Thread: How much knowledge should I have to create a 2d game

Hi again

I'm thinking about making a little game like Pong or Space Invaders and was wondering what knowledge I should specifically have. I have an understanding of a lot of the core aspects and some Swing. My guess would be I would need to learn about animation(repainting?), threads, drawing graphics to the screen and things like key listeners etc.

If anyone has any tips or advice I would really appreciate it. I think a project like this could improve my overall skills, teach me some new things and allow me to build my Java knowledge into game design, which I want as a hobby as I am interested more into desktop development long term

Hi there Sauron,
Speaking as someone with just over two years of Java experience, and all of that specialised in creating 2D games, I can safely say that to make a game you don't need much experience with java. I would imagine that what you know already is enough, with the help of Google of course. However to make a good game is something different.

My recommendation to you would be to learn how to use a graphics library, swing graphics may work but you will need a graphics library eventually so I advise jumping straight to using one. These include LibGDX, LWJGL or Slick2D and many more, if you look through the forums you will find many recommendations and suggestions of simple graphics libraries.

Now, as to the specific things you mentioned, almost all of which are handled by the graphics library, such as key listeners and rendering to screen. When I first started I was concerned that graphics libraries were a 'cheat' and not how 'real devs' do it. However I came to realise that all games use a graphics library underneath, often an open-source one such as Minecraft that used the LWJGL, which is freely available to use.

If you do want a quick summary of things to know then I can reaffirm some basics for you: data types (ints, Strings...), function creation (public static void...) and function calling, arrays and lists. Other things like threading or even defining user objects are helpful but not needed for simple games


tl;dr: You probably know enough, so throw yourself at a graphics library and get started.

Thank you for your really in depth and detailed reply I am about to download Slick2D and see how it goes and learn as I go. Thanks again!