While doing more research for LWJGL resources, I came across the Slick 2D game programming library for the Java language created by Kevin Glass. Bolted onto the Lightweight Java Gaming Library, Slick offers a very real solution to RAD game development. I mean, not only does LWJGL provide a fast path to game programming, but tack on a quality sprite manipulation library (among other things) and you’re in business.

Licensed under the popular BSD license, here’s a blurb on its feature list:

Current Features

* Images
o Image Loading (PNG, GIF, JPG, TGA)
o Image Transforms
o SpriteSheet handling
o Animated Images
o Programmatic image generation
o Rendering through OpenGL
* Fonts
o AngelCode font with kerning support
* Sounds
o WAV,OGG,XM support
o Music playback and looping
o Sound Effect playback
* Input
o Keyboard and Mouse event system
o Controller event system
* TileMap Support
o TilED Tile Map Loading
o Tile Map rendering
* Graphics and Geometry
o Java2D like graphics context
o Support for drawing and filling primitives
o Geometry primtives for collision