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

Summary


In this chapter we learned what we can do with arrays and how to use them including in multiple dimensions, we coded a bullet class and used an array of Bullet objects to spawn as many as we want. As an experiment, I spawned 50000 and the frame rate stayed above 30 fps on an emulator. Although such high numbers are unnecessary for this game it demonstrates the power of a device and the possibilities for future games. In the final project we will be building a game world that is bigger than the screen (much bigger) and then we will have more scope for higher numbers of game objects.

In the next chapter, we will learn how to draw a bitmap on the screen, implement a simple teleport system as well as measure and record the amount of time the player can survive.