Java for Game Dev
Java for Game Dev
Has anyone used Java for game dev, including for Android development? How were your experiences with it? Obviously C# and C++ are much more popular for Game Dev, but i'm just curious if anyone has done any extensive game dev with Java.
- a_bertrand
- Posts: 1536
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 1:46 pm
Re: Java for Game Dev
For Android Java is quite certainly the way to go. C# is more popular only on windows... and through unity. Honestly I stopped using Java long time ago. I was a big fan and was totally kicked out by all the (big) issues there was at that time (some of which are still here today). I will probably never use it again.
Creator of Dot World Maker
Mad programmer and annoying composer
Mad programmer and annoying composer
- Jackolantern
- Posts: 10891
- Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:00 pm
Re: Java for Game Dev
jMonkey Engine is the most impressive Java game engine, but it is of course not as impressive as Unity (few accessible engines are). On the plus side, it is completely free and open source. You can buy the definitive ebook on it for $5 right now in Packtpub's big sale. You can distribute your games to Linux, Windows and Mac (obviously since it is Java), and Android and Ouya. They say iOS support is coming soon, but wow, no idea how they are going to pull that off.
Outside of jMonkey, there is a very lightweight 2D and 3D engine called LWJGL that has a couple of nice looking projects made with it. And if you don't want to work with a game engine, I would say skip it. You will be working so low-level with OpenGL, that you might as well go C++ with DirectX/OpenGL or C#.
I personally like Java, but I do acknowledge its problems. C# has really evolved a long way past it, and I can't help but miss a ton of nice .NET features when using it, such as C#'s properties while I am writing 20 accessor and mutator methods in Java
Outside of jMonkey, there is a very lightweight 2D and 3D engine called LWJGL that has a couple of nice looking projects made with it. And if you don't want to work with a game engine, I would say skip it. You will be working so low-level with OpenGL, that you might as well go C++ with DirectX/OpenGL or C#.
I personally like Java, but I do acknowledge its problems. C# has really evolved a long way past it, and I can't help but miss a ton of nice .NET features when using it, such as C#'s properties while I am writing 20 accessor and mutator methods in Java
The indelible lord of tl;dr
Re: Java for Game Dev
I really like java, but it may just be because its my first true OOP language. I think I may check out that engine, just for simple stuffs. thanks.Are there good tuts and whatnot?
- hallsofvallhalla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 12023
- Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:29 pm
Re: Java for Game Dev
I toyed with Jmonkey ages ago. Just not a java fan at all.