jMonkeyEngine 3.0 Beginner's Guide

The building blocks of game development

Let's say you are creating something similar to Hostile Sector, basically an arena with two fighters. One is a player-controlled character, the other a hostile non-player character (NPC).

How does the computer-controlled NPC "see" where the player is? How does the enemy approach the player without stupidly bumping into walls? At first, any game concept may seem like an undertaking of real-life complexity. But when you think about it for a minute, you notice that even a complex game scene is composed of only a handful of basic actions.

• You attach 3D objects to the scene to make them appear, and detach them to make them disappear. Examples include terrains, buildings, players, enemies, cars, obstacles, traps, ...