Thread: Looking for a Java library meant for aiding game design

As for why Java: my class is based around java and we HAVE to use Java for this project. (Not that I am complaining much; I don't mind Java).
I have mainly used the standard Java libraries up to this point and written what I needed that the standard library could not do on its own. However, I don't think it would be wise to do that when designing something on the scale of a game where I'm being graded not only on the code but the game design in general. I also only have 6 weeks from today to get it done.

I did some searching and found this:
Slick2D | 2D Java Game Library

It would seem to fit the bill as we're looking to do a 2-D platformer. It's based off of a library meant for making 3D games that is supposed to also be close to the machine, as they say.

I am looking for suggestions though as this is a new area for me (I've mainly done computational stuff in the past--engineering and physics stuff).

A quick google foo: List of game engines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have personally used Unity on android, but thats not really a java library......


I would actually just recommend you use the built in java graphics calls. Keep everything as low level as possible.
For a quick example see: Java games moving sprites

If it is a platformer, then implement a world class with a call to load only a certain 'viewable' section of the level with its pre-defined elements (platforms, enemies, etc.). Have a master 'engine' class that is in its own thread that updates the view every so many milli-seconds (for platformers try 10-100ms). Have another thread that is solely the input listener, you want this to be dedicated as there is nothing more frustrating than having input lost because of the machine having a performance hit.

Have each 'object' (player, enemy, etc.) have a class that hold position and rotation data. Make two classes that extend this. One is solely to be used by the game engine (having mostly getters of data). The other is to be used by the player input (having mostly movement addition methods). The game engine when doing an update reads the current position and the position additions based on player input. Calculates the new pos then update the actual position while clearing the player input variables (by doing it this way you can do animations for movement, like sprite trails and such). This is going to have to be threaded so that both threads do not deadlock. Have a token passing mechanism for each object. default state probably being engine access.



This is just a quick overview of what I would do..... let me know if you need any help.

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