I've been developing games for Android over the last year and I can definitely see why we haven't seen the explosion of high quality games on Android that we've seen on other platforms. For the typical game developer, there are too many obstacles to overcome.
Personally, I've devoted a lot of effort to develop an 3D engine using the NDK that works quite well. Still, I can't imagine how much time I would have saved if there was a better SDK for games. I put in the time to make things work on Android because I believe in the platform and I think it has great potential for games. I can't imagine the most developers spending the same amount of time when there are easier options on other platforms. That said, I really think it would benefit Android game developers and the Android platform in general if Google would release a games SDK that included the following features: 1) Native APIs for OpenGL, sound, input, files, asset loading, etc. 2) Java-less process. In other words, no need to create a thin Java layer/entry point or complicated JNI. If needed, this layer can be generated seamlessly by the build system. 3) Minimal replacement for AndroidManifest.xml for the user to specify requirements for dpi, OpenGL verison, permissions, etc I think if such an SDK released as a "games SDK" that didn't include most of the functionality available in the Java Android Framework, it wouldn't fragment the development community at all. What do you guys think? Any further suggestions or thoughts on something like this? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
