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488        CHAPTER 9:  Super Jumper: A 2D OpenGL ES Game  

                            Get started with game apps development 
             

                                      for the Android platform 

                                    Beginning  

     Android Games 

                                          Mario Zechner 

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 488         CHAPTER 9:  Super Jumper: A 2D OpenGL ES Game  

                         For your convenience Apress has placed some of the front  
                        matter material after the index. Please use the Bookmarks  
                                and Contents at a Glance links to access them.  

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           Contents at a Glance  

           Contents .............................................................................................................. v  
           About the Author ............................................................................................... xii  
           About the Technical Reviewer ......................................................................... xiii  
           Acknowledgments ............................................................................................ xiv  
           Introduction ....................................................................................................... xv  
           ■ Chapter 1: Android, the New Kid on the Block ................................................ 1
 
           ■ Chapter 2: First Steps with the Android SDK ................................................. 25
 
           ■ Chapter 3: Game Development 101 ............................................................... 51
 
           ■ Chapter 4: Android for Game Developers .................................................... 103
 
           ■ Chapter 5: An Android Game Development Framework .............................. 185
 
           ■ Chapter 6: Mr. Nom Invades Android .......................................................... 229
 
           ■ Chapter 7: OpenGL ES: A Gentle Introduction .............................................. 269
 
           ■ Chapter 8: 2D Game Programming Tricks ................................................... 351
 
           ■ Chapter 9: Super Jumper: A 2D OpenGL ES Game ....................................... 429
 
           ■ Chapter 10: OpenGL ES: Going 3D ................................................................ 489
 
           ■ Chapter 11: 3D Programming Tricks ........................................................... 525
 
           ■ Chapter 12: Droid Invaders: the Grand Finale ............................................. 577
 
           ■ Chapter 13: Publishing Your Game .............................................................. 625
 
           ■ Chapter 14: What’s Next? ............................................................................ 637
 
           Index ............................................................................................................... 641 

iv  

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 Introduction  

Hi there, and welcome to the world of Android game development. My name is Mario; I’ll be your  
guide for the next fourteen chapters. You came here to learn about game development on  
Android, and I hope to be the person who enables you to realize your ideas.  
     Together we’ll cover quite a range of materials and topics: Android basics, audio and  
graphics programming, a little math and physics, and a scary thing called OpenGL ES. Based on  
all this knowledge we’ll develop three different games, one even being 3D.   
     Game programming can be easy if you know what you’re doing. Therefore I’ve tried to  
present the material in a way that not only gives you helpful code snippets to reuse, but actually  
shows you the big picture of game development. Understanding the underlying principles is the  
key to tackling ever more complex game ideas. You’ll not only be able to write games similar to  
the ones developed over the course of this book, but you’ll also be equipped with enough  
knowledge to go to the Web or the bookstore and take on new areas of game development on  
your own.  

A Word About the Target Audience  

This book is aimed first and foremost at complete beginners in game programming. You don’t  
need any prior knowledge on the subject matter; I’ll walk you through all the basics. However, I  
need to assume a little knowledge on your end about Java. If you feel rusty on the matter, I’d  
suggest refreshing your memory by reading the online edition of Thinking in Java, by Bruce Eckel  
(Prentice Hall, 2006), an excellent introductory text on the programming language. Other than  
that, there are no other requirements. No prior exposure to Android or Eclipse is necessary!  
     This book is also aimed at the intermediate-level game programmer that wants to get her  
hands dirty with Android. While some of the material may be old news for you, there are still a lot  
of tips and hints contained that should make reading this book worthwhile. Android is a strange  
beast at times, and this book should be considered your battle guide.   

How This Book Is Organized  

This book takes an iterative approach in that we’ll slowly but surely work our way from the  
absolute basics to the esoteric heights of hardware-accelerated game programming goodness.  
Over the course of the chapters, we’ll build up a reusable code base, so I’d suggest going through  
the chapters in sequence. More experienced readers can of course skip certain sections they feel  
confident with. Just make sure to read through the code listings of sections you skim over a little,  
so you will understand how the classes and interfaces are used in subsequent, more advanced  
sections.  

