Android Cookbook

Chapter 14. Gaming and Animation

14.1. Introduction: Gaming and Animation

Ian Darwin

Discussion

Gaming is obviously an important application for which people used to use “computers” and now use mobile devices, and Android is a perfectly capable contender in the graphics arena, providing support for OpenGL ES.

If you want to use some advanced gaming features without having to write a lot of code, you’re in luck, as there are many game development frameworks in existence today. Many of them are primarily or exclusively for desktops. The ones shown in Table 14-1 are known to be usable on Android; if you find others, please add a comment to the online version of this web page, at http://androidcookbook.com/r/1816, and we will incorporate it into the online version and eventually into a future revision of the published book.

Table 14-1. Android game frameworks

Name	Open source?	Cost	URL
AndEngine	Y	Free	http://www.andengine.org/
Box2D	Y	Free	http://code.google.com/p/box2d/
Corona SDK	?	$199+/year	http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/
Flixel	Y	Free	http://flixel.org/index.html
libgdx	Y	Free	http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/
PlayN	Y	Free	http://code.google.com/p/playn
rokon	Y	Free	http://code.google.com/p/rokon/
ShiVa 3D	N	€169.00+ each for editor and server	http://www.stonetrip.com/
Unity	N	$400+	http://unity3d.com/unity/publishing/android.html

You will need to compare the functions that each offers before committing to using one over another in your project.

14.2. Building an Android Game Using flixel-android

Wagied Davids

Problem

You want ...