Friday, February 10, 2012

Android Mobile Game Development

When I first started this blog, I was most interested in creating PC games using C++ with Direct3D, part of the DirectX suite from Microsoft. After a couple projects on my own, I started working with a team of guys interested in developing for the XBox 360 (and PC) using the C# language and the XNA Game Studio engine/framework. Now that our tower defense game project is winding down, and having recently purchased a Kindle Fire, I'm considering creating an Android game I can play on the Fire.

In the past couple years I've held off on learning an engine in the interest of "knowing how things work under the hood". So I think it's definitely time to learn an engine or two. I'm not sure if Android development is the right path for me, but here's a quick collection of notes based on the article Android Game Elements and Tools to get me started. Hopefully it will help some new Android developers out there too; just be sure to check out the article if you need more detailed instructions on getting things set up.

  • Develop Java code in the Eclipse IDE.
  • The Java code will run in the Dalvik virtual machine on Android devices.
  • Learn the Android SDK at developer.android.com.
  • Set up an Android Virtual Device (AVD) to run the program in an emulator.
  • Use the AndEngine game engine.
  • Use the Java port of the Box2D physics engine. JBox2D is included in AndEngine.
  • Use free tools Inkscape and GIMP for graphics.
  • Use free tools Audacity and MuseScore for sound effects and music, respectively.

4 comments:

  1. I don't have enough knowledge about AndEngine so can we use libGDX instead of AndEngine. Can you provide me more information about AndEngine for future android game development?

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  3. Hi Marie, and thanks for your comment on this post. Sure, you can absolutely use whichever game engine you know best! AndEngine is just the particular engine I noticed in the article linked in my post. I haven't used it yet myself, but you can read more about it in that article under the section titled "AndEngine Game Engine Library". That said, I have read a lot of good things about libGDX, so if you already know that engine well I would stick with it :) Best of luck with your game projects!

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  4. This is some kind of a good idea because there will a lot of android users will be able to learn how this mobile game development could be made efficiently by using all the approach of this mobile game set up.

    Florida Game Developer | Miami Game developer

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