• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Apps HOw to develop games?

G

gamdev

Newbie
Hi, I work as a Jr Java Dev with loads to learn about Java. In the past I have had a VERY basic exposure to android app dev. What does it take, please be as detailed as possible, to develop full blown Android games and apps? I consider Angry birds cool, but even that is not a full blown game, it is really simple, BUt I would like to develop those games as well.

Please be super detailed and leave an email for me to ask follow ups.

And if anyone wants free help on their projects, let me know, I would love the experience.

Peace
 
Well even your simple games are going to be difficult. Actually, just assume all of it is not even going to work your first time :P

If you want to jump straight into java there are some books I can recommend as well as a few websites.

Do you have Eclipse installed yet? or do you plan on using a game engine like Unity to develop your games?


Maybe check out some of the Stickied topics at the top of the forum like this one?
http://androidforums.com/applicatio...ning-resources-tutorials-helpful-threads.html
 
Hi, I have some Java exp and work as a jr developer. I have eclipse and Android studio, though have not yet used AS.

Is Unity good to use? I mean if I learn to make games using Unity, will I be able to get a job? My aim is to be a great programmer in Android and be able to get a nice high paying job in that field. So will Unity be problematic in that regard, I mean will it hinder my knowledge/learning, and/or limit my job prospects? And how do you go about learning Unity, or w/e else? Please be detailed and give me the path that is easy and makes me the best game android developer possible.

thanks
 
There is no easy path in programming. Ever.

You either sit down and teach yourself through tutorials,books,videos,code examples. Or be lucky enough that someone else can teach you personally, or by going to school to get taught.

If your still wanting to learn how to develop for android then your going to need to learn java. Whether you use a game engine or Eclipse or whatever else to develop with, its going to use java to some extent.

Unity is a game engine, and there are many game engines out there for different uses/people(google Android Game Engines for more). This will give you a lot of framework to start with but involves learning the engine as well as it's own scripting language. (Which I think is based off of java). Basically, you can program via Eclipse by hand what you want your app/game to do. With Unity a lot of it would be drag and drop then program what you would want those specific items to do. I have used Unity in the past for PC development and I found it quite easy to use. However, I believe that Unity for Android is also relatively new.

The only thing that is going to hurt your job prospects is by not learning as much as you can. It's always better to know how to do something multiple ways.

In order to be good at anything you just have to start. Make games. Make apps. Make up stuff you think might work, you never know.

There are a few stickied topics on this forum that have a lot of resources to follow already.
http://androidforums.com/applicatio...-development-developer-101-stickies-list.html
try some of those out.

If I were you I would start with Eclipse just to understand how android handles things. You can't build your house without laying down the foundations :)

I always direct new people to here:
Getting Started | Android Developers
 
As I said, I work as a Java dev so I know enough Java. Further, from what I gather, Unity covers all that stuff, so you do not need to learn android programming.
 
If you have Java experience, using c# (you could use JavaScript or Boo) in unity should come fairly easily to you. Unity has very detailed documentation and there are lots of tutorials out there, so even the beginner programmer can have a running start.

It has awesome tools that can minimize your coding efforts greatly but still allow you to achieve top quality results.

There are tools for Animation, managing spritesheets, for creating GUI's, you can use models from many programs, it uses Nvidia PhysX and Box 2d, the list goes on. And you can use 2D or 3D.

One example of a great game made with unity is Dead Trigger.

You can also purchase plugins for various things from character movement scripts, to GUI's, much like WordPress plugins.

Starting off with unity is as simple as getting the free software, checking out the Documentation or tutorials and start making games.

Trust me, this software makes game development 10x easier and its brilliant that there is a free version we can play around with :tongue:

How long would it take to build your game?
It all depends on how complicated your idea is , how much time your willing to spend on it, how much you already know, how fast you can learn etc. but it helps to set yourself targets or goals or you could end up making it forever lol.

Good luck :thumbup:

Edit: Forgot to mention that with unity you can publish to Android for free. You can also publish to Windows , Apple, Xbox, and Pc and I think more
 
There are good paying jobs for people who know how to make good games/apps. It mostly doesn't matter what you use to make your stuff, since each company has their own way of doing things anyway. (some may use java,c#,unity,AndEngine,unreal...etc)

If your really trying to get into the mobile development industry or game industry for that matter. You just have to make good products and get people to notice.

Showing a prospective employer "Hey, I made this game/app and its on the google play store with 500,000 downloads!" Is a lot better then showing them your resume that says "Hey, I know how to program some stuff!"
 
I do not know a whole lot about the different tools and such, which is the best one, most marketable in terms of finding a job and best for making games/apps: straight android, unity, or some other engines/frameworks? And can you combine them? Like use Unity with other tools you noted?

If you use and learn Unity alone, can that get you a job?

As far as popularity, how do you get your games noticed by people? Their are tens of thousands if not more games out there, how do you get people to at least try yours?

thanks
 
Hi gamdev!

If you do a lil search on google you will find lots of people hiring unity developers, but obviously you will have a better chance of getting other game dev work if you learn other game dev things.

Your success depends mainly on how good you or your game is, not the program you use to make it. But please, don't go and use something like GameSalad or you will spend a lot of time and money to achieve very little (Although it can help you learn concepts).

As for getting your game noticed, there are many (if not infinite) ways to promote or market your game. Here's just a few and I wont go into too much detail...

-Forums
Talk about what your doing. Let others know that your project exists.

-Blog
Update people with new developments. Ask for feed-back or simply display your work. You can do lots with a blog.

-Ads
I wouldn't go down this route to start with, but it is definitely a great way to get your game out there and people noticing it.

