Making Your First Game in Java

Source code for a video game project tutorial on the Learn Code By Gaming YouTube channel.

Watch it here: COMING SOON

Project Ideas

Beginner

• Change the colors that are being used.
• Change the image files that are being used.
• Change how many points you get per coin.
• Make instance or class variables to control hardcoded values like the ones just mentioned.
• Use WASD instead of arrows for movement.
• Change the dimensions of the game board.
• Make a new coin appear whenever the player picks one up.
• Change the tile size.
  • Remember to update your image files, or scale the images.

Intermediate

• Make coins disappear after some time.
  • By ticks, or using a separate timer, or after the player has moved so many squares.
• Make more coins appear at random intervals.
• Replace the checkered background with an image.
• Player and Coin share a lot of commonalities. Create a parent class that both of these classes extend from to reduce code duplication.
• Make a special coin that looks different and is worth more points.
• End or restart the game when all coins are collected, or when a certain score is reached.
• Decide what winning means, then redraw the whole canvas with a celebration graphic when you win the game.
• Add a game clock.
  • Could count up or down.
  • Could replace the score or be in addition to the score.
  • Display it like the score.
• Keep track of high scores.
  • In a single play session.
  • Or across all sessions by reading/writing to a file.
• Allow the player to wrap around the edges of the board.

Advanced

• Add obstacles to block player movement.
• Add an object type that reduces your score when touched. Or maybe it ends the game.
• Make an object type that moves around on its own. Could be like the ghosts from pacman.
• Add sounds.
  • When a player moves, or picks up coins.
  • A constant sound track.
  • A sound that plays when you first open the game.
• Implement delta movements to only allow players to move one tile per tick.
  • Can play around with the tick rate when developing this.
  • React to both pressed and released.
  • Can enable diagonal movements.
  • Fixes the issue caused by holding down a key, and makes for a more responsive experience.
• Make the total game area larger than the portion of that grid we see in the game window.
  • So maybe the viewport moves as the player approaches an edge.
  • Or maybe the player stays in the middle and the whole viewport moves with the player whenever the player moves.
• Think about other keyboard keys that might perform some other action.
  • Can be as simple as changing some colors in the game.
  • Or maybe you've got health potions to restore player health.
• Add more scoreboard/HUD elements.
  • Maybe move this off of the game board itself, to some designated area on the canvas. I recommend still using just the single JPanel if you want to do this.
• Eliminate the grid concept altogether and use pixel positions instead.

Expert

To dive even deeper into developing your Java 2D game, I recommend checking out this series of tutorials for guidance and inspiration: https://zetcode.com/javagames/