book

Beginning Android C++ Game Development

by Bruce Sutherland

August 2013

Beginner to intermediate

316 pages

7h 44m

English

Apress

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A Brief History of Video GamesWho Makes Games?The Difference between Computer Games and Board GamesComparing Mobile Phones to Game ConsolesAn Overview of Game EnginesSummary
Java and the Dalvik Virtual MachineC++ and the NDKFragmentation and the Android EcosystemHelloDroid - Our First Android GameSummary
An Introduction to Design DocumentsCreating a World, Telling a Story, and Setting the SceneLevel DesignTechnical RequirementsSummary

Creating an Application ObjectCreating the Game Loop Using a Kernel and TasksAndroid’s Native App GlueTimekeepingSummary
Initializing the Window and OpenGL Using EGLAn Introduction to ShadersRendering a Quad with OpenGLApplying Textures to GeometrySummary
What Is a Game Entity?Communicating with Game Objects via EventsRendering an ObjectThe Player ObjectMaking the Player JumpA Basic AI EntitySummary
Representing Game World Objects with Collision DataBuilding a Game LevelBroad-Phase FilteringNarrow-Phase Collision DetectionResponding to CollisionsRunning the Collision TestUsing the Z BufferSummary
The Model and View MatricesThe Projection MatrixDefining a Camera ObjectUpdating the RendererConcatenating the Model, View, and Projection MatricesUpdating the Camera’s TransformAdding a Camera to DroidRunnerLevelProper App Behavior When Pausing and ResumingView Frustum CullingThe View Frustum Culling TestSummary
A Basic Lighting and Material ModelPer-Vertex or Per-Fragment ShadingRepresenting MaterialsAmbient LightingVertex NormalsDiffuse LightingSpecular LightingDifferent Types of LightsSummary
The Physics of SoundAudacityCreating a Jump Sound Effect with AudacityPlaying Audio Using OpenSL ESSummary
The Google Play Developer ConsoleKeys, Keystore, and Digital SignaturesSigning an APK for the Play StoreUploading to the Google Play Developer CenterMonetizationApp QualitySummary
Setting Up the Android SDK and EclipseInstalling the Android NDKBuilding a Native App
CPU ArchitecturesGPU Architectures
The Friend KeywordTemplatesThe Singleton Pattern
VectorsMatricesPlanes

Overview

Beginning Android C++ Game Development introduces general and Android game developers like you to Android's powerful Native Development Kit (NDK). The Android NDK platform allows you to build the most sophisticated, complex and best performing game apps that leverage C++. In short, you learn to build professional looking and performing game apps like the book's case study, Droid Runner.

In this book, you'll learn all the major aspects of game design and programming using the Android NDK and be ready to submit your first professional video game app to Google Play and Amazon Appstore for today's Android smartphones and tablet users to download and play.

The techniques contained in this book include building a game engine, writing a renderer, and building a full game app with entities, game levels and collisions. As part of the tutorial you'll also learn about inserting perspectives using cameras and including audio in your game app.

What you'll learn

How to build your first real-world quality game app for Android smartphones and tablets using the power of the Android C++ APIs as found in the NDK

How to do professional level, quality game design, starting the Droid Runner case study that's used throughout this book to illustrate the key concepts

How to build a game engine

How to write a renderer

How to build the Droid Runner game app with entities, game levels and collisions

How to insert perspectives using cameras and more

How to create or integrate audio into your game app

How to submit to the Android app stores like Google Play and Amazon Appstore

Who this book is for

This book is for game developers looking to get into Android development for the first time, as well as Android game developers who have never used the Native Development Kit (NDK).