There’s something special about games. The best games, the ones we remember, don’t just relieve our boredom from time to time. They teach us new things, stretch our brains, or make us feel happy, excited, and sometimes angry! Social games can even bring us closer to our friends and family. We all have games that we think of fondly, that added something to our lives. Now, with the advent of smartphones, we can carry that experience around in our pockets and purses.
I still remember when my parents hooked up our first video game, Pong, to the family television. At the time that luminescent “ball” traversing the blurry screen was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I’ve played a lot of games on a lot of platforms in the intervening years, but when my friend Philip gifted me with the first Android phone, the G1, I was skeptical that it would make a very good gaming platform. Who wants to play games by staring at a tiny screen on a device whose primary function is to make phone calls? Then again, the iPhone had by that time already proven that people were not only willing to play games on their smartphones, they were absolutely ravenous for games on their smartphones.
When the Android market launched, it took a little while to get some traction. I developed and published some of the first games on the market, when not many other developers were flocking to the platform. The G1 was a clunky, first-generation device, they said. It’ll never compete with the iPhone, they said. Open platforms are never good for gaming, they said. Well, I was able to make enough games that generated enough income to let me develop for Android full-time. And the platform has come a long way in the meantime; now Google doesn’t have a problem attracting game developers.
When I was approached to write this blog, I jumped at the chance to write about a subject that blends my two passions of gaming and programming. I’m guessing you share those passions as well, and want to make cool, compelling games. I’m going to help you make that happen.
Obviously you want to make games for Android, but you may not know where to get started. You may not even have any programming experience — if you do, great! — but I don’t make too many assumptions about your level of experience. By default, Android apps are written in Java. All the examples in this blog are also in Java, so it’s helpful, but not necessary, to have some working knowledge of Java. However, even someone with little or no experience should be able to work through this blog.
By the end, you’ll have a good understanding of Android, two complete, working and playable games, and a solid foundation for developing and publishing your own games. Along the way, I also talk a bit about how you might get more downloads and actually make money from your games. If any or all of that interests you, this blog is a great place to start.
Code examples are all in the Java programming language. Android also uses XML files to define layouts and preferences in projects. I use a monospaced font to show examples of the content that lurks in these types of files. The idea is to set the examples apart from other text; they look like this:
Java and XML are case-sensitive (it matters whether letters are capitalized), so be sure to capitalize letters in any code example from the blog exactly as you see them. If you don’t, you’ll see compile errors in Eclipse.
To develop games for Android, you need a PC running a version of either Linus, Windows, or Mac OS that meets the requirements for both the Android SDK and the Java Development Kit (JDK). Both the SDK and JDK are freely available from their respective websites, where you can find more detail about specific system requirements:
which we will be using throughout this blog. Installation of all this software is covered in this blog. As I stated earlier, a working knowledge of Java and XML are helpful, but not necessary. If you’re familiar with any high-level language and development environment, you should be fine. If not, you should still be able to work through the examples and put together workable games, but you’ll likely have a bit more of a tussle.
If you’re interested in developing for Android, you probably have an Android device, but you don’t necessarily need one. The Android SDK provides an emulator which lets you configure virtual devices to test your games without the actual hardware.
But testing playability without actual devices is not advised. Especially if you’re designing for multiple form factors, such as both phones and tablets, you’ll probably want to invest in at least a couple of test devices.
