Preface

The overall goal of this book is to provide you with an extensive toolbox of hands-on development tips for jMonkeyEngine that will help you be well prepared for a wide range of projects.

The recipes are written from a practical point of view, and I strived to make sure that each recipe has an outcome that can be used directly in a game. An exception to this is Chapter 7, Networking with SpiderMonkey, where we will start from the absolute ground level and work ourselves upwards. Chapter 1, SDK Game Development Hub, also stands out as it contains a few more general tips applicable to development in general.

Due to the variation in game projects, another principle has been used to create recipes that have a wide usage potential. Some of the more advanced recipes are exceptions to this rule. They have a more narrow use but contain techniques that can be applied to other implementations. FPS, RTS, and RPG games will be explored in many of the recipes. Naturally, within these genres, games differ widely as well, but hopefully you will find that the examples can be used in your game project with a minimum amount of modification.

In general, I hope that this book will provide you with many tips on how to overcome common hurdles in game projects so that you can focus on the creative parts that make your game stand out.