E10106
Games Development in Java - project
Michael David Smith
ID: 018800009289
Introduction to games
What is a game?
A game is a form of media, that can tell a story, similar to movies and books but with one difference... It is interactive! A game not only allows the creator to share their ideas and create a story but it also allows the user/player to create their own experiences and in many cases create and explore the story they want to explore.
The best game to use as an explanation of this would be the ‘Fallout’ series and in more specifics, ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘Fallout: New Vegas’. Set in a future post apocalyptic wasteland after a shot tutorial styled section in ‘The vault’ the player is set free in the vast open world with only a main objective ,to track down your father character and find out why he left the vault, in addition to this main objective the player can just roam around in the wastelands of Washington D.C 2277 and participate in hundreds of side missions and side quests and create and craft an entirely different game to one that may have been experienced by their friend. This, in my opinion, is what sets the media of gaming apart from other media used to invoke emotions and tell a story such as movies, books and art.
On the other hand, games that wish to tell a story can do so not through a vast expansive world but through the option of ‘moral’ choices, a game using moral choices will most likely have 2 set story lines one if you choose the good/moral choice and another if you choose the evil/immoral choices. It is not uncommon to have games that include both of these options though as the previously mentioned Fallout series does include both. One game that does a good job of including a good moral choice system is InFamous and its sequel, InFamous 2 which refined it’s choice system immensely. In the InFamous series while there are side missions you can undertake it is not of the calibre of Fallout and the side missions have little to no effect on the outcome of the storyline, but can you can undertake side missions and small bonus objectives throughout the game world that can alter your moral karma, to either good or evil, achieving a higher level of good or evil through repeated missions unlocks new powers and bonuses that correlate with the choices you have made.
With both of these methods a game can tell an interesting an engrossing story while keeping the player entertained, however, there are many different types of games instead of telling a story. Many other types of games exist. There are games that test your mental capability with puzzles, games that test your reactions and games that test your development of strategy.
All of this combined makes games one of this best media devices to share stories and puzzles with a wide audience.
Introduction to Java
Explain why people use Java to write games
Java is used to write games because it has a simple integration into the java applet and allows easy usage of both the mouse and the keyboard in the applet.
Java itself is a very simple language and its very familiar because it is based off of C/C++ and uses very similar syntax, it is also very portable and includes an automatic memory management system. Because it is very similar and has simple integration with the java applet java is used quite often to write games as it is both simple and familiar to C++ users while having the benefits of a simple integrated applet
Introduction to my game
The name of the game
My game is called “three-in-one” and is a tic-tac-toe based game.
Explanation of how the game is played
The object of the game is to get three squares in a row while not allowing the other player to get three in a row themselves.
Source Code and comments import java.awt.*; import java.awt.event.*; import java.applet.*; import java.util.*; public class gametest extends Applet implements MouseListener
{
int x; // Sets an integer to use for the X co-ordinate
