hexworks/zircon.skeleton.java

Skeleton project to be used for developing Java games with Zircon.

Zircon Java Skeleton Project

This is a skeleton project for Zircon users to help get started with Zircon.

Getting started

This project works on all platforms but there are some prerequisites which must be installed before you can start coding.

1. Git. (optional) Git is a version control system. If you use GitHub you are already familiar with it. You don't need extensive Git knowledge to work with this project, but you need to install Git on your system if you want to clone / fork this project. You can get it here. Alternatively you can download the zip / tarball from the Releases page.
2. Java This project uses Java, so you must install a Java JDK to get started. We suggest OpenJDK but any other JDK will do. Java 8 or above is recommended.

That's all!

Setting up

In order to set up a local dev environment on your computer you need to follow these steps:

Check the project out. (optional)

If you want to use Git to clone the project you need to navigate to a folder where you want to check the project out in a terminal and type the following command:

git clone https://github.com/Hexworks/zircon.skeleton.java.git

Alternatively you can just download and extract the latest release form the Releases page.

Import the project to your IDE.

It is highly recommended to use IntelliJ IDEA for this project. You can get the free community version from this page. You don't need to buy the Ultimate version, the Community Edition is perfectly fine.

Importing the project is pretty simple. When IDEA is started you need to

1. Click Import Project
2. Select the directory where your project resides (the project directory itself)
3. In the following dialog select Gradle:
4. Then select "Use auto import" and also a JDK as seen here: Note that you'll need to tell IDEA about where your JDK is because it will probably not detect your installation. More info about getting started with IDEA can be found here
5. You are ready to go!

Notes about Gradle

Note that a Maven pom.xml file is also supplied for those who would want to use Maven instead.

This project uses the Gradle build tool. You don't need to be a Gradle expert to get started with the project. Gradle is bundled to this project and can be invoked by running the gradlew script.

For Windows users it is recommended to use Git Bash to run it.

This means that you don't need to install anything, everything is in place to get you started.

In order to build your project you'll need to run the following command in your project directory:

./gradlew clean build

If you get a permission denied error you'll need to add execution permissions to gradlew this way: chmod +x gradlew

Running this command will create an artifact in the build/libs directory which contains a Main class so you can run your project right away by typing this command:

java -jar build/libs/zircon.skeleton.java-1.2.0.jar

You'll be presented by a new window with a greeting:

Congratulations! You just run your first Zircon program!

Development resources

• To get started with Zircon you can check the Zircon Project Page on our website here
• If you get stuck with Zircon feel free to come up to our Discord channel where you can ask us and other Zircon users
• The Roguelikedev Subreddit is also a good source of information
• To learn about Gradle check out their official documentation page here
• If you want to get acquainted with the testing tools used in this project check out the docs of AssertJ
• If nothing helps or if you think that there is a bug in this project feel free to open a new issue here.