Learning Java by building Android games : learn Java and Android from scratch by building five exciting games / John Horton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horton, John, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer games--Development.

Computer games.

Video games--Programming.

Video games.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 660 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

3rd ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2024.

Place of Publication:

Birmingham : Packt Publishing, 2021.

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

Android is one of the most popular mobile operating systems today. It uses the most popular programming language, Java, as one of the primary languages for building apps of all types. Unlike most other Android books, this book doesn’t assume that you have any prior knowledge of Java programming, instead helps you get started with building Android games as a beginner. This new, improved, and updated third edition of Learning Java by Building Android Games helps you to build Android games from scratch. Once you've got to grips with the fundamentals, the difficulty level increases steadily as you explore key Java topics, such as variables, loops, methods, object-oriented programming (OOP), and design patterns while working with up-to-date code and supporting examples. At each stage, you'll be able to test your understanding by implementing the concepts that you’ve learned to develop a game. Toward the end, you’ll build games such as Sub Hunter, Retro Pong, Bullet Hell, Classic Snake, and Scrolling Shooter. By the end of this Java book, you'll not only have a solid understanding of Java and Android basics but will also have developed five cool games for the Android platform.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Contributors

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Java, Android, and Game Development

Technical requirements

Windows

Mac

Linux

What's new in the third edition?

Why Java, Android, and games?

The Java stumbling block

The games we will build

Sub' Hunter

Pong

Bullet Hell

Snake Clone

Scrolling Shooter

How Java and Android work together

Run that by me again - what, exactly, is Android?

Setting up Android Studio

Starting the first project - Sub' Hunter

Android Studio and our project - a very brief guided tour

The Project panel

The Editor window

Refactoring MainActivity to SubHunter

Locking the game to full screen and landscape orientation

Amending the code to use the full screen and the best Android class

Deploying the game so far

Running the game on an Android emulator

Running the game on a real device

Summary

Chapter 2: Java - First Contact

Planning the Sub' Hunter game

The actions flowchart/diagram

Mapping out our code using comments

Introducing Java methods

Overriding methods

Structuring Sub' Hunter with methods

Introducing OOP

Classes and objects

Classes, objects, and instances

A final word on OOP, classes, and objects - for now

Using Java packages

Adding classes by importing packages

Linking up our methods

Chapter 3: Variables, Operators, and Expressions

Handling syntax and jargon

Java variables

Different types of variables

How to use variables

Declaring variables

Initializing variables

Making variables useful with operators

Most used operators in this book

Declaring and initializing the Sub' Hunter variables

Planning the variables

Declaring the variables

Handling different screen sizes and resolutions.

Handling different screen resolutions, part 1 - initializing the variables

Errors, warnings, and bugs

Printing debugging information

Testing the game

Chapter 4: Structuring Code with Java Methods

Methods

Methods revisited and explained further

Method overloading by example

Creating a new project

Coding the method overloading mini-app

Running the method overloading mini-app

Scope - methods and variables

Method recursion

Revisiting the code and methods we have used already

Generating random numbers to deploy a sub

The Random class and the nextInt method

Chapter 5: The Android Canvas Class - Drawing to the Screen

Understanding the Canvas class

Getting started drawing with Bitmap, Canvas, and ImageView

Using the Canvas class

Preparing the objects of classes

Initializing the objects

Setting the Activity content

Canvas Demo app

Android coordinate system

Plotting and drawing

Drawing the Sub' Hunter graphics and text

Preparing to draw

Initializing Canvas, Paint, ImageView, and Bitmap objects

Drawing some gridlines

Drawing the HUD

Upgrading the printDebuggingText method

Chapter 6: Repeating Blocks of Code with Loops

Making decisions with Java

Keeping things tidy

More operators

Java loops

While loops

Do while loops

For loops

Using for loops to draw the Sub' Hunter grid

Chapter 7: Making Decisions with Java If, Else, and Switch

If they come over the bridge, shoot them

Else do this instead

Switching to make decisions

Switch example

Combining different control flow blocks

Using the continue keyword

Making sense of screen touches

Coding the onTouchEvent method

Final tasks

Coding the takeShot method.

Explaining the takeShot method

Coding the boom method

Drawing the shot on the grid

Running the game

Chapter 8: Object-Oriented Programming

Basic object-oriented programming

Humans learn by doing

Why do we do it like this?

