Developing Android apps and games: tutorials for programming & development

You would like to develop and program Android games and apps yourself? We’ll show you the best tutorials for creating game apps for the popular Google operating system.

Developing Android apps and games

Develop Android games: programming apps

Whether you’re a budding developer or just for fun, when you start developing apps, programs, and games for Android , everyone starts off small. We looked at the best tutorials for you and introduce you to them below. But beware: learning to program Android games not only takes time, it’s also not easy. So you have to bring a lot of motivation and patience.

Android training from Google itself

Google itself offers detailed help for all budding game developers . However, this is not intended for beginners and additionally only available in English. If you’ve never worked with Java before, you should first avoid this tutorial, but later, if you’re more familiar with programming languages and Java, you can take another look at it because it’s very detailed and covers all aspects of an Android app treated.

Develop Android applications by book

Apps programming android Since information on the Internet is often not as extensive or qualitative as one would wish, it may make sense to first get a programming book for beginners to get started with Android development. These are not that expensive and quite numerous. Here are some examples of books that are all good for you. Of course, you still have to think for yourself.

Develop Android apps: Own gaming apps for readers with programming skills!
Android 4: Develop apps in the Android SDK
Android App Development for Dummies
Program Android apps

As you can see, many tutorials and books are not just about games, but apps in general, but that’s not a disadvantage.

Friday means two things: First, the weekend is upon us. Second, we present the best reduced and free Android apps and games of the week. Included are Rayman Jungle Run, Angry Neighbor, Archery Physics and more.

First we show the reduced Android apps and then work on the free applications. Nevertheless, you should not just skip the first part, because here one or the other bargain can be made. Look through the offers and pick out what suits you. We hope you have fun!

Note: At the time of writing this article, the apps and games for Android were reduced or available for free on the Google Play Store. Of course, that could change over time. So pay attention before buying or download, if the prices and conditions of action still apply.

The development of games not only since the breakthrough of mobile devices – as a difficult and complex issue. In this discipline, developers have to combine different topics and knowledge areas. We give you an overview and introduce frameworks, as well as help for both platforms iOS and Android.

In order to enter the game development, knowledge in mathematics and pyhsics should be available. In order to create even simpler 3D animations vector and matrix calculations are needed. If, for example, realistic jumps (projectile, thrown ball, hopping and jumping) are added to a jump’n run game, there is no way around physical formulas and calculations. What is an “inclined plane” in physics and how calculations are carried out should not be an alien universe. If you want to delve deeper into the game math, then just take a closer look at the various path finding algorithms (“How does the character get from A to B the fastest?”).

Although a lot of work is taken away from frameworks and libraries, mathematical and physical fundamentals are indispensable. In addition to the logical part, of course, there is also the graphics that has become increasingly important, especially nowadays (sometimes unfortunately). 3D modeling, tiles, textures, sprites or map tiles should not be foreign to you. Of course, the subject areas (game design, development, graphics, music,) will of course be divided according to professional game developments, but the connections should be clear.

To implement a game technically on a mobile platform, as always many roads lead to Rome. For a simple 2D game, you can literally fall back on normal views and graphics. But if it gets more elaborate or even goes in the direction of 3D graphics, you will not be able to get around a special software interface to the graphics card. For both the Android and iOS platforms (iPhone, iPad) OpenGL is available.

Together with you, we analyze your ideas, requirements, and objectives and bring them into a coherent, mobile concept. In the implementation, we set as an App Agency on the latest knowledge, technologies and standards. We do not leave you as our customer in the jungle of technical terms. We do not stiffen on specific technologies or platforms.

Web-based, hybrid or native depending on customer requirements

Whether web-based, native or hybrid app programming – we as an agency choose for you, the best solution from a cost-benefit point of view. As a customer, you are the center of attention with your idea. We build up our solution strategies as an app agency around this center. And if you want to know now what Web-based, native or hybrid means – ask us. For personal contact is still our favorite contact, even in the modern, digital age.

Progressive web apps are currently on everyone’s lips and seem to be the trend of the future. In particular, Google has strongly pushed the technology of web-based apps, Apple, however, is currently still something against this type of app development.

