I went onto the Java site and got confused by all the different downloads. Can someone point me in the right direction to get the proper JDK I need to create a game, and also a good IDE. Thanks alot!

Quote:Original post by spacemonkeystudios
I went onto the Java site and got confused by all the different downloads.

Yeah, its a bit of a mess if you don't really know what you're looking for. The fact that the marketing department like to change the naming convention more often than Diet Coke gets a new flavour doesn't help either...

Quote:Original post by spacemonkeystudios
the proper JDK

Ooh, subjective. Well, what Sun would prefer you to use is Java 5 SE ("Jump on the Tiger", et al) but a lot of people still prefer to use Java 4.1 SE. Don't bother with EE, you won't need that for what you want.

For the main differences between the two, there is plenty of literature on the second link I gave you. They have also been well discussed here.

Quote:Original post by spacemonkeystudios
a good IDE

Eclipse is popular, and with good reason. However, there are a lot of alternatives, which will no doubt be thrown in here. Failing that, feel free to take a search around GDNet.

Thanks alot for the help!

JCreator, JBuilder, JEdit, and Eclipse are probably the most used java IDE's. You will want to get the SDK to compile java apps.