Step 1: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love IDEs

Well that was embarassing.

After registering the blog name, and telling the internet I would, I ended up spending over a year not learning java.

Good thing no one was actually paying attention yet.

So here we are; ready to start (actually) diving in to java. Whats the first step?

The Green Footprint

Well, for the basics of game development, I thought I'd start with the wonderful (free) platform Greenfoot.

Greenfoot is a basic java setup masked by a teaching tool. It helps simplify the learning of classes, actors and drawing methods. In order to get something going quickly, this is the way to go.

So we start by downloading Greenfoot, and making sure we have a JDK - Java Development Kit - from oracle. Download and install them both, just using the default settings. I'd start with the JDK first; that way it's likely that Greenfoot's installation will take care of things like environment variables.

Once you have everything installed, you can start with the tutorial scenario if you'd like, but I will try and go over most of what it covers (as I learn it).

While I wait for those to download (acreage internet sucks), lets talk more about the plan. I plan to make a game.

The plan

I'm not going to publicly develop it (not yet, anyways), so for learning, I will be trying to clone various simple games. The first on this list is going to be a bit ambitious: an asteroids clone.

Asteroids, for those of you too young to remember (or too lazy to google it) is a game where you fly around in a fixed screen and shoot asteroids. Each time you hit an asteroid, it breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. When you clear the level of asteroids, you move on to a harder level.

On our clone, once you clear the level, you win.

I never said it would be a good clone.

So, what do we need to acomplish for an asteroid clone?

Well, we need to be able to control the ship. Move in 4 directions, change speed, and shoot. The lasers need to have a set distance and an animation.

Next we will need the asteroids. They will need to move in random directions.

Then, we need collision detection: if a laser hits an asteroid, break it down. Also (and this was not in the original, but presents a nice challenge), I would like to have the asteroids bounce off each other. So in the event of asteroid collision, the two asteroids will bouce away in the opposite direction (at 75% speed).

This is a fairly long list of goals, but makes a good challenge. Lets get started. Next blog.

(Sorry).