Anansi: Chapter 1 Conclusion

We now have the answers to the initial questions:

• Can we implement a 2D vertically scrolling shoot'em'up with JavaFX?
  
  Yes, that's definitely possible.
  
• How easy is it to create a game? I prefer Rapid Application Development.
  
  I did the prototype within a few hours. I'd say given some JavaFX experience it's a very good option to create something from scratch and get a quick result.
  
• Do we need 3rd party libraries or is JavaFX sufficient?
  
  So far we use no 3rd party libraries. And I'd like to keep it this way. The less dependencies the better. Who knows, maybe we port it Android. I've read that it would be possible to run JavaFX on mobile devices. I haven't done it yet and I have no information about how these ports perform, but it's something I'll most certainly try.
  
• How does the game perform with a lot of stuff happening on the screen?
  
  The prototype performs very well with a lot of sprites being on the screen simultaneously. Of course we have to expect much more stuff happening on the screen as we code along, but from what I've seen so far to me it's a GO to continue.
  
• The amount of time to create the prototype.
  
  Creating the prototype took a few hours. We were very well below 1000 lines of code which is very good. The less code the better. I even think that creating a game like that would be a candidate for a "Creating a game in 24 hours or less" article.
  
  

I'd say we're done with the prototype and can get serious with our game. I'm looking forward to see what we'll get ... let's keep on coding! :-)