Android Games development

owksley · on July 25, 2014

It's a good idea to pick a game framework first, which will shorten the tutorial considerably, since the basic Android specific stuff would likely require several tutorial of its own.

I started a few months back and chose LibGDX for my first game. Although I believe LibGDX was originally developed for Android, it also runs on the Desktop and can also be ported to iOS, which is a bonus. It is designed mostly for 2D games. It's easy to use, there's a good wiki and it's actively maintained.

Here's a tutorial for getting going on a simple game with LibGDX. https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/A-simple-game

And here's a set of tutorials and videos for getting a LibGDX project all set up in the IDE of your choice: http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/documentation.html

anywherenotes · on July 25, 2014

I would second this path. I tried doing some stuff using google SDK, and did 3 games like that. then a game in Corona, and now doing one in unity3d.

The clear benefit of doing something using plain native development is you get a binary much smaller in size. However with a game engine you will spend more time on game and less on low level issues.

mattwritescode · on July 25, 2014

Just to give me options what other frameworks would you recommend? Are there any you would say to keep clear of.

meifun · on July 25, 2014

Cocos2d-x is a good game engine. Targets all mobile platforms, plus desktops and Ouya, Steam, etc. (http://cocos2d-x.org)