Java +Game development

[Duran Harris]

Assuming that I pass SCJP I'd like to move onto one of the specialized certifications ie.SCBCD,SCWCD,SCJD etc..
but I'm really interested in game development.
I cant see how EJB or servlets are going to help me design basic games.
Should I go for SCJD?
Are there no other exams that cross-over with Java and game dev or Java 3D?(Even non-Sun ones)
I study much better when there is a prescribed sylabbus...
Or would I just be better off focusing on my career for now and getting into game dev once I am a more experienced programmer??

[Punit Singh]

It depends on which type of game you want to develop, if you like desktop games than you should read swing apis, if you wanna web games than you should go for scwcd first.

[Himanshu Gupta]

Punit Singh wrote:It depends on which type of game you want to develop, if you like desktop games than you should read swing apis, if you wanna web games than you should go for scwcd first.

Why SCWCD is needed for writing a web game? I think that you are pointing towards possessing a fair knowledge of J2EE. am I right?

[Punit Singh]

Actually Duran is asking for which certification he should go for SCJD or SCWCD. Again if he want to build web games than SCWCD will give him help, as web game requires J2EE. Am I wrong?

[Himanshu Gupta]

Not at all.

[Duran Harris]

The SCWCD syllabbus doesn't teach any Swing/GUI components...only the servlets/controllers.
I'm more interested in the desktop game thing..

[Ivan Lazarte]

I'm not sure certification is the best path to that. Have you considered picking up a copy of "Killer Java Game Development" ?

http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Game-Programming-Andrew-Davison/dp/0596007302

I think a new edition is coming out soon.

You also might want to poke around JMonkeyEngine forums (a 3d java game engine) , javagaming.org (java indie games forum), and lwjgl.org (a low-level gaming library) which are a few of the places javaheads tinker and talk about games actively.

I'm also trying to do a little java game learning in my not-so-available spare time...

[Duran Harris]

Actually I have read a bit of that.I downloaded an illegal copy a while back..Will probably buy the book sometime in the future.I'm first getting a good swing book to assist with the SCJD.But now I'm wondering,the Killer Game Programming mentioned applets,full-screen-exclusive-windowed mode and Java3D....
Would the Swing knowledge not assist me in understanding the book at all??

[Gavin Tranter]

I am not sure swing would be in anyway helpful to writing a game. It is not exactly light weight and it is (or was) a pain to change the graphics of the various elements (buttons etc).

The Java Killer game progamming book, seemed very good and probably has a section on game ui's.

If i was designing a game right now, I would look towards either a custom ui set using Java2D/3D or maybe JavaFx.

[Brian Legg]

For gaming I would stay clear of Swing, like Gaving said, it's to heavy weight (Not in features and complexity but in overhead and resource hogging). I have no idea what certification you would get to also do desktop gaming but if you have a passion for it and want to learn it then start with AWT, then learn basics on state engine design (great for games), Java3D, and then maybe some of the freeware addons out there like LWJGL (Lightweight Java Game Library). I'm sure you'll get a million other suggestions but that's the path I would have taken if I could go back in time and learn it all over again the right way. :P

GL!

[Mark Mistry]

Hi, I write java games for the desktop and applet enviroment. You dont need to pass an exam to start writing java games you learn by practice.
I started of with the GTGE api and built up my knowledge from writing code with that framework, hope this helps.