Help with simple java game/image drawing

[Nighthawk0973]

I can't get the string to draw. Right now it's just a textbased game with g.drawString that's supposed to play an animation. There's plenty of comments to explain my thinking if you're confused by my code, here can anybody get this to work?

//A Basic TextBasedGame
//Nights Little Learning Experience XD
//TextBasedGame.java - The one and only class
//Can nighthawk get the image to draw this time (cross fingers for yes!)

//import javax.swing for guis and java.awt for painting...
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;

public class TextBasedGame extends JFrame implements Runnable{ //create main class & extends JFrame
	
	//Base Variables Creation, values defined in constructor
	int x;
	int y;
	String spaceship;
	boolean gameRunning = true; //Must be true right away
	Thread gameFlow = new Thread(this); //Thread for timer
	
	public TextBasedGame(){ //default constructor, used for GUI setup and var init..
		
		setTitle("Text Based Game - By Night");
		setSize(800, 600);
		setLocation(110, 50);
		setResizable(false);
		setVisible(true);
		setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		//This combo sets a GUI in the middle and makes it visible and not resizable
		x = 25;
		y = 25;
		spaceship = "<-*->";
		//Creates our basic spaceship and it's x and y values
		gameFlow.start();
		//starts our gameFlow Thread
	}
	
	public void paint(Graphics g){ //paint method
		
		super.paint(g);
		g.drawString(spaceship, x, y); //paints spaceship
	}
	
	public void updateGame(){ //update game method will update the games progress/values for painting
		
		x++; //this time it simply increases x for an animation
	}
	
	public void run(){ //run method
		
		while(gameRunning){ //tests if game is running...
			
			updateGame(); //runs updateGame method
			repaint(); //calls repaint
			try{ 
				
				gameFlow.sleep(30); //thread sleep
			}catch(Exception e){
				
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, e); //throws exception
			}
		}
	}
	
	public static void main(String[] beans){ //main method
		
		TextBasedGame TBG = new TextBasedGame(); //calls constructor
	}
}

[eRaaaa]

y = 25; <- maybe thats too small? Try y = 50;

[Nighthawk0973]

nope. Still nothing. Thanks for trying.

[eRaaaa]

y = 200; ?? :D

Debugg your code...write System.outs in the paint method, in loops and so on...
Normally in swing programs you have to override paintComponent of jpanel (or similar) and add it to your frame instead of override the paint method of your frame class and call repaint on that jpanel

[KevinWorkman]

What is the value of x? I see you're incrementing it but never bounds checking it. Are you sure it doesn't go off the edge of the screen?

[jammas615]

Apart from anything else, you have only given your string: 'spaceship' a name because when you draw it, you are currently just drawing an empty string to the screen. You need to actually give it a value and initialize it.
Try changing:

String spaceship;

to:

String spaceship = "spaceship";

You also should be drawing on a JPanel not directly to the JFrame. You must create a JPanel and add it to the JFrame.
Try this: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tu...nts/panel.html