Book Image

Learning Java by Building Android Games - Second Edition

By : John Horton
Book Image

Learning Java by Building Android Games - Second Edition

By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Android is one of the most popular mobile operating systems presently. It uses the most popular programming language, Java, as the primary language for building apps of all types. However, this book is unlike other Android books in that it doesn’t assume that you already have Java proficiency. This new and expanded second edition of Learning Java by Building Android Games shows you how to start building Android games from scratch. The difficulty level will grow steadily as you explore key Java topics, such as variables, loops, methods, object oriented programming, and design patterns, including code and examples that are written for Java 9 and Android P. At each stage, you will put what you’ve learned into practice by developing a game. You will build games such as Minesweeper, Retro Pong, Bullet Hell, and Classic Snake and Scrolling Shooter games. In the later chapters, you will create a time-trial, open-world platform game. By the end of the book, you will not only have grasped Java and Android but will also have developed six cool games for the Android platform.
Table of Contents (30 chapters)
Learning Java by Building Android Games Second Edition
Contributors
Preface
Index

Starting the project


Create a new project and call it Scrolling Shooter. Use the same settings as we always have: empty Activity, no layout file, no backward compatibility, for phones and tablets. When prompted, name the Activity GameActivity.

Editing the manifest

Make the game full-screen and landscape orientation as we have done before by editing the AndroidManifest file. Add the code just after …:name=".GameActivity" but before the trailing >. Here is the new code highlighted in context with the existing code:

<activity android:name=".GameActivity"
   android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen"
   android:screenOrientation="landscape"
>

The game is now locked to full screen and landscape orientation.

Code the GameActivity class

Here we will code the Activity which is the entry point to the game. As usual, it grabs the screen size and creates an instance of the main controlling class, in this project, GameEngine. There is nothing new in this code apart from a very small...