We have five people in a software engineering class in college. We would like to build some kind of 3D space shooter game.We all have somewhat moderate java experience. We have three months to create the project.
Do you think this is feasible. If so , where do we start?
Thanks for the help.
It is doable as long as your expectations are realistic.
I would take a look at the flag rush tutorials, and have a good look at the tests in the jmetest package.
Also take a look at Stardust.
Get a clear idea of what the finished (or "finished enough") game will look like.
Decide if you want to use the JME Physics API or do that side of things manually.
Research some of the UI options, possibly have one person take that on.
Figure out where you are getting your models from, what you will need. Play around with the relevant loaders.
Then just dive in, load up some models and get them under keyboard control and you should start getting a good feel for what needs to be done.
Really if you have a well thought out design, then you will get a long way just using the fundamentals of JME and your own Java code. Often people get stuck on a detail of the engine by trying to fly before they can walk. If you start with good design and the basics then you can start producing useable code quite quickly, and as you need more advanced stuff chances are you will already have come across it.
Yep make sure to check out stardust source and thread.
Me and a friend also had about 3 months (part time) to make a little project.
We had almost no experience with Game programming and were new to jME.
Still we made a little ‘Fly around and shoot the asteroids’ kind of game.
Don’t try to implement too many features from the beginning, create a small prototype and extend it with functionality as time permits.
Ya it is definitely possible… I did a software engineering project with 4 other people using jME last semester and we didn’t have any jME experience when we started. We created a minigolf style game using basic 3D models and the jME Physics api. I would suggest checking out www.sharecg.com for some free models and textures.
Like Core-Dump said, don’t try to implement too many features, that was our biggest mistake (our final game ended up more as a simulation because we couldn’t get the scoring system done in time!).
Here’s the exe of our finished project: Link
You can tell we ran out of time, but we got the basic functionality to work.
I gotta tweak the source but I plan on posting it sooner or later… Good luck!!