Tutorial 1.1: Preppers - First tools needed

[DP News-Robot]

So… what exctly do you need for making a game? No hammer and nails, that’s for sure. I guess many roads lead to Rome, but in my case I bought a gun and panties, and asked a friend if he could drive me to the computer store. Asked him to keep waiting there, WITH A RUNNING ENGINE. When he asked "why?", I just said "you'll see", while grabbing the panties.


So, after almost kicking in the door (it automatically opened), I yelled: "Hand it all over scumbag! I know you have some VERY, expensive, Visual Studio under that D#mn counter!". "Wha-wha-what? Why?", the dude said, and for some reason he had that nervous grin on his face. "I SAID! give-me-all-your-Visual Studio, or Delphi, or whatever pricey programming stuff you got there! I need to make a game.". Dude started nervously stuttering again "W-wha-what?!". "Say "what" one more time! A GAME! For the PHONE!". "Bu-But sir", he began, "You don't need expensive Visual Studio or Delphi for that! I always make my games with Android Studio & LibGDX - and, why are you wearing panties sir?".


Did I know that panties were meant for covering your face, I'm not a damn bank robber! And how should I know about "LibGDX, or whatever it was called? Oh, and how the hell was I supposed to know you're not allowed to park a car in front of that shop. Friend got a fine, was pissed off, drove off, and I had to walk all the way home. In panties.


I should have googled first, because after 3 seconds I found out that, indeed, there is a free (open source) library called LibGX. Written for the Java platform, and focussing mainly on 2D/sprite games on mobile platforms like Android and iOS. Well, ok then. Instead of guns and panties, your groceries list should look like this:

· Download “Android Studio”. Or Eclipse, if you prefer (or if you have an iPhone)
o Already had Android Studio here, but had to update a dozen modules.
o Which took a long time, so that’s why I wrote this bullshit story
o You may need to download / update Java SDK as well
· Go to the LibGDX website. It has a handy “Download Setup App” feature
o This makes a project (folders & files) for you, and downloads the required LibGDX parts
· Get a nice painting program.
o I use an ancient (free) version of Paint Shop Pro. Still does a good job
· Find yourself a phone (using Android here)
o Note Android Studio has a proper Emulator as well, but at some point you want to see “the real thing”
o Make sure your phone has “Developer mode” enabled, and USB debugging unlocked
o Plenty of Youtube clips explaining how to
· Later on, you probably need a microphone and some sound editor as well
o Audacity is pretty simply and free
o https://freesound.org/


The setup phase is always a hassle. Android SDK and tools like Eclipse come in 100 different flavours and options. So expect wasting some time there. My beef was that LibGDX would keep saying "Build tools: 29.0.2" not found. And I could only see a (newer?) version 30 in Android Studio. Probably I missed something, but I had to download that specific version manually, rename the folder, put it in the right sub-folder, and so on. From my past experiences with Android and Eclipse, there was always something stinky with the paths.


But, please hammer through it, it will be worth it. Because once you're at that next step, you'll quickly get some satisfying results.

The LibGDX setup app generated a whole project / folder setup - including targets for iOS, Desktop and Android. Final step was the programming tool. What I didn't knew, is that Android Studio is actually a programming IDE as well, so you don't need Eclipse or Netbeans for programming.
Though... it will probably not help you very much building the code for iOS. Well, that's a concern for later, don't have Apples here anyway.


So you can import the code/project that the LibGDX setup tool just created, and then start programming (Java) within Android Studio. Neat.





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