I recently started to program some basic OpenGL stuff in Java, but OpenGL and DirectX is too much to handle and to understand for me and I'm getting bored really fast.
Now I am wondering if there are other possibilities than OpenGL (or DirectX) to make simple 2D graphics and to get started in Game Development, even if its limited. I will probably use OpenGL anyway when I am more experienced.
There is also the library Slick which provides the most common features for developing 2D games (images, animations, sounds, gameloop...). It has the advantage over the Java 2D library to be more specific to video games as it includes collisions checking and a physics engine.
Of course! Java has a built in Java 2D library which requires no OpenGL or DirectX knowledge, and I highly recommend starting with it! In fact, it has pretty okay performance.
The essential starting point is to define your own class which extends Frame (or Applet), and then override the paint(Graphics g) method and use g to draw to the screen.
Why don't you simply use Swing or Awt for a start (for 2D)? If you correclty design your game (I mean, a well though MVC design), you will be able to upgrage your game with a better game display engine later. The main goal, if you're working alone, is to quickly achieve to have something displayed on the screen, is'nt it ? It boosts your enthusiasm ...
Not exactly intended for games, but Processing is quite popular for 2D canvas graphics, it might be interesting to check.
Try basic canvas libraries if you are looking to develop just 2D games. I actually learn't to use 2D canvas by building a game on it right about the time this question was posted :) Now I am graduating to webGL.