Show HN: I built an Android game

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scl

37 18 12 years ago

play.google.com

I built this (using libGDX) having bought Andreas Oehlke's book [1], which I found very useful. I'd used libgdx before to make a simple snake game, but somehow Andreas made things a lot clearer for me. What's particularly good is that he gives the full source code to a game (a side-scrolling jump/run game).

My design skills are awful, but using Inkscape [2] I was able to come up with something half-decent (according to my friends, assuming they're not just humoring me). I found Derek Banas' youtube tutorials [3] very handy for learning how to use Inkscape.

Incidentally, one very useful tip I found (can't remember where, maybe stackoverflow) is that you must avoid creating any new objects during the render() method (ie during the game), because you'll get unpredictable garbage collection, making the game pause at random intervals. A handy way to check you haven't missed anything is to put a breakpoint in the Object class constructor in android.jar. If it gets hit during play when running in debug mode on a real device, then you're creating an object when you shouldn't be.

Feedback / suggestions on this game very welcome. Thanks!

[1] http://www.packtpub.com/learning-libgdx-game-development/boo... [2] http://www.inkscape.org [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUIOEXssTSE

herbig2• 12 years ago

Very cool. I'm an android developer but haven't experimented with games, so I'm going to check out all these links.

I've found this link gives some interesting performance tips:

http://www.devahead.com/blog/2011/12/coding-for-performance-...

Ologn• 12 years ago

Cool. I monetize most of my Android apps with ads.

I found it hard to do this with games. I have not figured out game monetization yet. I guess in-app purchases are what a lot of people do. I ported an open source game to Android which is on over 40,000 devices currently. Normally that would mean over $100 a month in ads, but this app generates nothing.

A lot of what I have been porting has been C++ (or C) code written in OpenGL 1.x, with lots of things like glBegin/glEnd statements etc. There are some bumps putting that on OpenGL ES but it has been OK so far. I know some game companies have a 90% common OpenGL ES C++ code base, and then the other 10% for iOS and Android specific hooks.

moondowner• 12 years ago

Cool! libGDX works nice with RoboVM, so you can port the game to iOS too.

https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/Robovm-notes

http://www.badlogicgames.com/wordpress/?p=3193

ljf2• 12 years ago

The adverts show too long to make this a great pick up and play game like Flappy Bird, and disabling the back button means I can't back out of a game when my stop comes.

Fun, and pretty tricky, be nice with more visual polish.

JoshuaRedmond• 12 years ago

I really enjoy this. It's a simple concept but we'll executed and quite addicive. The main thing I'd suggest is to increase the resolution of the assets . The jaggy lines are quite glaring on a 1080p screen like the Nexus 5. Also I would use text instead of an image for the countdown on the advert, as you very rarely see jaggy text in an app. Otherwise, good work.

stickydink• 12 years ago

It's always nice to hear these libraries and people get a mention around here. I have been fortunate enough to have worked with both Mario/Nate of libGDX, and Andreas (the book). LibGDX really is a fantastic project. I've spent 3 years with it every working day.

I see a bright future too. For the best part of the last 12 months, a team of us have been working on a very complex game. Just the other week; using an outdated (pre-RoboVM), bastardized fork of libGDX, it took me a grand total of 3 hours (and I had never attempted it before) to merge in the RoboVM changes, install RoboVM on my system, fix a couple of bugs; then had the whole thing running flawlessly on the iOS simulator, iPhone and iPad. It runs faster than our native (albeit, Objective-C) iOS version of the game.

I couldn't recommend a better set of tools. I have a lot of respect for the contributors.

jedanbik• 12 years ago

Got any gameplay videos?

ultimatedelman• 12 years ago

What's the upgrade code? :D

mankyd• 12 years ago

PZ4cp7fy

ljf2• 12 years ago

Nice little game, if anyone wants to upgrade to silver you can use my code:NRtZCAa7

bduerst• 12 years ago

Clever two-tiered upgrade system.

You can upgrade to silver using someone else's code. But to upgrade to gold, you need someone to upgrade to silver using your code.

The forced ad impressions are very annoying though.

ditoax• 12 years ago

Yeah. I want gold now though so here is my code NAT6rw96 :)

knocknock• 12 years ago

Here's a code: GFt3JRxr

ethanhunt_• 12 years ago

The difficulty needs to ramp up significantly quicker (does it even ramp up at all?).

Make the tutorial a single page.

jayadeeptp• 12 years ago

I feel the game is missing an exit option.

herbig2• 12 years ago

Oof, yeah, overriding the back button so heavily is really bad.

__xtrimsky• 12 years ago

I don't like the graphics (I haven't installed the game, just looking from the screenshots).

The graphics look like it was something created in 2002 using Paint Shop Pro.

I'm not a designer, but in order for me to install a game, the design needs to look appealing.

Show HN: I built an Android game

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