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

How we will build the platformer


Many things about this project will use things we learned during the Scrolling Shooter project and many things will be completely new. By going through a few things in advance albeit not in great detail will give a clearer picture of how the project will eventually turn into the fully-fledged game by the end of chapter 25.

Level design files example

In all the previous projects we spawned objects like bats, balls, snakes, apples, aliens, bullets and lasers based on logic in our code. With this game we need a way to sit back a little and design each level. There are a few different ways we could have done this. We could draw the levels in a graphics application like Paint or Photoshop and then write code to turn a level design image into the game. Another option is to write an entire app that allows the user to select different game objects and then drag and drop them around the screen. The application could then save the design and use it in the game. Both...