introduction to android (and mobile) game development
DESCRIPTION
1-st lecture in my new course about mobile game developmentTRANSCRIPT
07: first PC 14: first Pascal game 25: developed 2D game engine 26: J2ME developer
28: Android developer
MediaPlayer Good only for background music
SoundPool OK for sound effects, no sound processing provided though
AudioTrack / AudioRecord Sound processing can be made, works on PCM data OpenMAX|AL API accessible from NDK
OpenSL Enable low level audio tweaking, accessible only from NDK
Challenge You really need to know your way around all these API to
provide great sound in your game
Framework already gives you: Rich widget toolkit Simple () event processing Powerful animation framework Reuse familiar technology
SurfaceView + Canvas: Fast drawing Rich API:
▪ Geometric Primitives ▪ Transformations ▪ Xfer Modes + Shaders
3D pipeline Allows 2D graphics too
Fastest possible solution Usually HW accelerated
The most rich visual effects Having fully programmable shaders is limited only by your
imagination Cross platform
When writing in C++ the code can be ported On Android
Every device supports OpenGL|ES 2 Full OpenGL|ES 2 JNI bindings since 2.3
Much more complex API and development that Canvas
Faster prototyping / development
No need to re-compile
Easier for non-programmers to use
Designers can script AI, conversation flows e.t.c
Separate game logic from the engine Lua is widely popular in the field Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A)
Python, Perl, Ruby, Lua
BeanShell, JavaScript, Tcl
Basic physics is simple Everyone can do classical mechanics
Collision Detection is hard Due to rounding errors of decimal numbers
Box2D – standard for 2D physics Cross-platform (C++) Rigid-body simulation Convex polygons, circles, edges Joints, forces Friction, restitution Has JNI bindings
Input devices Touch screen + sensor controls perfect for certain new genres,
but not for classic arcade experience Battery
Can be as low as 3hrs of playing Memory
Xbox One (8 GB of RAM) vs. Nexus 5 (2 GB of RAM) Much lower throughput
GPU No dedicated texture memory, usually much slower
performance due to lower memory throughput Limited Storage capacity and APK sizes
Just couple of GB of storage and 50MB APK limit (4GB with expansion files)
Graphics Physics Engine Particle Systems Sound Scripting Animation Artificial Intelligence Networking Platform Abstraction
Cross-Platform Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Java Applet,
Javascript/WebGL OpenGL ES 2.0 powered graphics High-level 2D APIs
Orthographic camera, sprite batching, texture atlases, bitmap fonts 2D Particle system 2D UI library High-Level 3D APIs
Input Handling Abstractions for mouse and touch-screen, keyboard,
accelerometer and compass Physics
JNI wrapper for Box2D, JNI Wrapper for bullet physics Lots of helper libraries
File & I/O handling Open source, and totally free!!!
Corona client and simulator is available for Mac OSX or Windows
Corona SDK Starter is completely free Corona client requires an Internet connection to build
because part of the build process happens on Corona Labs servers
Due to Apple restrictions you can only build an iOS app on a Mac
OpenGL powered 2D graphics Wrapped OpenAL audio API Box2D powered physics Particle effects Lua scripting Lots of plug-ins for monetization, ads e.t.c Not entirely free!
Crossplatform 3D and 2D engine You can choose 3D vs 2D development mode
Rendering Direct3D on windows OpenGL on all the rest
Scripting C#, JavaScript or Boo (?) Shipped with MonoDevelop
Physics Proprietary 3D physic engine Box2D for… 2D games
Powerful animation framework Mecanim IK animation
… tons of other features go to: http://unity3d.com/
Imports all the major 3D formats Automatic sprite splicing Fast asset search and management
Did not find any good on mobile game development, but there are lots of them…
Thank You