Android Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13. Gaming and Animation

Gaming is an important activity that people used to perform on “computers” and now perform on mobile devices. 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 13-1 are known to be usable on Android; if you find others, please add a comment on this book’s website, and we will incorporate it into the online version and eventually into a future revision of the published book.

Table 13-1. Android game frameworks

Name	Open source?	Cost	URL
AndEngine	Y	Free	http://www.andengine.org/
Box2D	Y	Free	http://www.box2d.org
Corona SDK	N	Free and Enterprise editions available	https://coronalabs.com/
Flixel-gdx	Y	Free	http://flixel-gdx.com/
libgdx	Y	Free	https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/
PlayN	Y	Free	https://github.com/playn/playn
rokon	Y	Free	https://code.google.com/archive/p/rokon
ShiVa3D	N	Free, basic, and advanced licenses available	http://www.shiva-engine.com/
Unity	N	Free and paid plans available	https://unity3d.com/unity/multiplatform/

A list of Android-compatible game frameworks is also maintained on this book’s website.

You will need to compare the functions that each offers before choosing one for your project.

13.1 Building an Android ...