In early 2010 the availability of powerful and free 2D game engines for the Android
platform was an almost empty field. Today, developers can pick from a few engines
that best fit the purpose of unleashing their individual creativity.
With currently more than 500,000 Android devices being activated daily, every
single one of those is reachable from the minute the device is turned on. Literally,
every day counts. This market is shifting the world of successful business models away
from big companies toward individual developers, where any developer could create
the “Next Angry Birds” in just one night.
I created AndEngine to fulfill the need for a free, easy-to-use game development
framework, one capable of allowing even inexperienced game developers quick access
to this incredibly fast-growing market without limiting the creativity of expert game
developers.
Today more than two hundred games powered by AndEngine have been shipped
and the AndEngine code has been executed over one million times. AndEngine
has allowed developers to create games that successfully reach millions of customers
and provide steady income for the developer. And since Zynga hired me mid-2011,
AndEngine has been brought to a whole new level of professionalism.
More and more developers are demanding knowledge about game development on
the Android platform, which means there is, and will continue to be, a strong need
for solid instructional literature. Rick Rogers has written an excellent book covering
general game development topics in simple language, using AndEngine as the powerful
back end that brings game development to life. Rick guides the reader through the
construction of a complete game example, covering all essential topics for beginners
while providing useful tips and hints even for experienced game developers. Enjoy
the book!
Build the Next Great Android Game!
Learning Android Game Programming is your hands-on, start-to-finish guide to creating winning games for today’s rapidly growing Android mobile device marketplace. If you have even basic Android development experience, Rick Rogers will help you build on your knowledge to quickly create low-budget 2D mobile games that sell.
The book starts with an up-to-the-minute overview of today’s Android mobile games marketplace, reviews each leading genre, and teaches you the foundational concepts of game development. You’ll design a simple game, then master every step of game development with AndEngine—the powerful, open source, free game-development engine. Every chapter teaches with sample code you can actually use, including many examples drawn from the published game, Virgins Versus Vampires (V3).
With this book you’ll learn how to
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Use free Android tools for creating code, artwork, and sound
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Implement the “game loop” that is at the heart of Android games
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Bring your game to life with scene transitions and entity modifiers
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Make the most of bitmap and vector graphics, sprites, and animation
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Integrate user input via touch, multitouch, keyboard, voice recognition, accelerometer, location, and compass
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Build infinite virtual worlds with tile maps
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Create, save, and reuse powerful particle effects
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Find, acquire, modify, and use background music and sound effects
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Implement highly realistic physics effects with Box2D
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Use AI techniques to make your games smarter and more fun
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Build a scoring framework based on collisions between your game elements
Download the free version of Virgins Versus Vampires (V3) from Android Market today, as you learn how to build the game in this book
