i am pretty good in android but have not developed any games yet, and have no idea where to kick off.
I have idea of Game in my mind, but i have no idea how to convert that idea into game.
The most big problem i am finding is building UI for that, as i can build backend for the game with my logic but how to interact with games-UI that i new to me and have not done before.
Is there any tool or some kind of help by which i can easily build UI comonents for a game and use them easily in my game creation.
i had read about libgdx for android but i am not sure as using that i have to write code to display even a single point/entity.
Is there any nice, easy and fast way to develop game UI
I have done starter RnD on google but still not much clear with GameUI creation.
Any kind of guidance is appreciated.
Thanks
Aj
What kind of game is it? 2d / 3d graphics? Or just text input (like a chance game or a quiz game?)
UI could mean many things. To some people it's just the menu overlays and other interfaces, like health bars and the like. To others UI is the entire rendering field. Please clarify your terminology in this regard.
If you want to avoid as much code as possible there are libraries that can help. Is there a way you can describe your game by analogy without giving away your secrets? Then we can better assist you.
The right place to ask would be in the gamedevs section of stackexchange, other than that it is a possible duplicate of / related to https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/3401/how-do-i-get-started-making-android-games
Related
I have a simple mobile game in mind that I would really want to make, but I can't decide on how to start. I would really want to make it run on Android and iOS, but I don't know how to accomplish that. I don't really want to use a game engine like Unity, since the game I have in mind is so simple that it would really be an overkill. The only thing I really need is a canvas to draw some shapes on.
So I was thinking about making it a hybrid app with javascript and Cordova, since I already know javascript and I'm comfortable with the javascript canvas. It's also good because you don't need to re-write code for both platforms, and thus programming will be faster and easier.
Now I am wondering if this is actually a good idea. I've never made a hybrid app before, and I don't really know if it's going to perform well.
I've read that hybrid apps run slower than native apps, but is this really that big of a deal? The game really has to run smooth, since it will be a fast-paced dodger style game.
How much slower are hybrid apps in comparison to native apps, and will it be fast enough for making a very basic 2d game run smoothly? Or are there better alternatives to hybrid, that won't make me have to re-write a lot of code for iOS and Android?
Thanks in advance!
If you've never done any of it before, then you will still have to solve a couple of problems here and there. I think you are not done just by implementing a canvas part. You will still want to add some UI, maybe some ads, in-app purchases, scoreboards etc. These topics are common in game development circles and there are many 3rd party tools to help you out. If you are really serious about game development, I think it is totally worth investing some time into Unity. It will pay back in a long run.
I'm a new Android developer and I need to create an Android application which looks like Apple's App store (on both phone and tablet).
I'm a bit familiar with Native layout designer in Eclipse (ADT) and I find it really hard to design such an amazing UI.
I've searched a lot and I've found some web-based UI frameworks such as Phonegap and Chocolatechip-UI. Are these frameworks capable of designing such apps or not? Or do you suggest something else?
Thnx in advance
This question does not have a right or wrong answer. It really depends on how complex your UI is. How sleek you want it to be.
If your UI is pretty but simple and does not require very complex animations you could go for PhoneGap. however, if you have got very complex UI and want very sleek animations I suggest you use the native APIs.
This however, may change in the near future as web technology is improving really fast :)
I am looking to start writing apps for mobile devices. I know a little about this subjec, and I am proficient in both java and python. However, before jumping into creating apps I wanted to get the community's input on a question I have not yet found the answer to:
How/Where should I begin?
I understand this question is fairly general/basic for a community that focuses on solving/debugging complex programs, but if there is a recommended tutorial (or specific platform) that will help a beginner(such as myself), it would greatly reduce the frustration and amount of monotonous questions asked on this forum and others.
Regards
Coursera is offering 3 courses all using android development which started last week. That would be an excellent starting point for anyone:
https://www.coursera.org/specialization/mobilecloudcomputing/2
How/Where should I begin?
