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

Welcome to the first tutorial on using the Lightweight Java Game Library created by these Java wizards.
A lot of work has gone into the library to effectively create an environment within the Java runtime capable of supporting high speed access to the display and input devices that games rely on.

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