Hey there =)
I have some knowledge in Java, altough not much experience, and I'm currently coursing C++. I plan to start coding some games as a hobby, and I was wondering what language should I write them in and what libraries to use (absolute newbie).
Without going into much detail, the kind of games I'm aiming for are fully 2d, probably platformers or similar, with an emphasis in physics, "realistic" collision and such. Even though I don't want to stride too far from basic 2d I wouldn't mind to have some fancy graphical tools at my disposal, such as particle effects, smooth animations... etc.
What should I go for? I thought Java because I know a bit already, and since my projects won't be 3d, the limitations from Java shouldn't be of importance, right? I'd also get the benefits of portability. In case I choose Java, (or C++ if you think it's better) which open source libraries / engines should I look into for the stuff I want to make?
Thank you very much.
What language and libraries for the games I aim for?
The language doesnt really matter as long as it does the job. If you know java you should propably use it unless you really want to use some c++ library (and itll make you better in c++, even though its propably a bit harder to use it)
The language doesnt really matter as long as it does the job. If you know java you should propably use it unless you really want to use some c++ library (and itll make you better in c++, even though its propably a bit harder to use it)
You can use C++ libraries with Java aswell, (or C libraries atleast, but most libraries have C bindings)
Pretty much any language can take care of that. Since you're already familiar with Java, I'd say stick with that. Or, if you're interested, you can switch to C# and later on learn XNA. Either way, don't pick C++ - in this case, it would be using a first rate battleship to kill a mosquito...
As for libraries, I haven't messed much with Java but a quick search reveals LWJGL, an OpenGL wrapper. Looks promising enough, for a start. Then there is of course JMonkey, but again - battleship and mosquitoes. Something light should get you started fairly quickly, and LWJGL comes with both OpenGL and OpenAL so you're set in two departments - graphics and audio
As for libraries, I haven't messed much with Java but a quick search reveals LWJGL, an OpenGL wrapper. Looks promising enough, for a start. Then there is of course JMonkey, but again - battleship and mosquitoes. Something light should get you started fairly quickly, and LWJGL comes with both OpenGL and OpenAL so you're set in two departments - graphics and audio
A good 2D Java library is Slick2D (built around LWJGL). It has a lot of features already built-in. There are also physics engines made to specifically work with it, such as MarteEngine.
http://slick.cokeandcode.com
http://slick.cokeandcode.com
Yeah, if you go Java, definetly check out slick.
If you go C++, check out SFML and Box2D ( for physics, if you make a platformer ).
If you go C++, check out SFML and Box2D ( for physics, if you make a platformer ).
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