Class recap

Looking at the code for a class

Class implementation

Declaring, initializing, and using an object of the class

Basic classes mini-app

Creating your first class

More things we can do with our first class

Encapsulation

Controlling class use with access modifiers

Controlling variable use with access modifiers

Methods have access modifiers too

Accessing private variables with getters and setters

Setting up our objects with constructors

Using "this

Static methods

Encapsulation and static methods mini-app

OOP and inheritance

Inheritance mini-app

Polymorphism

Abstract classes

Interfaces

Starting the Pong game

Planning the Pong game

Setting up the Pong project

Refactoring MainActivity to PongActivity

Locking the game to fullscreen and landscape orientation

Chapter 9: The Game Engine, Threads, and the Game Loop

Coding the PongActivity class

Coding the PongGame class

Thinking ahead about the PongGame class

Adding the member variables

Coding the PongGame constructor

Coding the startNewGame method

Coding the draw method

Understanding the draw method and the SurfaceView class

The game loop

Getting familiar with threads

Problems with threads

Java try-catch exception handling

Implementing the game loop with a thread

Implementing Runnable and providing the run method

Coding the thread

Starting and stopping the thread

The activity lifecycle.

A simplified explanation of the Android lifecycle

Lifecycle phases - what we need to know

Lifecycle phases - what we need to do

Using the activity lifecycle to start and stop the thread

Coding the run method

Chapter 10: Coding the Bat and Ball

The Ball class

Communicating with the game engine

Representing rectangles and squares with RectF

Coding the variables

Coding the Ball constructor

Coding the RectF getter method

Coding the Ball update method

Coding the Ball helper methods

Coding a realistic-ish bounce

Using the Ball class

The Bat class

Coding the Bat variables

Coding the Bat constructor

Coding the Bat helper methods

Coding the Bat's update method

Using the Bat class

Coding the Bat input handling

Chapter 11: Collisions, Sound Effects, and Supporting Different Versions of Android

Handling collisions

Collision detection options

Optimizing the detection methods

Best options for Pong

The RectF intersects method

Handling different versions of Android

Detecting the current Android version

The SoundPool class

Initializing SoundPool the new way

Generating sound effects

Adding sound to the Pong game

Adding the sound variables

Initializing the SoundPool

Coding the collision detection and playing sounds

The bat and the ball

The four walls

Playing the game

Chapter 12: Handling Lots of Data with Arrays

Planning the project

Starting the project

Refactoring MainActivity to BulletHellActivity

Locking the game to full-screen and landscape orientation

Creating the classes

Reusing the Pong engine

Coding the BulletHellActivity class

Coding the BulletHellGame class.

Testing the Bullet Hell engine

Coding the Bullet class

Spawning a bullet

Getting started with Java arrays

Arrays are objects

Simple array example mini-app

Getting dynamic with arrays

Dynamic array example

Entering the nth dimension with arrays

Multidimensional array mini app

Array out of bounds exceptions

Spawning an array of bullets

Chapter 13: Bitmap Graphics and Measuring Time

The Bob (player's) class

Add the Bob graphic to the project

Coding the Bob class

Using the Bob class

Coding the spawnBullet method (again)

The Android Studio Profiler tool

Chapter 14: Java Collections, the Stack, the Heap, and the Garbage Collector

Managing and understanding memory

Variables revisited

Introduction to the Snake game

Looking ahead to the Snake game

Getting started with the Snake game

Refactoring MainActivity to SnakeActivity

Adding some empty classes

Coding SnakeActivity

Adding the sound effects

Coding the game engine

Coding the members

Coding the constructor

Coding the newGame method

Coding the updateRequired method

Coding the update method

Coding the OnTouchEvent method

Coding pause and resume

Chapter 15: Android Localization - Hola!

Making the Snake game Spanish, English, or German

Adding Spanish support

Adding German support

Adding the string resources

Amending the Java code

Running the game in German or Spanish

Chapter 16: Collections and Enumerations

Adding the graphics

Coding the Apple class

The Apple constructor

Using the Apple class

Using arrays in the Snake game.

Understanding ArrayList class.

ISBN:

9781800563124

1800563124

OCLC:

1244623247