I have been programming in Java for a while, I understand abstract classes, interfaces, polymorphism, recursion, etc. I want to get into game development with Java because I believe it will be fun to do and will keep my drive for this hobby going. Are there any resources that you guys will vouch for that explain (thoroughly) the methods used while programming a game?
I have a small bit ive read
http://www.gameprogramminggems.com/ (all of those books)
This gives some great ideas. Also I would hit the stack.. every game dev on stack has read these
great book
Id go read these if you want to read books.. :D
heres a good list
Are you looking for general information about game programming(collision detection, ai, structure of game engines, entity management, and so on) or are you looking for a quick first start with java game programming(getting into a specific engine/getting something done)?
If you are looking for the more general stuff the books posted by R00tz31820 are good ones.
If you just want to finally build your fist game in java have a look at a engine and the docs of the engine first. A good one that I would recommend is libgdx(http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/). They also have great docs to get started first & there are even books for it(http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/documentation.html).
This is also note worthy to check out. There's descriptions out of the most popular design patterns used in game development. http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/