Android 2D engines... Any good'uns?

Community Forums/General Help/Android 2D engines... Any good'uns?

Dabhand(Posted 2010) [#1]
Does anyone recommend a solid 2D game engine for Android?

I've played with a few, but in reality, they are either bugged to the hilt, unsupported or just a general mud pool to pick through.

Ones that I have tried:-

Rokon - Seemed to be just the ticket, a shame the author has abandoned his broken website (And all the docs) and as such declared on his googlecode page that life is top priority (Which is fair do's really)

Cocos2D (The Jar file one) - This seemed canny too, but alas, it has a few nasty bugs in that I really realy dont want to have hanging.

Cocos2D (The SVN one) - SVN'd the source and ended up with what can only be described as a shed load of examples, and with no real documentation to show how I could rip its heart out and use that for my own.

BMX2 - *Waves fist at mark for not responding to my email a few months ago* ;) Granted I havent tried THAT one... Would of been nice though!

Only other thing I can think of is the Airplay SDK, but, surely, there must be something out there!?!

Dabz

Last edited 2010


Dabhand(Posted 2010) [#2]
Well, I've stumbled on this...

http://code.google.com/p/candroidengine/

At the minute, it seems okay, first job was getting a sprite up in an app, then going from the app back into the menu/home then going back in to see if the sprites dont get corrupted (Which is one of the bugs from Cocos2D Jar edition)

See how she holds up! :D

Dabz


Dabhand(Posted 2010) [#3]
Tried the Airplay SDK, thats pretty cool, managed to deploy an app to my Android phone! \o/

Think I've found a winner! :)

Dabz


Hotshot2005(Posted 2010) [#4]
DABHAND "Android NUTS" Ha Ha Ha :)


Dud(Posted 2010) [#5]
http://www.andengine.org/


okee(Posted 2010) [#6]
There's also Corona
http://www.anscamobile.com/


Robert Cummings(Posted 2010) [#7]
I rather think what BRL have up their sleeves is worth waiting for...


Dabhand(Posted 2010) [#8]
Well, I'm currently playing with libgdx: http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/

And finding it pretty cool and simple and its given me the best results... Theres great examples, documentation and its pretty easy to setup with no real hassle, granted, its not high-level, but high enough to get things done pretty quickly, plus, you can build your games and test on the desktop, then setup an Android project that imports the desktop project, write 6 lines of code and bang, you can compile and run that on your device/emulator!

Out of them all I've tried so far, this one shines for me!


I rather think what BRL have up their sleeves is worth waiting for...



Well, that is true, but if I'm playing about now with this and make something, then alls good, if I dont and BRL's product comes out, at least I have a bit of a head start on the platform, but seriously, the API is pretty big in libgdx, and I very much doubt theres nothing much you cannot do with it, so I think its a simple case of plodding on and not relying on the auld eggs and baskets scenerio!

Dabz


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#9]
Thanks for pointing out Corona, I hadn't tried it before and I'm really liking it.


EOF(Posted 2010) [#10]
@Dabhand

I have been tinkering with the libGDX library and manged to get the Helloworld running (despite the readme having a few errors)
However, I don't know how to import and successfully launch other things like the invaders demo. Any general tips you could share?

Its just the process of importing and launching of external projects I am not sure about?
Thanks


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#11]
Yesterday I finally got around to programming something of my own in Corona in order to start learning it. Two hours later I had a basic racing game running on my iPhone, and I'll test it on my fiancee's Droid tonight. This is to mobile game development what Blitz was to 3D game development.


Dabhand(Posted 2010) [#12]
Oops, sorry about the Delay Jim

I had that running on my android phone! :D

I done it through SVN using Eclispes SVN plugin, just download via that and it should automagically create the two projects, one for the desktop and one for the Android!

Dabz


Sledge(Posted 2010) [#13]
Yesterday I finally got around to programming something of my own in Corona...This is to mobile game development what Blitz was to 3D game development.
Just downloaded it for a tinker -- looks really good but I wish it were not subscription-based.


EOF(Posted 2010) [#14]
Thanks Dabs. I finally got the demos running (via importing Android 2.0 SDK into the project)


Yahfree(Posted 2010) [#15]
Hey I'm dabbing in some android stuff too Dabz :)

What have you found to be the best? I'm having the most success with Andengine.

I think I might write an app first, since it seems to be easier.