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| Crazy Android Dev |
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_Kronk_
Member #12,347
November 2010
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Does anyone here do Android development? If so, how do you keep your sanity? It seems so overcomplicated! Of course, this is coming from someone who basically knows only C++ and uses a single library for everything. Do you use vanilla Android or a game engine/library? I'm surprised by how high-level Android is, and disappointed by the complexity of coding in C or C++ Append: also, didn't realize this, but the Android emulator apparently has internet access! :{"name":"606324","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/c\/cccaac7011680b47c1b0ae77063f5be9.png","w":949,"h":566,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/c\/cccaac7011680b47c1b0ae77063f5be9"} -------------------------------------------------- My blog: http://joshuadover.tumblr.com |
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J-Gamer
Member #12,491
January 2011
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If you download the unstable version of allegro, you get the android port with it. It is still under heavy development, but the basics work :p " There are plenty of wonderful ideas in The Bible, but God isn't one of them." - Derezo |
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Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
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I use the Allegro 5 Android port. It's probably still the most complicated port to use... but it's not too bad after you bang away at it for a while.
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l j
Member #10,584
January 2009
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I tried Android development; It was a complete disaster. I didn't like the API too much and I tried some very basic game development.
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_Kronk_
Member #12,347
November 2010
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That's pretty much my experience so far. It's just so ridiculously complicated. And I like the xml idea, but having everything parsed from xml is just irritating. I don't like it The reason I wanted to get into to it was because (a) the huge market of course and (b) it's open source and I want to do my part to support it and (c) it's going to be running on the Ouya; I'd love to write console games. I guess I'll be stuck just playing them I don't suppose there's some easy to enter PC/Mac/Linux mass market that I've missed? Does anyone have experience selling on Steam? I'd like to be able to release DRM free; I don't know how that works. -------------------------------------------------- My blog: http://joshuadover.tumblr.com |
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Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
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I've never sold on Steam but it has a pretty high barrier for entry I think. The biggest indie friendly is probably Desura, iTunes and Google Play. Google play is not really that hard to make a game for shrug.
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AMCerasoli
Member #11,955
May 2010
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_Kronk_ said: It's just so ridiculously complicated. Do you mean using Allegro on Android isn't it? Quote: Does anyone have experience selling on Steam? I have experience in being rejected from Steam, is you want... Trent Gamblin said: Google play is not really that hard to make a game for I thought in Google Play there was all kind of games... Like Flash games, Java Games, HTML5 games, etc...
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Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
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AMCerasoli said: I thought in Google Play there was all kind of games... Like Flash games, Java Games, HTML5 games, etc... Google Play is the "new" name of the Android Market.
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CursedTyrant
Member #7,080
April 2006
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Trent Gamblin said: I've never sold on Steam but it has a pretty high barrier for entry I think.
Random is more like it. I've seen games on Steam that should never have made it there and I've seen plenty good games that were rejected. I just hope my game will make it there. --------- |
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Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
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Admittedly I don't use Steam and haven't even opened it for a few years, so I haven't seen the games that are on there now. My game was rejected like AMCerasoli's though.
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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The Android API is a bit hit and miss. Half (or more) of the time I just don't know what they were thinking. Once you wrap your head around the lifecycle management of activities, and how a single app can be (and probably should be) multiple activities, its not that crazy. As for the allegro android port, it is harder than it needs to be. I keep meaning to improve it how ever I can. Trent has done a wonderful job taking what I committed and getting it in shape to work on a multitude of devices. Eventually it'll even out to be at least as easy as the iOS port, but its not there yet. -- |
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relay01
Member #6,988
March 2006
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I'm getting back into android dev again. Before was a pretty nasty failure but I've allocated more time resources to it now. (I was also inspired a bit by Ouya) I'm reading this and going through the developer.android.com tutorials and API guides. The documentation on the android dev site has gotten MUCH better since the jellybean release. My only advice from my previous failure is to keep at it and realize that MOST of the Android API doesn't do much for game developers. I want to do general app design but if all you want to do is games, don't waste your time on stuff that doesn't really apply to you. _____________________________________ |
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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relay01 said: The documentation on the android dev site has gotten MUCH better since the jellybean release. Jellybean was just released -- |
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Neil Walker
Member #210
April 2000
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if it's games you are interested in, try out LIBGDX. Cross-platform for android, windows, mac, html5, linux. It's got built in support for Box2D and the Tiled tile engine. Neil. wii:0356-1384-6687-2022, kart:3308-4806-6002. XBOX:chucklepie |
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23yrold3yrold
Member #1,134
March 2001
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I just got a Galaxy Nexus a few weeks ago, and only managed to get a program running on it Monday. I'm using Eclipse right now; is there some option besides Java? I hate Java ... -- |
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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If you want a standard Android App, the options are Java, Adobe's html5 thing, or other html5 based frameworks. Games, theres a few options. Obviously HTML5, Allegro, SDL, and other ndk based cross platform libraries. -- |
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relay01
Member #6,988
March 2006
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23yrold3yrold said: I'm using Eclipse right now; is there some option besides Java? I hate Java ... You could use the Android NDK but they suggest against using it for general App development. _____________________________________ |
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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Trying to use the NDK for general app development would be a massive pain in the rear. You'd constantly be calling back and forth between java and C. Either you make a crap ton of jni calls to avoid writing as much java as possible or you write some java helper stuff to cut down on the jni calls as much as possible... but then you might as well use java for most of it -- |
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AMCerasoli
Member #11,955
May 2010
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Neil Walker said: if it's games you are interested in, try out LIBGDX. I'm going to start thinking they're paying to make publicity...
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SiegeLord
Member #7,827
October 2006
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I'm a bit confused... I don't see any fundamental difference between a game app and a "general" app. Both take inputs from the user, handle data, and output some representation of the data. Where is the crucial difference that implies using one language over the other? "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow."-Ecclesiastes 1:18 |
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AMCerasoli
Member #11,955
May 2010
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Well I think general apps do general stuff, so you don't need to build everything from scratch like when you make a game. I wouldn't try to program something which basically a GUI using Allegro. I would just use Java and one of the 1.000.000 Libraries/Frameworks/Api's... Or whatever... Allegro and NDK is more like, "get out of my way, I know what I'm doing..."
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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SiegeLord said: I'm a bit confused... I don't see any fundamental difference between a game app and a "general" app. Both take inputs from the user, handle data, and output some representation of the data. Where is the crucial difference that implies using one language over the other? The general android UI api is java only. There is no NDK binding for it at all. A game on android is usually going to want to use a GLSurfaceView, or C/C++ and EGL+GLES with a minimal java binding. Either way usually means you won't be using much of the android UI API. -- |
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BAF
Member #2,981
December 2002
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If you think Android is bad, then don't try iOS. |
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23yrold3yrold
Member #1,134
March 2001
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Yeah, this brought back bad memories of using XCode at first, but now that I'm over the hump it's not so bad. -- |
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Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
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Development for iOS is infinitely easier and better than development for Android. If you're just talking as a user, well you can have that opinion, but development wise there is no contest.
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There is a new thing called Greenlight in Steam that supposedly is going to let the actual users of such platform to decide which game are going to be allowed. That sounds better than the actual 
That's really all I can do, the way they seem to handle it.
it's 4.1. I'm not sure how much they could have improved in such a short time.