[Miikalsen]

Okay, so i have been doing java for a week or something now. I also have my friend which have been doing it for more than me. I know enough that I'm safe with calling myself a novice java programmer.


I know about some things in java that i believe is a big thing within the games.


Here is a list:

• Scanner
  
• Variables
  
• Methods
  
• Methods with Paremeters
  
• Basic OPP consept(Including methods from other java files.
  
• Statements, If/Else and Switch
  
• Loops While/For
  
• Try and Catch Loop

That is the main things that i do know at the moment.

My friend tries to get me to learn Lwjgl with him, but i find it to be very hard.. But he keep saying that i don't need to know any more that i do, to start with it.. I tried slick some and feel that's easier for me. But he says since It's more of a Engine it's not a real game or whatsoever.

So I'm reaching out here to ask when is it the right time to jump the door line over to creating games for computers.

I'm still learning, and started learning some about GUI lately. Also creating a console RPG.


Thanks a lot in advance.

[GregBrannon]

It's impossible to give you an answer that you can plan your first game paycheck to. No one can tell you, "After 6 months you'll be ready to program games."

I'll go out on a limb and say a "week or something" probably isn't enough experience from which to launch your first fully graphical game, but as you've noted, you can practice with console RPGs.

Here's a tutorial recommended by someone else here as a good place to start game programming. One of the important things missing from your list is basic graphics and animation, and this tutorial will build to and focus on those topics.

Tell your friend to chill, and keep studying.

[Benzoate]

So from what I understand, you are using Slick library and LWJGL correct? those are good libraries to use together, because they play off of each other pretty well (I recently starting using them as well)

But back to what you where asking, how much experience should you have? That is more of an opinion question... I personally just started programming games after about a year of Java, just because I felt like I didn't know enough to make games how I wanted them. But, I didn't focus on game design, but you on the other hand, if you focus on game design only, you will get the hang of it much faster. From the list that you posted, you seem like you are off to a good start, though you need to start working with images if you are going to be working on game design.... Slick2D has very good Image support from my experience... As for GUI, that has always been a pain to me, just because I tried to teach myself that without tutorials, but seeming how you have a friend to help you, all this will probably be a lot easier for you.... Try test making a small little game, and if you find that it is too hard and you have a lot of questions, then work on other stuff for a couple weeks then re-try is my suggestion... I hope this answered your question..

[CasiOo]

It depends what kind of games

A text based tic tac toe would be easy
A 3d battlefield game would be very hard

One week programming java is nothing, and you should build your way up starting with simple games that are text based.
My first acceptable game was a basic tower defence game made in swing. I made it after a half year of programming java.

[jon.kiparsky]

You can create a very simple game today. It goes like this:

You put 21 matchsticks, or toothpicks, or something on the bar. On each move, a player can remove 1,2,3, or 4 matchsticks. The player who takes the last match loses.

If you have the basic arithmetic and decision logic of java, in addition to an input method like Scanner, then you could write this today for two human players.

If you know about methods, you could write a method that will return a move given a situation - that is, an algorithmic player. ("AI", though it's not my favorite term when we're working at this level)

If you think about the math a little, you can figure out whether this game is a forced win for one player or another - that is whether, assuming best play by both players, one player or another will always win. This will help you develop a strategy for best play for your algorithmic player.

You can also work on the variant where the player to take the last match wins, or variations with different numbers of players, or different numbers of matchsticks. Can you make the game flexible enough that I can play with an arbitrary number of players and an arbitrary number of matchsticks, and I can choose some of those players to be algorithmic players? Or, indeed, play all of those players as algorithmic players?

You can do all of this in only one class, that is, pretty much pure procedural programming.

Your next step would be to rewrite it to use multiple classes - perhaps you'd like to have several Players, one of which takes interactive input and a few of which implement different algorithms for play (Greedy, Reserved, and Random algorithms wouldn't be hard to do).

After you've done it with classes, you can think about writing a GUI for this in Swing, but I recommend you learn the real programming first.

All of this should keep you busy for at least a week or two - come back when you want another assignment!

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 06 August 2012 - 06:55 AM

[Miikalsen]

jon.kiparsky, on 06 August 2012 - 06:55 AM, said:

You can create a very simple game today. It goes like this:

You put 21 matchsticks, or toothpicks, or something on the bar. On each move, a player can remove 1,2,3, or 4 matchsticks. The player who takes the last match loses.

If you have the basic arithmetic and decision logic of java, in addition to an input method like Scanner, then you could write this today for two human players.

If you know about methods, you could write a method that will return a move given a situation - that is, an algorithmic player. ("AI", though it's not my favorite term when we're working at this level)

If you think about the math a little, you can figure out whether this game is a forced win for one player or another - that is whether, assuming best play by both players, one player or another will always win. This will help you develop a strategy for best play for your algorithmic player.

You can also work on the variant where the player to take the last match wins, or variations with different numbers of players, or different numbers of matchsticks. Can you make the game flexible enough that I can play with an arbitrary number of players and an arbitrary number of matchsticks, and I can choose some of those players to be algorithmic players? Or, indeed, play all of those players as algorithmic players?

You can do all of this in only one class, that is, pretty much pure procedural programming.

Your next step would be to rewrite it to use multiple classes - perhaps you'd like to have several Players, one of which takes interactive input and a few of which implement different algorithms for play (Greedy, Reserved, and Random algorithms wouldn't be hard to do).

After you've done it with classes, you can think about writing a GUI for this in Swing, but I recommend you learn the real programming first.

All of this should keep you busy for at least a week or two - come back when you want another assignment!

You mean that i should create this in Console ? Right ?

[jon.kiparsky]

Yep. Later on you can learn some Swing and make it pretty. Before that, you'll want to learn things about object-oriented programming, so you can keep the representation separate from the presentation.

(you'll know what that means later on, just remember that it's a good thing)

[Miikalsen]

jon.kiparsky, on 06 August 2012 - 08:20 AM, said:

Yep. Later on you can learn some Swing and make it pretty. Before that, you'll want to learn things about object-oriented programming, so you can keep the representation separate from the presentation.

(you'll know what that means later on, just remember that it's a good thing)

That seems like a good project. But damn hard to understand, I'm aware of this type of game.


How i see it so far is that the sticks would be stored within something like a integer. And i would use scanner to get user input from two people. Then what they write would be removed from that integer which store the amount of sticks. And in the end have a loop to check if the integer is equals to 1 or 0.

[jon.kiparsky]

Yeah, roughly that. Tuck in, have fun.