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 ...