Preface

Making games is addictive and very rewarding, it can be hard to stop once you get started. The problem comes when we reach a stumbling block because we don't know how to implement a feature, or perhaps integrate it into our game. This book is a whirlwind tour of as many Android 2D gaming features that can possibly be squeezed into 11 chapters.

Every line of the code used to build three games of increasing difficulty is shown in the text of the book and explained in a straightforward manner.

Steadily build up to implement a flexible and advanced game engine that uses OpenGL ES 2 for fast smooth frame rates. This is achieved by starting with a simple game and gradually increasing the complexity of the three complete games built step by step.

Implement cool features like sprite sheet character animation and scrolling parallax backgrounds. Design and implement genuinely challenging and playable platform game levels.

Learn to code both basic and advanced collision detection. Make simple the math behind 2D rotation, velocity, and collision. Run your game designs at 60 frames per second or better.

Process multi-touch screen input. Implement a multitude of other game features like pickups, firing weapons, HUDs, generating and playing sound FX, scenery, level transition, high scores, and more.