But what are these Progressive Web apps exactly, what can they do and above all, what can not they currently do? And do I still need elaborate and expensive developed native apps? We as App-Agency give you the answer to these questions:

What are Progressive Web apps?

A Progressive Web app ( PWA for short ) can be thought of as a mobile website that has additional features and features that were previously reserved for native apps. These include, for example, true offline capability , background processes, access to device features, and support for push messages, In particular, the last point should be interesting for many clients, as the receipt of push messages so far only “real” apps from the app stores were reserved. Progressive web apps now also transport this behavior to web technologies. This means that a website converted into a PWA can also be sent small notifications (keyword: customer loyalty) – even if it is not open at all or the mobile device is in your pocket.

What is the technique behind Progressive Web apps?

As the name implies, Progressive Web apps are based on standard web technologies like HTML5 , CSS3 and Javascript . The layout is either completely optimized for mobile devices (“Mobile First”) or adapts responsively to the different devices and resolutions automatically. The right app feeling comes with progressive Web apps but only through a so-called manifest file and a service worker on. The manifest file defines offline capability and caching behavior. As soon as the user calls the PWA in the browser, it automatically loads the files defined in the manifest into the cache. After that, the PWA will be offline even without an active internet connection.

In addition, a PWA can be installed with a click on the home screen of the device. The next call via the app icon on the home screen, the PWA starts without the familiar browser environment (address bar, back-navigation, bookmarks, etc.) and thus looks like a “real” app for the user.

The service worker is a javascript file or a javascript function that runs in the background – even if the PWA or the browser is closed. This allows background processes such as data synchronization or the already mentioned push functionality to be realized. Ultimately, any website with a manifest file and a Javascript service worker can be turned into a progressive web app. It makes more sense, however, to set equal Javascript and HTML5 frameworks such as Angular , Ionic or React Native .

How can Progressive Web apps be accessed and installed?

Progressive Web apps are – viewed from the outside – mobile websites and are called like these via a normal Internet browser via a domain or sub domain. For example, your company already has a website and would like to make a small order app available as a progressive web app. Then you could set up a sub domain orders.musterfirma-gmbh.de to their website www.musterfirma-gmbh.de and play the order app there. As soon as your customers call the domain orders.musterfirma-gmbh.de on a smartphone (or of course on a normal computer), the Progressive Web app appears in the browser.

On Android devices or current Google Chrome browsers, PWAs are automatically detected (by using the manifest file or service worker) and the user receives a pop-up window that allows them to install the PWA with a click on the home screen. Afterwards, the order app can be opened directly via the app icon on the home screen. The “detour” via the call of the (sub) domain in the browser is actually only necessary at PWAs on the first call. Similar to opening and installing an app from the app stores.

Unfortunately, PWAs are not detected automatically on iOS devices from Apple. Here, the PWA can be added to the home screen via the Safari Toolbar function “Split -> To home screen” by entering a name.

Can Progressive Web apps today replace real / native apps?

Yes and no. Unfortunately, the support is not yet available in all browsers and platforms consistently and fully. Although Apple has finally given up the rejection of PWAs with the introduction of iOS 11.3, the support is still rather rudimentary and somewhat unkindly implemented. For example, push notifications or background processes are not yet supported by Apple.

Although PWAs score with their offline capability, they reach their limits with larger data volumes. For smaller amounts of data, PWAs can indeed work stably, with certain amounts of data usually requiring additional data storage to be explicitly released by the user. Of course, this is not optimal from the point of view of usability. In addition, alternative functions must be implemented if the user does not agree to the extended data storage.

Ultimately, it must be weighed against the requirements of whether the implementation of a Progressive Web app or a real app makes sense.

So are we staying with the native apps or are there alternatives to the Progressive Web apps?

If a progressive web app is not the right option for the reasons mentioned above, there is no need to switch to native app development. Because in the native implementation, a separate code must be written for each platform, in addition, the native development is very complicated and expensive. For at least 80% of all (business) apps , native technologies are simply oversized and far too cost-effective.

It’s a good idea to use so-called hybrid frameworks like Ionic , which combine the best of web-based development and native possibilities – and at a fraction of the development costs of a true native app.

We’ll show you the best tutorials for creating game apps for the popular Google operating system.