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

Introduction to Java methods


Java methods are a way of organizing and compartmentalizing our code. They are quite a deep topic and a full understanding requires knowledge of other Java topics. By the end of the book you will be a method Ninja but for now, a basic introduction will be useful.

Methods have names to identify them from other methods and to help the programmer identify what they do. The methods in the Sub' Hunter game will have names like draw, takeShot, newGame, and printDebuggingText as well as a few more.

Code with a specific purpose can be wrapped inside a method, perhaps like this:

void draw(){
   // Handle all the drawing here
}

The above method called draw could hold all the lines of code that does the drawing for our game. When we set out a method with its code it is called the method definition. The curious looking prefixed void keyword and the postfixes () will be explained in Chapter 4, Structuring Code with Java Methods but for now, you just need to know that all the...