So, having written some Java games back in 2002 or so, I can say that Java can be an pretty decent place for writing simple 2d games. That being said, there are

So, having written some Java games back in 2002 or so, I can say that Java can be an pretty decent place for writing simple 2d games. That being said, there are lots of more interesting alternatives now that I'm not sure if Java is the way to go. It isn't a BAD choice, but if I were an indie dev, I would look at something like Torque2D or Torque3D, especially since those give you a nice set of tools as well as a way to move to iPhone and consoles. Also, if you want to get something off the ground fast, check out Corona from Ansca Mobile or even something like the LOVE 2D engine, between the two you can write your game in Lua, which is an awesome little language to write games in. There is also the option of HTML5 and JS if one were so inclined. Given that everything seems to support HTML5 and JS now, once hardware catches up in the next 2-3 years, that might be an interesting option for game dev across all platforms. Oh, and if you are going to do a 3D game, start with a good 3D engine and toolset, otherwise you'll spend all your time building an engine instead of building a game.