Android Programming for Beginners - Second Edition

The game loop

What is a game loop, anyway? Almost every live drawing/graphics/game has a game loop. Even games you might suspect do not, such as turn-based games, still need to synchronize player input with drawing and AI, while following the rules of the underlying operating system.

There is a constant need to update the objects in the app, perhaps by moving them. You need to draw everything in its current position at the same time as responding to user input. A diagram might help:

Our game loop is comprised of three main phases:

1. Update all game/drawing objects by moving them, detecting collisions, and processing the artificial intelligence like ...