"Expresso Game Template" is expected to be a general-purpose game template, written in Java, that can be reused for developping different kinds of games such as RPG or ACT. It provides a game framework, just like the Entreprise JavaBeans providing a framework for developping reusable business components.

The Expresso Game Template uses the MVC design pattern. It divides the game framework into model, view and controller, and is expected to be able to support network game developping. The model part is in charge of the game logic; the view part is in charge of how to draw the game onto the screen according to its logical status; and the controller part is in charge of reading user's inputs. So, while developping a network game, a rich client can be created to hold the view part and the controller part, while the model part will reside at the server side. The client will read the user's inputs, encapsulize them into "controller commands", and pass them to the server; the server will update its model according to the user's inputs, generate "view commands" according to the model, and pass them back to the client. At last, the client will draw the game onto the user's screen according to the "view commands" that it receives.

The first version of "Expresso Game Template" is developped by a chinese Java developper called ZHENG Zhong (but he prefers to call himself heavyz), from 2002-10 to 2002-12, during the spare time of his internship at Sun Microsystems, iForce Ready Center Paris. Every noon, after diner, he was used to take a cup of coffee called "Expresso". That's why he calls this project "Expresso". ;-)

Now the first runnable version of "Expresso Game Template" is ready to use, and a small game "pacman" has been developped using EGT. But network has not been supported yet, and there are lots of things left to do.

This project is registered at on 2003-05-15.