android

Playing a Background Music in an Android Game

Posted by jhietterbug on Tue, 01/19/2010 - 09:29

Hi, Sir Robert! This time we'd like to ask for the best way to play a background music in an Android game? The way we do it at the moment is to play the sound using MediaPlayer, but it can only play as long as the Activity where it was started is still alive. However, we want the music to play across different Activities. Is this even possible? If yes, could you please help us out? Thanks!

App Wallpaper Start

Posted by vibes35 on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 10:57

Hi:)

Great site BTW! Thank you for sharing your insights and methods.

I am looking to develop a couple apps that seem to be simple in context yet I am struggling to know where to begin.

I have 12 yrs experience w/ 3d max in a professional setting modeling, texture, render etc.
I am familiar with web development and AS3 (which BTW makes JAVA an easy learning curve)
I have installed Eclipse, JAVA SDK and everything to begin developing apps working :)

Android - How to pause/unpause thread in games

Posted by aywa on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 15:31

Hello,

First of all I would like to thank you because your blog and the information you provide have been a tremendous help for me so far.
I am a new android developer in the middle of creating a simple game with a SurfaceView and a thread (like the Lunar Lander example).

I noticed then when the surface is destroyed or something happens such as an incoming call or the keyboard orientation is changed, it leaves the application in an unpredictable state and it often times crashes.

Help with the Android Lifecycle

Posted by jhietterbug on Fri, 10/02/2009 - 12:07

Hi, I'm back again. We've made good progress from last time thanks to your help. We're almost done with the first draft of the game. Unfortunately, we're having difficulties controlling the application's lifecycle and we pray you could help us out on this one.

ADC2 Judging Has Begun

Posted by Robert Green on Sun, 09/27/2009 - 10:43

The Android Developer's Challenge 2 has begun. The judging application is available for download on the market. If you're not familiar, the ADC is a contest sponsored by Google in which developers submit apps and games for Android. Apps are initially judged by users for a first round. Later, Google judges will be responsible for 60% of the score. The top 3 apps for any given category get a cash prize. An early version of one of my games, Light Racer 3D, is in this contest. Good luck to everyone who entered and thanks to Google for running it!

Animation Woes

Posted by jhietterbug on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 12:15

Hi again! Thanks for your input from last time. We finally managed to create a rough draft of our game with all the controls, timer, score display, etc. It was then that we found out we could actually use surface view with other Android widgets in one screen.

Android - How to load Bitmaps in RGB_565

Posted by Robert Green on Mon, 05/25/2009 - 22:14

In response to the comment by Cass Surek
on Getting Started in Android Game Development

Original Post

Hi Robert,
Yes, the GameResources object appears to be a nice solution to simplify the handling of the various bits of data.

How do you load images on RGB_565 or any of the others?

My problem is that I am currently using the movements of the person with relatively large images at 320x480, with alpha. It works, but it needs improvement as each of these PNGs have around 20k.