diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 296a4f01..79d2be71 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -43,8 +43,23 @@
             <artifactId>freemarker</artifactId>
             <version>2.3.26-incubating</version>
         </dependency>
+
+        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.logging.log4j/log4j-slf4j-impl -->
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
+            <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
+            <version>1.1.7</version>
+        </dependency>
+
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>commons-cli</groupId>
+            <artifactId>commons-cli</artifactId>
+            <version>1.4</version>
+        </dependency>
+
     </dependencies>
 
+
     <build>
         <plugins>
             <plugin>
diff --git a/src/main/java/seng302/App.java b/src/main/java/seng302/App.java
index dbf6a807..c3b85e64 100644
--- a/src/main/java/seng302/App.java
+++ b/src/main/java/seng302/App.java
@@ -1,14 +1,66 @@
 package seng302;
 
+import ch.qos.logback.classic.Level;
 import javafx.application.Application;
 import javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader;
 import javafx.scene.Parent;
 import javafx.scene.Scene;
 import javafx.scene.image.Image;
 import javafx.stage.Stage;
+import org.apache.commons.cli.*;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import seng302.client.ClientPacketParser;
+import seng302.client.ClientState;
+import seng302.models.PolarTable;
 import seng302.model.PolarTable;
 
 public class App extends Application {
+    private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(App.class);
+
+    public static void parseArgs(String[] args) throws ParseException {
+        Options options = new Options();
+        CommandLineParser parser = new DefaultParser();
+        CommandLine cmd;
+
+        ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger rootLogger = (ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger) LoggerFactory.getLogger(Logger.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME);
+
+        options.addOption("debugLevel", true, "Set the application debug level");
+
+        cmd = parser.parse(options, args);
+
+        if (cmd.hasOption("debugLevel")){
+
+            switch (cmd.getOptionValue("debugLevel")){
+                case "DEBUG":
+                    rootLogger.setLevel(Level.DEBUG);
+                    break;
+
+                case "ALL":
+                    rootLogger.setLevel(Level.ALL);
+                    break;
+
+                case "WARNING":
+                    rootLogger.setLevel(Level.WARN);
+                    break;
+
+                case "ERROR":
+                    rootLogger.setLevel(Level.ERROR);
+                    break;
+
+                case "INFO":
+                    rootLogger.setLevel(Level.INFO);
+
+                case "TRACE":
+                    rootLogger.setLevel(Level.TRACE);
+
+                default:
+                    rootLogger.setLevel(Level.ALL);
+            }
+        } else{
+            rootLogger.setLevel(Level.WARN);
+        }
+    }
 
     @Override
     public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {
@@ -25,6 +77,7 @@ public class App extends Application {
 //        primaryStage.setMaximized(true);
 
         primaryStage.show();
+
         primaryStage.setOnCloseRequest(e -> {
 //            ClientPacketParser.appClose();
 //            ClientPacketParser.appClose();
@@ -35,6 +88,12 @@ public class App extends Application {
     }
 
     public static void main(String[] args) {
+        try {
+            parseArgs(args);
+        } catch (ParseException e) {
+            logger.error("Could not parse command line arguments");
+        }
+
         launch(args);
     }
 }