Java Game Developer

Just to get something straight; by "portal", I mean a website that frequently publishes a certain type of games, has a blog, some articles, maybe some tutorials and so on. All of these things are not required (except the game publishing part, of course), for example, I consider Miniclip to be a flash game portal. The reason for defining this term is because I'm not sure if other people use it in this context.

I recently (less than a year ago) got into HTML5 game development, nothing serious, just my own small projects that I didn't really show to a lot of people, and that certainly didn't end up somewhere on the web (although, I am planning to make a website for my next game). I am interested in the existence of an online portal where indie devs (or non-indie ones, doesn't really matter that much) can publish their own games, sort of like "by devs for devs", also a place where you can find some simple tutorials on basic HTML5 game development and so on... I doubt something like this exists for several reasons:

☛ You can't really commercialize an HTML5 game without a strong server-side and micro transactions

☛ The code can be easily copied

☛ HTML5 is simply new, and things need time to get their own portals somewhere...

Static is a commonly used keyword, which is associated with variables, methods and nested classes in java. The real use of the keyword is for memory management of these constructs, as detailed next.

1)Static variables in java

When a variable is created as static in Java, it gets memory allocated to it only once, and that too when the class in which it is declared gets loaded. This is the reason why these variables are used to declare properties of other variables which are shared amongst them and do not change.

2)Static methods in java

Methods in java can also be declared as static, and as such, these are then connected to the entire class, without being limited to any single object of the class. Invocation of such a method declared as static does not require the instance of the class and these methods can work on the static data of the class and can even make updates to the value of static constants and variables.

This is also the reason why the main function in java is by default static and hence no object is required to invoke it and this leads to a better memory management.

It really varies from shop to shop and even project to project as shops refine their own particular job descriptions and organization.

In general if there is a game director listed this position would be involved with creative decisions and communicating them to the team while the game producer would be more involved with schedule and business decisions and dealing with investors / publishers. In some shops what they call a producer is also driving creative direction and works close with the discipline leads on creative decisions much like a game director. In other shops the game design lead is effectively the game director.

Sometimes the design lead and producer attempt to split the duties of a game director, often with mixed results.

☛ JVM: JVM stands for ‘Java Virtual Machine’ is an abstraction for a machine in Java. This is the necessary abstraction environment necessary for the Java bytecode to be executed in. A runtime instance of the virtual machine is incepted whenever the java command is executed on the command prompt.

☛ JRE or ‘JAVA Run-time Environment’ is the very environment, which implements the JVM by providing class files and libraries it uses to run the bytecode at runtime. In essence, this is a software instance of the JVM, which unlike the JVM has a physical existence.

☛ JDK is the superset here, which engulfs and contains JRE and is really a framework where compilation and documentation of Java programs are performed into packages.

Yes, C++ is the language used most often (though some people do still use C).

There are numerous reasons for this. Sheer momentum is one - it's simply the language that has been used for years, a lot of tech already exists and people are comfortable with it, so changing is not going to happen overnight.

Then there is the issue of control. Game developers are control freaks, and we like to know everything that is going on in our code. C++ gives us that control, C# and Java (to pick on the two alternatives you mention) take control away. In many ways that might be a good thing, but game coders don't like it :) Finally there's the simple practical issue that the SDKs for various platforms are very C++ centric. Using another language inevitably involves writing wrappers, cross-compiling down to VMs, and possibly (in the case of some console development) it's not allowed by the platform holder (they really don't like people doing JIT compiling, for a start).

Yes it is, check this list for a proof. Those are some games made with Java using The Lightweight Java Game Library (LWJGL). It is a low-level framework, which provides OpenGL for high quality graphics and OpenAL for sounds. It also provides input API. With these you can quite easily get started to serious game development in Java.

I am currently writing my second 3D game as a hobby project in Java, and I just love it. In the past I used to write my games with C++, but after switching to Java there is no going back. Supporting multiple operating systems with Java can be very easy, for example my previous Java game, which I developed in Windows for a year, worked in Linux right away and in OS X with only one bug without any need to compile anything on those platforms.

On the other hand, with Java you have couple of problems.

☛ Garbage collector. As others have stated, non-deterministic memory management is a problem, and you need to code that in mind.

☛ Lack of 3rd party libraries. Most of the available libraries do not support Java. On the other hand you always have the option to call these native libraries from Java also, but it's more work to do so. There are also Java ports or ready-made wrappers available for popular libraries, for example I'm using JBullet - Java port of Bullet Physics Library. On the other hand Java has a huge class library built-in, which reduces the need for third party libraries that are not game related. The lack of libraries has not been a problem for me, but I can imagine that it can be for others.

☛ Java is not supported by popular game consoles and there is no easy switch to those from Java as far as I know. On the other hand Android, which is a popular mobile platform, uses some form of Java. This is an option also, but don't except the same Java code to work both on a PC and Android device.

☛ Smaller community. Most game programmers use C++ and in my experience often dislike Java. Don't expect to get as much help from others. Don't expect to get a job in game development without C++ skills.