-Videos
Show the world your game through YouTube vids.

-Socialize
Tell you friends, family, colleagues, the guy at the bus stop, your postman, post it on facebook, twitter, linkdin, email it to your list, and on, and on.

hope this stuff helps and good luck :D
 
Are you sure word of mouth can make a game go viral? No offense, but it doesnt make sense to me.

I looked up GameSalad, is that a gameengine like Unity? If so, what is wrong with it?

thanks
 
Word of mouth isn't the only factor in making something go viral but it is a big factor.

How do you think things go viral? People share and talk about stuff with other people until more and more people are talking about it.

For example...
I could post on the forum about this amazing game I've been playing and tell you to check it out. You try it and love it so you reply to me on the forum telling me how great it is, and not only that, you told your brother about it and text your sister the link.

Others see the thread, see our posts and decide to take a look. In the mean time your brother has posted it on Facebook, 10 of his friends download it. Your sister just mentioned it on here blog and got 10 tweets and 15 likes which generated 17 downloads.

I could go on and on. But as you can see this started through word of mouth. Just because you don't physically speak to someone doesn't mean you are not communicating with them and passing info down the line.

Onto GameSalad.
It is a visual editor so no coding skills are required, this makes it easy to use but very limited in what you can do with it.
If you are a child or novice programmer it is great for learning programming concepts using its visual editor, but its no good for professional use because of its limitations.
It also costs a bundle to publish your finished games so I wouldn't recommend it.

Unity's environment is a lot more solid with top notch, professional tools. You do need a knowledge of coding but its documentation makes it easy to use. The fact that it is used by many successful game devs and studios should make it a top choice. Also its free to publish.
 
So then their are jobs for just Unity? I looked, I want your opinion on it. Like is their a future in it, or is it just a fad? I am curious because idk if I should learn Unity or android programming? Time is of the essence so "both' is not an option atm
 
I'm sorry to say it, but most people wont be able to learn enough about native android coding to produce the standard of games that they could produce using a game engine like unity. It has so many features that one could only dream of producing themselves.

Your right, unity might not last forever, but that's like most things, right? I think its gonna be around for a long time yet, it has a lot of support.

Which one to learn? It depends how far you want to take game development. If you want this as a career, maybe you should learn from the ground up. If you want a quick start, go with a pre-built game engine.

Learn about the android environment and in your spare time mess around with unity maybe.
 
What do you mean learn about "android environment?" And how come you say that if you said their are plenty of Unity jobs?

What are other good game engines? Or is Unity the best?

Idk, I just dont want to spend tons of time learning Unity, and then it becomes obsolete, idk why I worry about this.

thanks
 
Just to add another perspective to the discussion...

Our latest game Circix is available on Android, iOS and WP8. For the android version, i developed it using IntelliJ IDEA Community Version, and used libgdx as the game engine. This is the second project where I have used libgdx - i opted to use it again because it was the closest engine to the fantastic Cocos2d, available for iOS.

However, having read this thread, and knowing a little bit about other peoples experiences with Unity, I will probably look at using Unity for the next project.
 
Unity has been steadily becoming a very solid engine with a lot of adaptability. I remember using Unity when it first came out, way back in 2010. It has definitely come a long way.
 
kinoro said:
Just to add another perspective to the discussion...

Our latest game Circix is available on Android, iOS and WP8. For the android version, i developed it using IntelliJ IDEA Community Version, and used libgdx as the game engine. This is the second project where I have used libgdx - i opted to use it again because it was the closest engine to the fantastic Cocos2d, available for iOS.

However, having read this thread, and knowing a little bit about other peoples experiences with Unity, I will probably look at using Unity for the next project.
Click to expand...


Cool, whats the game about?

Isnt it best I learn Unity instead of libgdx or Cocos2d becauase Unity can be deployed to multiple environments, instead of just Android, or just IOS, and so on?
 
As i mentioned, I will probably look into Unity for the next project. I have had my reservations in the past because I believed it was purely for developing 3D games - but I see now that's not true.

Having said that, cocos2d is quite a mature framework now, and there is a c++ variation called cocos2d-x which may also be worth a look.

As for Circix, I don't wish to promote the game in this thread as I may get in trouble from the moderators (again :P). I will simply say that its a fantastic puzzler that you should definitely check out :)
 
Hi kinoro,

I havent tried IntelliJ IDEA Community Version but im definatley gonna take a look. Ive messed around with libgdx but found it to be quite complicated.

Are you a skilled coder or how was your experience in learning it?

Thanks

:thumb:
 
I've tried many different things because I'm actually interested in this stuff.

Why should I not try it? I haven't got anything to loose, just more knowledge to gain :)

Just because I use unity for my games doesn't mean I cant know how to make games with libgdx as well, or Corona, Unreal Engine, Shiva, CryENGINE, GameMaker, cocos2d etc.
 
@VD: based on ur exp, what game engines are best? Isnt Unity best bcus you can deploy the games to droid, IOS, and many other platforms? Like if you learn just android programming, then obviously the game/app can only be deployed to android, so Unity is better.
 
You do not need a game engine to develop a "Full Blown" 2D game in Android. You do not need to use SurfaceView either. SurfaceView, OpenGL and AndEngine and (maybe other game engines) have issues with consistent sprite animation speed and size of sprites across the various Android devices. Especially when the game has complex sprite movements. I went crazy trying to build my first 2D game "Yum Yum Pow" with consistent speed movement of sprites and sprite sizes in relation to screen size and density (e.g. tablets vs phones). So, I decided to drop the game engines and I posted a tutorial 2D Android Game Development without Game Engine Tutorial - YouTube
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom