Started to write some game prototype...

[EgonOlsen]

I used some classes from Robombs to create a very early prototype of some game. I'm not sure what exactly this is going to be. Right now, you can make this white sphere jump around in the level by pointing to the new position. The idea is to create a kind on indirect movement, where you just specify the target location, not the exact path to it. This is because i'm unhappy with ~90% of the controls that i found in games for Android and i *think* that this might work better for some kind of games. Anyway, it looks like this (it runs a bit faster on the actual device, around 20 fps):

[zammbi]

Looks good, I'm happy to test when your ready

[EgonOlsen]

The prototype has improved somewhat and now looks like this (screen shot taken from the actual device):



In the screen shot, you can see a part of the level, the player and some flags that mark the path to the choosen target towards which the player is moving.

I've learned several things while coding this:

• garbage collection sucks on Dalvik. The hickups are really noticable, so try to avoid object creation whenever possible.
• the GPU's texture cache has a hard time if the textures aren't applied in the way it likes it best. What that means is that rotating a polygon by 90 degree can result in a noticable performance drop...not nice.
• i've still no idea what kind of game play this should have at the end to be at least some fun...

[zammbi]

Could make it that you need to collect all gems/coins in a stage while avoiding death by traps, enemies and what not.
Basically a puzzle game.

[EgonOlsen]

Yeah, something like that...

[dl.zerocool]

it looks great !

[dl.zerocool]

At the moment I'm fighting with sensors...
I don't understand how to detect if the screen is looking to sky (user looking to the ground) and when the phone is turned screen down (user looking to sky).
Using sensors is real mess !

EDIT :
found something very useful to understand how it works.
http://code.google.com/p/androgames-sample/

[EgonOlsen]

Might be useful. However, i'm not going to use tilt controls as i don't really like them for most games (they are ok for some ball games though). While playing, i want to look directly at the screen...not in some weird  angle just because i'm trying to move the player.

[dl.zerocool]

I understand, but our goal is to imitate augmented reality without using picture detection.
We just use sensors to move around  

Of course it's less precise, but lot's more easy in the time we have

[fir3d]

any chance of an apk demo. I saw the test app on the android page and was amazed. I like to see the possibilities of the phone. I'm still learning making basic android applications, hopefully then I can dive into some graphics.

[EgonOlsen]

Maybe later. I still have no good idea what kind of game to make based on this...if any...