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I am new to game development. I am interested in developing 2D games for the Android platform. What is the best place to start with (i.e) What are the basics and how to proceed? I already have programming experience in Java but don't have any experience with graphics or animation.

Andrew Russell
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Ragunath Jawahar
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  • Please make your question (title) slightly more descriptive. – Ricket Aug 31 '10 at 12:59
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    Do you have experience with Android? – Jesse Dorsey Aug 31 '10 at 13:03
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    @Ricket or we could do it for him :) – Andrew Russell Aug 31 '10 at 13:03
  • I am curious on whether OpenGL, while faster, drains more battery than regular 2D using surface view or whatever other method. Does anyone know an answer? – M Rajoy Apr 30 '12 at 14:43
  • You'll have to pick one game engine and one game idea to get your hands dirty. AndEngine seems to be a nice fit for 2D games and Flappy Bird is the new 'Hello World' in game development. Check out this tutorial on Flappy Bird in Android using AndEngine. Cheers! – appsroxcom Sep 08 '14 at 17:46
  • @appsroxcom I did pick up AndEngine and made a few games last year. And I now prefer Gideros, it makes life easier when developing x-platform games. – Ragunath Jawahar Sep 09 '14 at 12:50
  • Hi @RagunathJawahar, according to your profile, you've continued to develop your android skills after that post, now I'm at the same stage with your this current question :) I wonder, as a conclusion, how did you give it a start? What was your first step? – Mertinc Jun 05 '17 at 00:26
  • @Mertinc I am into Android app development these days. I did use a couple of frameworks back then - Gideros and AndEngine. But I see that that landscape has changed drastically these days. You may have to do some research and find the one that works best for you. If I were to pick a game engine today I would definitely pick the one with cross platform capabilities. – Ragunath Jawahar Jun 10 '17 at 06:27

7 Answers7

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Android might not be the best choice for starting game development because you would be learning several different things at the same time (Android SDK, making games, optimization, different phone models, etc.). Consider making some simple Java games on your computer to get familiar with making games in general; this tutorial looks like a good place to start.

Once you're comfortable with both Java and game development, start with the Android tutorials. The development guide is very useful, in particular you need to know Android fundamentals and activity life cycle, as well as graphics. Get the Android samples and check out the Lunar Lander and Snake game samples (there's also JetBoy, but that's focused on the JetPlayer).

The canvas class is actually good enough for most 2D games, but if you need better performance or want to move to 3D graphics later you will have to learn OpenGL ES. However, this is beyond the scope of getting started (unless you already know OpenGL).

Mark Rogers
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Firas Assaad
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  • Exactly what I was looking for. Thanx @Firas Assaad – Ragunath Jawahar Aug 31 '10 at 15:14
  • Another good resource is the book Hello, Android which explores making a Sudoku game over several chapters, including drawing using canvas and handling user input. There's also a chapter on 3D graphics that builds a textured rotating cube. – Firas Assaad Aug 31 '10 at 19:27
  • I have just moved from BlackBerry to Android game dev and I want to throw my hat in with Firas: the Canvas class offers more than enough performance for a 2D game. There is no need to add the extra complexity of OpenGL when you start. – ADB Sep 04 '10 at 12:25
  • I agree with this answer, but Android isn't the worse place to get started! My very first programming project was a comic book viewer. Then, I made a puzzle game, and now I'm making a 2D game with OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics. I've learned on one heck of a curve, but in the last 9 months, Android has helped me get a good foundation in Java, SQLite, and OpenGL along with a great start with OOP and game development concepts. I could have done worse than learning how to program with Android. – Amplify91 May 30 '11 at 19:51
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There are lots of results at Stack Overflow for android game. Lucky for you, I went through all of them and picked out the relevant ones to your question.

Sagar Devkota
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Ricket
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If you're already familiar with Android and doing basic UI applications with it, then you'll want to take a look at this multi-part tutorial that explains drawing graphics to an Android screen.

Bryan Denny
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All of these are really good answer. But I am a little surprised that no one has mentioned jMonkeyEngine yet.

Its java, its shader based, its super easy to begin with, very good documentation, awesome community, fast bug fixes, comes with a game development enviroment(jMP based on NetBeans platform) & its evolving very very fast.

I would emphasis more on it because, game development and making a library that someone will be using to make a game is quite different. So, if you want to make a game not a game engine, just jump right in jMonkey Engine with your eyes closed. :)

Quazi Irfan
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  • I did a quick google search about jMonkeyEngine and Android. I presumed that as Android uses it's own Java interpreter that jMonkeyEngine wouldn't work on it.

    It's still Java though, so maybe they would have made a port.

    In any event, a minute of research implies that it's a work in progress.

     – xuincherguixe Jul 28 '12 at 01:00
  • jME works on android, there are several projects on the store. I suggest you, posting in their forum for technical specifications. – Quazi Irfan Jul 28 '12 at 01:22
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Processing.org is another good place to start for (somewhat simplified) coding/development before diving into the Android SDK. It works on Max/Windows/Linux and has a version developed specifically for Android deployment. I highly recommend it - as long as you have an Android phone you can deploy games/apps to your phone that you make with that version of Processing. Hope it helps.

gary
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I am also new to android game development, and I find the open source game engine AndEngine a pretty good tool to start with. It's got a bunch of examples and a fairly active community.

http://www.andengine.org/

Casla
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I strongly recommend the Airplay SDK as it works on windows and deploys to most smart phones. They also have a great Indie license.

Kimau
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