Game Programing in Java

Craig Maloney has written up a great review of Java Game Programming for Dummies availible through Amazon.com. If you are interested in a book that is useful for both beginners or want to know more, click below.

Java Game Programming for Dummies

Wayne Holder and Doug Bell

Review by: Craig Maloney.

Admit it. You've bought a "Dummies" book before, haven't you? You've probably seen such titles as "Chess for Dummies: or "Personal Finance for Dummies". (God help you if you bought "Sex for Dummies". :) ) Unfortunately, some of these "Dummies" books lightly touch on the subjects they try to educate upon. I found this to be true with "Crystal Reports for Dummies" (It was for work, OK?) The book was less helpful than the manual, and covered vastly less than what I needed to use it for. When I saw this book was going to be printed on Amazon.com, my first reaction was quite mixed.. Would this book be like the other game programming texts in my library? Would it touch on the same topics with the same brief introductions? Would it come up with some other crazy, unsupported framework? Happily, this book doesn't use the same stale examples (There isn't one single asteroids clone in this book, something that has been done to death in other books) It is also quite technical for a "Dummies" book. There isn't a tutorial on what object orient programming is in this book. There also isn't any mention of networked gaming in this book. What you will find, though, is a good introduction to 2D and 3D gaming concepts, as well as some different ways about achieving the same goals.

The book quickly takes the reader from a simple ball animation to a full fledged Pong implementation in two chapters. The example is quite straightforward, and the book takes very little time explaining it. The third and fourth chapter describe ball physics and how they relate to golf and pool. These chapters are why I picked this book up. Math discussions in school made me quite bleary eyed. This book, however, makes such subjects fun (with charts and diagrams even! )

Quite possibly the wildest part of this book is how they describe collision detection. Most books usually mention collision detection in association with sprite classes. This book, however, mentions it in the pool game example. In what is quite possibly the most math I have ever seen in a computer book, they use a function of time to compute the balls position.

Chapter five presents the sliding blocks puzzle, and a discussion on how to use images with applets. Pretty standard fare. The sixth chapter discusses the AWT in more detail with a blackjack example. There is a lot of information in this chapter, ranging from using a single image for graphics to differences between browser layouts.

I haven't read much past these chapters (the book just came out). The rest of the book looks just as interesting, though. Chapter 7 discusses 2D environments and has a Maze generating example. Sprites come into play in Chapter 8, with a action game. Animations, timelines, and sounds are covered in chapter 9. Chapter 10 does the obligatory 3D maze, and Chapter 11 is on how to texture the 3D worlds. I've seen better discussions on imaging than what's in chapter 12's "Advanced Imaging" (Read Kick Ass Java if you can find it), but the chapter does a good job explaining the basics.

The last three chapters are what really set this book apart from the rest. Each dummies book has a top ten list relating to the topic. This book has three such lists: Ten Secrets to making fun games, Ten Ways to Say 'Game Over', and "Ten Ways to Optimize your Java Code". Each of these lists bring up points many programmers miss in their game programming.

I recommend this book for anyone with experience in Java looking for a way to make a Java game. There is a lot of useful information in this book beyond the basics. The examples are well thought out, and give a broader treatment of the games Java is capable of. The examples also seem robust, and are all JDK 1.1.5 compatible (Most of the other books I've read are not JDK 1.1 compatible). Hopefully the authors will put some networked games in a future edition (or in a "More Java Game Programming for Dummies" book). Purchase it at Amazon.com.