                                                                                                                        xv  

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■ INTRODUCTION  

  

  

            Getting the Source Code  

            This book is fully self-contained; all the code necessary to run the examples and games is  
            included. However, copying the listings from the book to Eclipse is error prone, and games do not  
            consist of code alone, but also have assets that you can’t easily copy out of the book. Also, the  
            process of copying code from the book's text to Eclipse can introduce errors. Robert (the book’s  
            technical reviewer) and I took great care to ensure that all the listings in this book are error free,  
            but the gremlins are always hard at work.   
            To make this a smooth ride, I created a Google Code project that offers you the following:  

                     •     The complete source code and assets, licensed under the GPL version 3,  
                           available from the project’s Subversion repository.  

                     •    A quickstart guide showing you how to import the projects into Eclipse in  
                           textual form, and a video demonstration for the same.   

                     •    An issue tracker that allows you to repo rt any errors you find, either in the  
                           book itself or in the code accompanying the book. Once you file an issue in  
                           the issue tracker, I can incorporate any fixes in the Subversion repository.  
                           This way you’ll always have an up-to-date, (hopefully) error-free version of  
                           this book’s code from which other readers can benefit as well.  

                     •    A discussion group that is free for everybody to join and discuss the  
                           contents of the book. I’ll be on there as well of course.  

                 For each chapter that contains code, there’s an equivalent Eclipse project in the Subversion  
            repository. The projects do not depend on each other, as we’ll iteratively improve some of the  
            framework classes over the course of the book. Each project therefore stands on its own. The code  
            for both Chapters 5 and 6 is contained in the ch06-mrnom project.   
                 The Google Code project can be found at http://code.google.com/p/beginning-android- 
            games.  

              

                   

xvi  

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                                                                                                  1  

                                                                         Chapter   1  

Android, the New Kid on  
the Block  

As a kid of the early nineties, I naturally grew up with my trusty Nintendo Game Boy. I  
spent countless hours helping Mario rescue the princess, getting the highest score in  
Tetris, and racing my friends in RC Pro-Am via link cable. I took this awesome piece of  
hardware with me everywhere and every time I could. My passion for games made me  
want to create my own worlds and share them with my friends. I started programming  
on the PC but soon found out that I couldn’t transfer my little masterpieces to the Game  
Boy. I continued being an enthusiastic programmer, but over time my interest in actually  
playing video games faded. Also, my Game Boy broke . . .  

Fast forward to 2010. Smartphones are becoming the new mobile gaming platforms of  
the era, competing with classic dedicated handheld systems such as the Nintendo DS  
or the Playstation Portable. That caught my interest again, and I started investigating  
which mobile platforms would be suitable for my development needs. Apple’s iOS  
seemed like a good candidate to start coding games for. However, I quickly realized that  
the system was not open, that I’d be able to share my work with others only if Apple  
allowed it, and that I’d need a Mac to develop for the iOS. And then I found Android.  

I immediately fell in love with Android. Its development environment works on all the  
major platforms, no strings attached. It has a vibrant developer community happy to  
help you with any problem you encounter as well as comprehensive documentation. I  
can share my games with anyone without having to pay a fee to do so, and if I want to  
monetize my work, I can easily publish my latest and greatest innovation to a global  
market with millions of users in a matter of minutes.   

The only thing I was left with was actually figuring out how to write games for Android  
and how to transfer my PC game development knowledge to this new system. In the  
following chapters, I want to share my experience with you and get you started with  
Android game development. This is of course a rather selfish plan: I want to have more  
games to play on the go!  

Let’s start by getting to know our new friend: Android.  

                                                                                                           1  

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2          CHAPTER 1:  Android, the New Kid on the Block  

           A Brief History of Android  

           Android was first publicly noticed in 2005 when Google acquired a small startup called  
           Android, Inc. This fueled speculation that Google wanted to enter the mobile space. In  
           2008, the release of version 1.0 of Android put an end to all speculation, and Android  
            became the new challenger on the mobile market. Since then, it’s been battling it out  
           with already established platforms such as iOS (then called iPhone OS) and BlackBerry,  
           and its chances of winning look rather good.   

            Because Android is open source, handset manufacturers have a low barrier of entry  
           when using the new platform. They can produce devices for all price segments,  
            modifying Android itself to accommodate the processing power of a specific device.  
           Android is therefore not limited to high-end devices but can also be deployed to low- 
            budget devices, thus reaching a wider audience.