Learning Libgdx Game Development

by Andreas Oehlke

Are your games limited to one platform? Use our practical guide to libGDX and before long you’ll be developing games that run across multiple platforms, enjoying an increased audience and revenue. Overview In Detail Game development is a field of interdisciplinary skills, which also makes it a very complex topic in many respects. One decision that usually needs to be made at the beginning of a game development processis to define the kind of computer system or platform the game will be developed for. This does not pose any problems in general but as soon as the game should also be able to run on multiple platforms it will become a developer's nightmare to maintain several distinct copies of the same game. This is where the libGDX multi-platform game development framework comes to the rescue! "Learning libGDX Game Development" is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with all the information you need to know about the libGDX framework as well as game development in general so you can start developing your own games for multiple platforms. You will gradually acquire deeper knowledge of both, libGDX and game development while you work through twelve easy-to-follow chapters. "Learning libGDX Game Development" will walk you through a complete game development cycle by creating an example game that is extended with new features over several chapters. These chapters handle specific topics such as organizing resources, managing game scenes and transitions, actors, a menu system, using an advanced physics engine and many more. The chapters are filled with screenshots and/or diagrams to facilitate comprehension. "Learning libGDX Game Development" is the book for you if you want to learn how to write your game code once and run it on a multitude of platforms using libGDX. What you will learn from this book Approach A clear and practical guide to building games in libGDX. Who this book is written for This book is great for Indie and existing game developers, as well as those who want to get started with game development using libGDX. Java game knowledge of game development basics is recommended.

Genres: Programming

388 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Mihail Ivanchev · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently got a copy of this book for professional purposes and thought to comment on it. My conclusion after reading the book is that it’s well worth its money. Do not hesitate much! No matter if you are new to libGDX and looking for the perfect tool for a multi-platform project, you are already acquainted and you want to have a solid libGDX reference around or you want to learn how a game is made – this book is the right choice.

First, I want to congratulate the author, Andreas Oehlke, for his high level of expertise. It immediately becomes apparent that he has worked on many game projects, used many tools and has a profound know-how in the field. He's in my eyes a true professional with passion for the material. The way he explains new concepts and his actions throughout the book is simply great. He focuses on understanding through simplicity instead of trying to impress using complex incomprehensible terms. Reading the book will make you feel the effective knowledge gain instead of becoming more and more frustrated, because you cannot follow.

The book's structure is very clear and understandable. The author first introduces libGDX and provides a short overview of the library’s features. He gives an elaborate tutorial of how to setup libGDX for the different platforms annotated with a huge amount of screenshots demonstrating each small step. I was very satisfied with that, for it considers novice readers without any knowledge of the required technologies and, to a certain extent, readers without any development experience at all. For some unknown reason, no other multi-platform game frameworks are mentioned though. The choice of libGDX would’ve been much better motivated on the background of a comparison of the different options available.

The author than proceeds to show nearly every aspect of libGDX by developing a humorous platformer entitled “Canyon Bunny” step-by-step, introducing new features incrementally. The game’s main character is a cartoony bunny head that gives you a nearly lethal dose of cuteness. Surprisingly, by the end of the book we have an advanced game of quite complex dynamics. It’s not the typical tutorial game with limited scope, no, “Canyon Bunny” supports levels of arbitrary sizes and could get challenging… It features dying and respawning, a finite number of lives, special effects including a carrot blizzard, different game screens, a game options dialog etc. And the best thing is, you will not even feel the level of complexity rising, because it’s happening very gradually. I send all my compliments to the author for his marksmanship at designing and coding. At no point during the book I felt overwhelmed or confused, though I have previous experience developing multi-platform games.

By the last chapter, the reader has a very solid picture of the libGDX ecosystem and should be able to freely use it for her own projects. I was missing a short explanation of how real-world scenarios like adding banner ads, connecting the application to social websites and synchronizing highscores can be handled. Also, no methods for the development of multiplayer games are discussed. I found it amazing that the author introduces you to different game development tools like physical shape editors and music / sound generators. Some were new to me as well. I previously had no idea how easy to use sfxr is. Studying and repeating the code exercises is time well spent. The reader also gets a fairly good idea of the magic that drives a game. There seems to be some some misunderstanding regarding the compatibility of the code with the latest versions of libGDX. The book was developed using the version 0.9.7. Naturally, the library has evolved a bit since then due to the active development cycle and community-driven behaviour. This is not an issue at all, however. As of now, you can get the game running on the latest version by fixing just a couple of self-explanatory compile-time issues. Taking a small look at the current API documentation makes it even easier.

The book misses a proper ending though. It ends rather abruptly right after the last technical chapter. There is no real overview or closing words. Instead the author wishes us good fortune within the summary of the final chapter. The lack of a proper summary is, of course, not necessary as the book still covers all the material, but it was unusual in any case.

On the publisher side I have to criticize the formatting of the book. The text is unjustified for no apparent reason and the figures, diagrams etc. are unlabeled which makes searches difficult. These problems are solvable with a minimal effort.

I hope this is useful to someone!

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a professional game developer. Not yet, but there is progress. ;) I have some experience with Unity 3D, but it isn't really what you would consider open source. And you are a bit limited concerning the free version. So, as I heard of the open source project libgdx I thought that I should give it a try.
On my search for a good documentation on libgdx I stumbled across this nice book. Even if there are many good tutorials and examples out there,
there is nothing really detailed which helps you to get through a complete game development project. This book starts with explaining how to install and configure eclipse to work with libgdx, goes over to some game dev basics and helps you to start a new game project which is extended more and more throughout the book. At the end you have a complete game, called Canyon Bunny, which should run fine on your android device. Further, there is a complete chapter about more advanced parts in game development like particle systems, physics with Box2D, and shader programming. Which are all well explained and added to the game example. If you get stuck at some point, there is also a great libgdx community which will help you out.
So even if you are a complete beginner in software development or have some experience with java this book should help you to get trough.

[Sinu John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that can help you in beginning game development using libgdx. Recommended for anyone who is beginning game dev. It provides a good example and a solid game architecture that one should follow. Definitely a beginners book.
Cons: The author has sticked to providing only one type of game - a side scrolling mario type game. The book doesnt give details about tile map games or other game types.
You can definitely consider this as the starting point of game dev for a novice.

[Ricardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have some knowledge of programming, but with this book I can go deeper.
This book have good tutorials and some examples from the project set-up to music and animations.
If you want to create good java or android games you should learn libgdx and this book will help you.
At the end, you should be able to create your own game.

[TheOldWoman&TheSea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is an ok book to see what Libgdx can do. The author goes through all the steps required to make a simple platformer.
I feel that creating a class for every game asset however is not very practical.

[Tolga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to begin learning game development concepts.

[John Horton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each and every chapter introduces a new concept or two:

Setting up your development environment (The only topic which isn't fun)
Engine design
Loading graphics
level design and implementation
Adding characters, collectibles and power-ups
Options menus and home screens
Adding special graphical effects
Animating game objects and characters
Seriously cool angry-birds-like 2d physics
etc.

and each and every chapter breezes through the code.

Highly recommended!