I don't know about you, but I often learn by example more than reading. You mentioned that you're proficient in java so thats a great start. After you understand the Android SDK it's really only the UI good practices you need to learn. So here's my suggestion.
Start off with something super simple. Let's say, create your own version of a calculator. Something that can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. This should be dirty, ugly, but works correctly.
After doing this, take a look at some other android calculators on the play store. Check out Simple Loan Calculator. I use this example because it offers a lot of android UI components. ViewPager, ActionBar, etc. Download this app, take a look at it, and try to mimic it. This should provide an idea on how to work with the android UI components.
What's next? After you have done these two apps you should be relatively ready to tackle your own project.
HTML apps are easy to port across multiple mobile platforms. I have set up an Android HTML template as a starting point. You can just import this project into Eclipse and take a look at that.
https://github.com/jakewp11/HTML5_Android_Template
Here is my experience for ios,
There are three things that I consider as pillars
Objective C
Memory managment
Design patterns
The first one looks obvious but I'd stress on learning concepts like protocols, categories, extensions. As a beginner I thought that learning the syntax was enough, but time and again I had to jump back to the language concepts to understand what's going.
The memory managment , the most talked and confusing subject and now since we have automatic referenc counting to make things simpler and often new Dev skips learning memory concepts (I did it). So I suggest you to have an idea what actually happens under the hood of arc " the manual memory managment"
The design patters,
When I started off , to pass data and control , what I used to do was achieve every thing through the only design patten I knew (target action) . I lack the knowledge of design patters didn't how easily I could achive better results with less code.
Some resources:
Dev.apple.com
http://www.raywenderlich.com (one of my best tutorials are here, you can find one on design patterns)
http://rypress.com/tutorials/objective-c/
And yes , the sample projects at Dev.apple are the best tutors.
I am a beginner at android app development. I have an idea of an app, but I first need to set my bearings straight. So instead of confusing you with the complexities of the app, I just want to ask a question. Obviously, I do not expect anyone to write me the entire code, instead just to guide me to the right path by indicating which methods, classes or keywords to look for.
I want to know how to create several instances of the same image. I am planning on having a toolbar with all the tools that you can select and then a workspace where you will be putting those tools. Ever played a tower defense games, you know how you have a toolbar with selection of towers to choose from and then you simply drag and drop them on the map? something like that. Please also guide me on which layout would best suit this type of application.
I understand the question is too broad, but any kind of help to get me started would immensely help.
For a game, you don't want to use native View objects. Here's a guide on Android game development.
Here is a simple example of a Sprite based game for Android.
I personally think that you are going the wrong way here. Just like if you wanted to build a house you wouldn't start from building the roof, first you need to get a book (I would recommend the Busy coders guide to android development) or start reading (or watching on youtube) a tutorial and just start learning to code in android. Get better at it and in some time you will understand better on what and how you can do with the platform. There are tons of stuff for you to learn before you will be able to do even simple stuff, but believe me learning android is very exciting and the feeling you get when developing an app should be what drives you forward. Hope this helps.
What considerations should one be mindful of when constructing a GLSurfaceView-centric UI?
This is for a game and the bulk of the UI will be an intro screen (start, options, about, exit) and a level selector screen. I've put a lot of time into the rendering/animation for the game using OpenGL, and I'm no graphic artist, so taking the OGL UI route seems to make sense to me. But I'm an Android novice and need some outside input. Thanks for reading.
There is nothing wrong with that, especially for a game. The only problem is that you will have to do everything yourself. Most games seem to be doing this.
Due to the ease from which one activity can start another, I would say it is worthwhile to abstract your options and level selection from the game itself. If you're unfamiliar with starting activities and/or passing information between activities, there are plently of good tutorials and examples to help. You could try the ubiquitous Notepad tutorial if you haven't already ( http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/notepad/index.html ).
The advantages of this method would be to leave your OpenGL/game Activity less cluttered, and that you would be able to use tried-and-true Android UI elements instead of building your own from scratch.