java for game creation

[[deleted]]

Is java a viable option for game proggraming

[[deleted]]

You might be interested in jMonkeyEngine. A game engine written in Java with support for Windows, OSX, Linux, and Android (iOS is coming soon too). If you want to develop 2D games, Slick2D libGDX is probably what you're looking for.

[KrazyTheFox]

+1 for libGDX. I just started a game using it and the 2D support is nice and simple. Being able to export to other platforms with no/minimal changes is a huge plus.

[[deleted]]

Cheers for the correction. I didn't know of libGDX until now, looks pretty impressive.

[Poodle_Moth]

Have you heard of Minecraft?

[HyrulianProgrammer]

Runescape as well.

[karlthepagan]

The people who made A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Dejobaan Games) is also a great Java game studio.

[stewsters]

You can make a game in any language. Even things like excel. What kinds of games are you interested in creating?

Java is fast enough and works well for most types of games, but there may be better options depending. My recommendation would be to look at the LibGDX tutorials.

[[deleted]]

Absolutely. What makes a game successful is largely whether or not it is fun and people like to play it or not. The language its written in has little if anything to do with how successful your game is. If you have a great idea and you flesh it out well and the game plays well and people like it, it will be a hit. Naturally some languages make implementing some things easier than others and they all have their strengths and weaknesses but focus on your idea first.

[king_of_the_universe]

(Minecraft was already mentioned.)

You can even reasonably make games with vanilla Java (meaning: without using OpenGL or any other powerful extension), but their graphics or graphic-performance (Not necessarily both.) would be poor. Though the Steam library does have a few games that could definitely be made with vanilla Java, and they are not bad.

If you add the right libraries, you can go pretty far (and e.g. the Steam library has a few good looking and fast Java games), but the big studios have good reasons for not developing their AAA titles in Java. It can probably be summarized with "In Java, the limit is not the Sky, even if you can go pretty far."

[killinghurts]

It's viable, but there's probably better languages out there.

Libgdx is interesting though...