Book Image

Learning Java by Building Android Games - Third Edition

By : John Horton
5 (1)
Book Image

Learning Java by Building Android Games - Third Edition

5 (1)
By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Android is one of the most popular mobile operating systems today. It uses the most popular programming language, Java, as one of the primary languages for building apps of all types. Unlike most other Android books, this book doesn’t assume that you have any prior knowledge of Java programming, instead helps you get started with building Android games as a beginner. This new, improved, and updated third edition of Learning Java by Building Android Games helps you to build Android games from scratch. Once you've got to grips with the fundamentals, the difficulty level increases steadily as you explore key Java topics, such as variables, loops, methods, object-oriented programming (OOP), and design patterns while working with up-to-date code and supporting examples. At each stage, you'll be able to test your understanding by implementing the concepts that you’ve learned to develop a game. Toward the end, you’ll build games such as Sub Hunter, Retro Pong, Bullet Hell, Classic Snake, and Scrolling Shooter. By the end of this Java book, you'll not only have a solid understanding of Java and Android basics but will also have developed five cool games for the Android platform.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)

Chapter 19: Listening with the Observer Pattern, Multitouch, and Building a Particle System

In this chapter, we will get to code and use our first design pattern. The Observer pattern is exactly what it sounds like. We will code some classes that will indeed observe another class. We will use this pattern to allow the GameEngine class to inform other classes when they need to handle user input. This way, individual classes can handle different aspects of user input.

In addition, we will code a particle system. A particle system comprises hundreds or even thousands of graphical objects that are used to create a visual effect. Our particle system will look like an explosion.

Here is a summary of the topics that will be covered in this chapter:

  • The Observer pattern
  • Upgrading the player's controls to handle multitouch inputs
  • Using the Observer pattern for a multitouch UI controller to listen for broadcasts from the game engine
  • Implementing a particle system...