Apps Questions Before I Start

[bdroy3]

Hello, I'm a high school senior who's taken/taking some programming courses (I've learned Python, Java, and C) and I'm thinking about dabbling a bit into app developing (mostly games, I love making games), but I have a few questions before I start. I haven't done much research yet, so pardon me if any of these are stupid questions:

1) I have a touch screen laptop, would in be possible to test an app I'm making on said laptop, or is an android device absolutely required (I am getting a Google Nexus 7 in a week or so, but i'd like to be able to work with just my laptop during study halls and such)?

2)Should I get a Nexus 7? Or is there something better for development I should use within the same price range?

3)What, in your opinion (i'm looking for several opinions on this), is the best development environment? why?

4)How easy/hard is implementing adds into your app as a source of (limited) income (I'm pretty poor so I'd like to make some money )? And assuming you do make some income, how do you receive the payment?

Thanks!
-Brian

 

[scary alien]

Welcome to our AndoirdForums, Brian!

I dabble a little bit in app development, but never in games, so take that into account for m answers below:

1. A touch screen laptop should work just fine... You don't need an Android device since you can launch an Android virtual device (AVD) to launch an emulator. It's slow compared to launching and running your app on a real device, but it works (and I'm sure the speed depends on how fast the laptop is and how much they've improved the AVD/emulator since I last used it (it's been a while, but I know Google's been trying hard to make it more usable and faster).

2. I love my (first gen/2012) Nexus 7...if you're going to make a game and want to know what the actual user experience will be for your end-users, you might want to pick one up.

3. I use Eclipse...never tried any others since it works great for me .

4. I've never implemented any ads in any of my apps, so I'm probably not the best one to try to answer this .

Cheers and best of luck with your development efforts!

 

[Manaya]

For ads - it depends on what ad network you choose. If you go with Google's Admob, it is fairly simple to set up. About payment I'm not sure how Admob pays because I didn't make any money yet, my problem is how to give more exposure to my games, which is not really a developer issue so I'm kinda bad at it