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Exporting it as a .bat would be much more complicated, and would be less portable since it only works on Windows.

Many people will already have the Java runtime environment (JRE) installed from using Minecraft, and if not it is extremely easy to install.

I believe maven is a common tool for bundling Java projects (as well as referencing dependencies).

I hope I’ve helped!

I also updated my comment with some advice… If you follow that, then you do not need to distribute the entire source code of the game. You can distribute only the .jar file, and put some basic instructions in the project description (like the command that should be used to run the game)

Unfortunately, attempting to guess the encoding of a phrase is not possible. Even after looking at the source code, inputting the correct phrase would only reveal the first letter.

Following all of the instructions gave an error when trying to run the program.

I would recommend you build your game as a .jar file, since it makes it much easier for users to use. In fact, the user wouldn’t need to have any special developer tools or libraries installed. As long as they have the Java runtime installed, the game would work.