1. Getting Started
Welcome to Android Game Recipes . This book is very much like a cookbook. It is designed to tackle specific, common problems that could arise while you develop a game for the Android platform. Solutions are provided in a well-tested, thought-out approach that is easy to follow and easy to adapt to multiple situations.
Lets say you know the theory behind what goes into chicken soup, but you are unsure how to turn some chicken and vegetables into soup. Consulting a standard, kitchen cookbook would give you a step-by-step recipe to create the soup. In much the same way, you will be able to use Android Game Recipes to find out exactly how to code specific scenarios in a gamefrom creating a splash screen to using collision detection when destroying an enemy.
Before you move on to the recipes, its important to establish the proper framework to get the most out of them. In this chapter, we will discuss what skills and tools you will need to get the most out of this book.
What You Will Need
Game programming, as a discipline, is complex and can take years to master. However, the basic concepts of game programming are actually relatively simple to learn and can be reused in many situations. The amount of time that you put into your games and your code will ultimately determine how successful you and your games are. Everyone runs into that one problem when coding which, no matter how long you scratch your head, or how many times you search on Google, you just cannot get an exact solution for. This book is designed to be your solution to many of these problems.
Skills and Experience
This book is not aimed at beginners or people who have no game development experience. You will not learn how to develop an entire game from scratch by reading this book. This is not to say that you need to be a professional game developer to use this book. To the contrary, it is assumed that by reading this book you are most likely a casual game developer; you are likely to be someone who might have tried to create a game or two (possibly even for Android) and has run into a problem converting some of your development knowledge to the Android platform.
This book is focused on helping you through specific problems or scenarios. Therefore, you should have at least a working knowledge of game development, and at least a basic knowledge of Android-specific development. Neither topic will be covered from the perspective of a from scratch primer.
Since Android is developed in Java, you should also possess a good, working knowledge of Java development. There will be no tutorials on how Java works, and it may be implied during certain scenarios that you know the meaning behind the structure of Java.
It is possible however, that you may have some game development experience on another platformsuch as Windowsand possibly even some business-level Java experience, and never have used OpenGL ES. Most of the time, developing a game for Android will require use of OpenGL ES. For this reason, the second part of this chapter is dedicated to introducing you to OpenGL ES and explaining why it is important to Android. If you already have experience with OpenGL ES, feel free to skip that part of this chapter, OpenGL ES at a Glance.
In short, if you have a passion for game development and a passion for Android, but are running into some problems in your development, this book is for you. Whether you have already started to develop a game and are running into problems, or you are in the beginning stages of your development and are unsure what to do next, Android Games Development Recipes will guide you through the most common roadblocks and issues.
Software Versions
At this point, you are probably ready to dive right into finding solutions for your Android game scenarios. So what tools do you need to begin your journey?
This book is geared toward Android 4.1 and 4.2 Jelly Bean. If you are not working in Jelly Bean, it is recommended that you upgrade your SDK at http://developer.android.com/sdk/ . However, the examples should also work on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. There are many resources to help you download and install the SDK (and the corresponding Java components that you might need) if you need help doing so; however, this book will not cover installing the SDK.
You will also be using the Kepler version of Eclipse. One of the great features of Eclipse is that it will support multiple versions of Android SDKs. Therefore, you can quickly test your code in Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, or even Gingerbread if needed. While you can use almost any Java IDE or text editor to write Android code, I prefer Eclipse because of features such as this and the well-crafted plug-ins that tightly integrate to many of the more tedious manual operations of compiling and debugging Android code. After all, Eclipse is the official Android development IDE recommended by Google, the creator of Android.
If you do not already have Eclipse Kepler, and want to give it a try, it is a free download from http://eclipse.org .
This book will not dive into the download or setup of Eclipse. There are many resources, including those on Eclipses own site and the Android Developers Forum, that can help you set up your environment should you require assistance.
Tip
If you have never installed Eclipse or a similar IDE, follow the installation directions carefully. The last thing you want is an incorrectly installed IDE impeding your ability to write great games.
In the next section, we will explore one of the most used tools in creating games on the Android platform, OpenGL ES.
OpenGL ES at a Glance
OpenGL ES, or OpenGL for Embedded Systems, is an open source graphics API that is packaged with the Android SDK. While there is limited support for working with graphics using core Android calls, it would be extremely difficultif not impossibleto create an entire game without using OpenGL ES. Core Android graphics calls are slow and clunky, and with few exceptions, should not be used for gaming. This is where OpenGL ES comes in.
OpenGL ES has been included with Android, in one form or another, since the very beginning of the platform. In earlier versions of Android, the implementation of OpenGL ES was a limited version of OpenGL ES 1. As Android grew, and versions of Android matured, more feature-rich implementations of OpenGL ES were added. With Android version Jelly Bean, developers have access to OpenGL ES 2 for game development.
So what exactly does OpenGL ES do for you, and how does it do it? Lets find out.
How OpenGL ES Works with Android
Open GL ES communicates with the graphic hardware in a much more direct manner than a core Android call. This means that you are sending data directly to the hardware that is responsible for processing it. A core Android call would have to go through the core Android processes, threads, and interpreter before getting to the graphics hardware. Games written for the Android platform can only achieve an acceptable level of speed and playability by communicating directly with the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
![J. F. DiMarzio [J. F. DiMarzio] - Android Studio Game Development: Concepts and Design](/uploads/posts/book/119418/thumbs/j-f-dimarzio-j-f-dimarzio-android-studio.jpg)
