Hello interested people,

I would like to share with you some information about my current project.

Now let's get a few things clear first:
- I will not go in-depth revealing all the ideas I have for the project.
- I will share my style of working, analyzing problems and looking at the big picture.
- I would like this topic to be open for discussions on different methods of tackling the challenges that come with projects.
- It will not be something groundbreaking. So please, don't expect too much.
- I will post longly in this topic, discussing the things I encountered and continue to face.

Okay, now that we have that cleared, I decided to venture into the endless world of Android Game Development.

Here are a few things that quickly came to mind:
1. The market is full of free, low quality, big-sized games.
2. It's a miracle if you can stumble on a game that has high-quality and good gameplay.
3. People will still download and even pay for games, even the ones under point 1.

Since I am new to this development platform and world, I decided to start off with a really simple game idea. Being simple isn't an excuse for quality however.
Few notes on selecting a target idea:
- If it will be an endless game that bets on addictive gameplay - do not try to think it through from the start.
- If it will be a real game project, with a storyline and basically an actual idea - sit down and make a good list of what you want from it. Also, you can't do this type without doing the first one.

So, it goes without saying that I stuck on the first type. I decided on a simple game and just said to myself "Yes there are many like it, but mine will top them all."

So my actual game?
A platformer where you are a ball(for now) and you need to jump up and up and up through the tower.
Simple enough, so I set myself some goals:
I want it to be 3D, even if it's unneeded for the gameplay style.
I want it to be damn pretty.
Not many other goals for now .

Even before I started I ran into some problems:
- What language to use?
- Where to start with the coding?
- Personal checkpoints.

Aaaand... enough talking for now. In my next post I will start by answering these questions and moving on.

I do hope someone actually went through and read this. I will do my best to make this somewhat interesting to read and hopefully even add something useful into it.

If you have any comments, please do share them!
If you think this will be boring or I suck at writing, tell me now so I can stop .

Until next time,
-aroticoz

Well i think first thing is first, you really need to out the idea for your game, and quickly decide from the get go, whether you want it to be a native game, or one that can be played with just a browser(this does open it up to the iPhone and BlackBerries too).
the problem you have there, is although its gonna be simple, im not sure finding your way to the top is gonna be all that addictive in the end. Might need to think that through a bit more imo

Ah Linky,

I am making it native for Android, but the way I am building it will allow me to port it to browser and iPhone based in literally less than a couple of hours.

As far as the idea, there will be a scoring module of course, but I do have many other ideas. The further up you go, the more different it will get, with different things happening. I Don't wanna reveal them for the moment as I am in the process of choosing what to use and what not, but I can assure you I've thought out on how to make it interesting.

Also this topic will describe my journey into finishing it

-aroticoz

I once developed a similar game for android.
It was a copy of the old Rapid Roll game, you are a ball, and platforms are moving towards top,
you must not touch the top OR fall down, gotta stay on platforms.

Once i created all that, the control method fucked me up, since android HATES the touch screen.

Every time you'd touch the screen, all CPU power would go to the touch process, and the game would lag like hell.

You would use Java of course, but im about to try Necessitas.

I'll report back when i test it out, see how Qt handles the android events etc.

well for something like that wouldn't it make more sense to use the accelerometer Biber?

Like Doodle Jump ?

i didn't even know about that at the time, i don't have an android phone xD
so also, idk how would i test it in the simulator....hmm maybe rotatin' my monitor xD

lmao fair point, does kinda make deving for em a little harder if you dont have one...

@InfinitY sort of like it, but different

@Biber, I did tests with multi-touch buttons and accelerometer control and seems to be working just fine on my own device. Shall see how it goes.

Also indeed I will be using Java, for now, but at a bit later point I will migrate it to C#.

More info on my behalf, soon to come.

-aroticoz

Yeah, that's why i mentioned necessitas, it brings c++/Qt to android.