bookmark_borderHarvesting resources added to my Real-Time-Strategy Game

Note: Further development blogs are to be found at Indienamic

I am glad to say that the basic mechanics for harvesting resources, and thus a basic economy system, is finished. I have created a demo, this time with audio where I explain how it works + a bit behind the scenes! For Patrons I deliver an in-depth video about the source code for this feature in the coming weeks.

If you have any feedback about the video, ideas about game mechanics or questions about how this is coded… just get in touch!

Watch the video here:

bookmark_borderSlick 64 bit and Linux

Recently I wanted to run Slick on linux in a 64 bits environment. I got it working on Windows a while ago but I forgot to include natives for Linux and Mac OS X.

To get it working on Linux I simply redid the steps I did back then. I’ve tested the results on Linux and also on Windows, with success!

If you are interested, then you can grab the natives here; and the JARs from here.

(or just simply clone dune2themaker4j and get it all in one go)

bookmark_borderSlick java library and 64 bit

Note: This post offers a Windows JAR/DLL package. I have delivered a newer version, also for Linux/Mac OS X. Get them from here

A long while ago I played around with Slick. A game library for Java. It offers easy 2d graphics drawing with the speed of OpenGL (by using LJWGL). It has much more features than that as well. 

When I tried it I was running Win XP 32 bit. However, recently I was trying my code again, this time on Windows 7 64 bit, and I encountered the following error:

lwjgl.dll: Can’t load IA 32-bit .dll on a AMD 64-bit platform

I could not find a decent solution easily, but I fixed it by doing this:
Get the latest source of Slick
Download the latest LJWGL version
– Use the latest LJWGL JAR and DLL files and put them into the latest source code of Slick
– Run “ant dist” of Slick

Use the newly generated JAR of Slick and the new DLL files of LJWGL together, and you’re all set for 32 AND 64 bit!

If you just want to download everything (DLL and JAR’s), I’ve made a little archive for Windows users. It is unofficial though, no support given!. Grab it from here.

bookmark_borderUsing Slick to write 2D Java games

I have written a few games in the past. A recent example is Dune II – The Maker. I have written a platformer (in QuickBasic even..) and so forth. You may even consider RealBot a ‘game’ (although it is more a computer controlled opponent).

I haven’t really tried to write any games in Java. Although I do program in Java quite a lot these days. Especially for the web. But it seems there is (for some time now) a game library that I might try out.

The library is called Slick and when looking at its website, forum and documentation (API and get-started) it has some promise!

I have tried setting up a simple project with maven, including slick stuff, and wrote a little engine that only draws some blocks and bounces them at the borders of the screen. So far it works great.

Although writing games now is not my priority at all, I will get back to this once I have finished my thesis about Software Quality.

In the meantime, you might want to consider looking at Slick. Give it a chance!