally stopped reading threads anymore unless the title is interesting...

Well, someone's gotta do it...

[heisenbergman]

Holy ***, the amount of new users coming in is way more than before

This is why I have literally stopped reading threads anymore unless the title is interesting...

Oi, why are you hating on newbies?

[heisenbergman]

Hi Dobby90,

I just got started with learning video game development using Java just a couple of weeks ago, so maybe you could consider us in the same boat.

As far as IDEs go, I've only used Eclipse and I find it to be very convenient and it does almost everything I need it to do. You might also want to consider that a lot of tutorials you might come across out on the internet have mentions of how to get things working with Eclipse specifically; so everything considered, I'd highly recommend Eclipse.

As far as actual development is concerned, for me it basically came down to either (1) LWJGL - a game development library for Java developers; or, (2) LibGDX - a game development framework built mainly on a LWJGL backend (afaik).

For me, I chose LibGDX because I wanted to jump into creating a game right away without going too low-level in my code and do too much "heavy-lifting" --- and upon reading the documentation, I got the impression that while LibGDX provides one with a bare-enough skeleton to make room for flexibility as to how to go about programming a game, it also provides a lot of functions already built for you that you can just call to make the development process easier.

If you choose LWJGL, it would be because you would want to have more control over your code, it being lower-level and all, and/or maybe because you want to have a better understanding of the inner-workings of your game.

Either way is fine as long as it's in line with your approach and your goals.

[Jimmt]

Oi, why are you hating on newbies?

You must understand, it gets annoying posting the same "welcome java2d is bad libgdx is good for high-level lwjgl is good for low-level don't start with networking get a game loop working" stuff. I don't hate newbies, they're just registering a lot faster than they used to

[heisenbergman]

Interesting. I wonder why there are more than usual newbies (like me). I sort of just got interested again in game development out of the blue a few weeks ago and I just found this site via google slightly after.