At GameZoneStudeio, 2011-10-02 Villanella Antwerp, BE

1. Welcome to Android!
Arjan Scherpenisse
MiracleThings
http://miraclethings.nl/
10 september 2011

2. Overview

About me
 Android background – What and why

System overview
 Installing the SDK

Create your own game!

3. About me

Mixed background
 Computer science (AI, UvA class of 2005)
 Unstable Media Art (Rietveld, class of 2009)
 Now: independent software developer

Projects range from web development to “creative
media art”

4. hacking a knitting machine...
http://miraclethings.nl/id/852

5. ...to knit the score board of a game

6. Playing ping-pong over the internet

7. ...using a DIY pingpong-ball canon

8. Android background

Popular open-source mobile phone OS
 “all applications are equal model”

Application framework
 Webkit browser
 OpenGL for graphics
 SQLite for data storage
 Media support: audio, video, images, …
 Sensors: camera, GPS, compass, ...

9. Android building blocks

Activities
 Views

Intents
 Services

Notifications
 Content Providers
 AndroidManifest.xml

10. Android building blocks

Activities
 Stacked deck of cards
 Only one is visible
 Only one is active
 New activities are placed on top
 Activities can be in different states
 Active, paused, stopped, dropped

11. Android building blocks

Views
 Basic building blocks, the
“controls”
 Know how to draw
themselves

Respond to events

12. Android building blocks

Intents
 Used to move between Activities

“I want to take a picture”
 “I want to open the highscore screen”

13. Installing the SDK
1) Install Eclipse 3.6 2) Install Android SDK
Development environment SDK

14. Installation: step-by-step
 First Eclipse:
 http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
 Choose: Eclipse Classic 3.7.1
 Then Android SDK:
 http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
 Then ADT plugin for Eclipse:
 In Eclipse: Help > Install New Software....
 https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
 When done, set “SDK Location” in Eclipse Android
preferences

15. Android Emulator

16. Let's Snake!

17. What's next:

Create new project from example, “Snake”
 Try running it
 in the emulator
 on your phone

Make the game cooler:
 Better collision detection
 New graphics?
 Change speed of the game, difficulty levels
 Highscores?
 …..