Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Java Strikes Back

The Java One conference started today. The big announcement today was the JavaFX platform. This is a set of libraries and a scripting language that will make it much easier to create Rich Internet Applications. While Java is fairly solid for server side work, Java applets have been pretty much put on the back-burner. While it has always been possible to do everything that you can do in Flash using Java, the amount of work required to accomplish the animation effects that could be done in minutes with Flash were quite high. As a result, client side Java has dwindled away. JavaFX is an attempt to reverse this trend and make Java the format for the Internet. This is open source and the alpha can be downloaded from openjfx.dev.java.net if you are interested.

As many people already know, I have been slowly transitioning over from Java to Flash so I found this news really interesting. What does this mean to Blazing Games? In the short term I will continue my work on the existing group of projects that I have announced. When I start new projects in the future, however, JavaFX may be the route I choose. That being said, it is also possible that a future project may be done in Silverlight, but anybody who knows me knows that this is a much lower probability unless cash is involved.

I am actually trying not to start on any new projects for the Blazing Games site until all the existing unfinished projects are finished. Paid work is a separate matter, so if you want to hire me to work on a project for you, let me know. At the moment the Blazing Games projects includes One of those Weeks, Coffee Quest before 4, Coffee Quest 5-6, Coffee Quest Revenge, The Dozen Days Pentalogy (which will include the sequel to Fleet), and the Ultimate Retro Project. I am probably missing a game or two in that list but as you have already figured out it will be a while before I start any new projects for the Blazing Games site.

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