I have a final project where I am to implement my first ever video game. I downloaded Tiled and tilesets and just finished my first map. It’s a basic 2D RPG overview map, the kinds you would see in Fire Emblem, so there’s nothing advanced like layering or collisions.
My question is can I implement my map in Java? I saw a lot of the instruction was in Javascript, which would not be allowed for my assignment, but maybe something to keep in mind for my leisure over the summer
What Java? Java on Desktop, Java on Android? Java with a specific framework like Slick2D or libgdx?
If you’re going to make a game in Java, I would personally recommend getting into libgdx. In general, if you are looking for a library that helps you with loading the map into your game, you can check out the Support for TMX maps wiki page.
Well, I have Java 8, but I think my partners only have Java 7 so that’s the compiler we’re using. JDK 7
Ok, so Java on the desktop.
Anyway my answer remains the same, unless you have reasons to implement all the low level stuff yourself (for example, for learning or flexibility purposes) I would go with an existing library like libgdx that deals with all game-related stuff including map rendering.
If you do want or need to implement it all manually, then you should read the TMX map format reference to find out how to load a Tiled map in its default format.
I like the Tiled maps because they were a quick and easy way to build maps. I believe libgdx would be allowed as long as it is in the default Java library and I’m not just importing someone else’s work. Could you tell me more about that library and what it does? It may answer all the problems I’m currently trying to figure out with sprites, animations, game grids, and toolkits
Well, libgdx is not in the default Java library. The following page describes what this library does:
damn 
Well, I’ll check it out for future reference haha
Thanks