Introduction to Programming Java with Simple Games by Brian C. Ladd

Simple Computer Games?

Programming computer games is, typically, very hard to do. Traditional approaches to CSE have either used heavyweight development toolkits, teaching students to program to the toolkit rather than the general programming language, or they have avoided most or all games.

Avoiding game design and game programming means missing out on game's obvious benefits: games engage beginning programmers, games give beginning programmers something they can show off to their friends, and both game and program design are similar tasks that can mutually reinforce one another.

Introduction to Programming Java with Simple Games is an approach and a book that applies modern research in digital game studies, video game history, and CSE to engage beginning programmers and expose them to the breadth of computer games and simulation. Simple games can be found in those written for limited hardware back in video gaming's early history.

The approach also uses FANG a new, ultra-lightweight game-building toolkit (additional information available at www.fangengine.org FANG is so light that as students progress through the book, the various classes in the toolkit are revealed, one by one, until, at the end of the book, the student has seen how the entire toolkit is programmed. Thus the student can move from programming FANG games to programming Java in the course of CS1.