J. F. DiMarzio [J. F. DiMarzio] - Android Studio Game Development: Concepts and Design

Welcome to Android Studio Game Development. This book focuses on specific tasks in the process of game development as performed in Android Studio. In this chapter, you are going to install Android Studio and the required Java Development Kit (JDK). By the end of this chapter, you will have a functional Android Studio integrated development environment (IDE) that you can use to develop amazing Android-based games. Lets begin!

The first step you want to perform is to download and install the JDK. Because Android applicationsincluding gamesare developed in Java, Android Studio needs the JDK to run. The JDK includes many Java tools such as the compiler ( javac ), the document generator ( javadoc ), and the key tool ( keytool ).

Note Although it is true that most Android applications are developed wholly in Java, you can partially develop Android applications and games in C or C++ by using the Android Native Development Kit (NDK). This is an especially popular option with developers who want to share a common library among different buildsfor instance, in developing the same game for both Android and iPhone, you could port a single library written in a common language that both systems could interpret natively.

The JDK can be found at illustrates the JDK download page.

Select the option to download the JDK and you should be directed to the page shown in .

After you accept the license agreement, the links to download the JDK become active. At this point, you need to download only the JDK and not the Demos or Samples. As always, ensure that you download the correct version of the JDK for your system, if you are running Linux on a 32-bit Intel x86based instruction chip set, you download jdk--linux-i586.tar.gz , whereas if you are running 64-bit Windows, you download jdk--windows-x64.exe .

After you have downloaded the JDK version that is compatible with your system, run the file and install the JDK. I have had luck with simply executing the install package and accepting all defaults.

When your JDK has installed, you will need to set a path environment variable for the JDK on your specific system. The environment variable tells applications where they can find the JDK. Because Android Studio relies on the JDK, it will need to know where to find it on your system. In this case, the variable needs to be named JAVA_HOME .

Note You likely already have the JAVA_HOME environment variable on your system, especially if you have used Java, the Java Software Development Kit (SDK), or the JDK in the past. However, it never hurts to double-check.

On Windows 10, you set this variable by pressing the Win+Break keys. From there, select Advanced System Settings Environment Variables. Now, create a new environment variable named JAVA_HOME and set to the path of your JDK folder.

With the JDK installed, you can move on to installing Android Studio.

The Android Studio download can be found at illustrates the Android Studio download page.

. The Android Developer, Android Studio download page

Once you click the Download Android Studio button, you are presented with a terms and conditions agreement. Activate the download link, seen in , by accepting the terms and conditions.

. The terms and conditions page

With the installer downloaded, you can install Android Studio to your system. Execute the installer, and follow the prompts to install Android Studio. I have had great luck in accepting all of the default options presented by the installer.

This installer sets up the Android Studio IDE and sets the default options for how and where your environment will run. It also sets the default size for your emulator.

Note Although the emulator is a great tool, and it can be used for debugging, I find it much easier and faster to debug using an Android phone (or other Android device). The emulator tends to load run applications slowly. If you are developing business-style software, this may not be an issue for you. However, I have found that for game development, the emulator runs too slow and the GPU emulation is not accurate enough to run a fully emulated game. Therefore, if you have an Android device, put it in Developer mode and use that for debugging (covered later in this book).

Now that Android Studio is installed, it is time to get it updated.

Open Android Studio for the first time. The IDE may look unfamiliar, but lets not worry about that right now; you are going to walk through the IDE in . For now, lets look at the notifications that you may have received.

Chances are, Android Studio has popped up one or more notifications on the right-hand side of the IDE. illustrate these notifications.

. An Android Studio update notification

. An Android Studio SDK update notification

Depending on the timing of your download and of the release of a new version of Android Studio, an update may be available. The good thing about Android Studio updates is that they are fairly painless.

Kick off the update shown in .

. The Android update download page

Once your update is downloaded, and before you execute it, you must close Android Studio. If you do not, you will get a gentle reminder, like that seen in .

. A reminder to close Android Studio

The kind of update shown is slightly different: this is a component update. This update will change your Android SDK.

Note This step may apply only if you have an existing version of Android Studio installed on your system. The SDK manager, while it is still an important part of Android Studio, will look slightly different in the latest version of Android Studio. If you installed a new version of Android Studio, feel free to move past this section.

Start the SDK update the same way that you started the update for Android Studio, by clicking the update link in the notification. Now the difference can be seen between the two types of updates.