Game Development On Android 211
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Soulskill
from the pong-on-a-positronic-net dept.
from the pong-on-a-positronic-net dept.
Gamasutra is running an article about the state of game development on Android. The author explains some of the strengths and weaknesses of the platform, and makes comparisons to development on the iPhone. Quoting:
"While iPhone apps are written in Objective C, the Android SDK uses relatively more programmer-friendly Java. The iPhone store charges developers $99 a year to distribute their apps, while Android has a one-time $25 fee for developers. And the review process for iPhone apps grows increasingly lengthy — sometimes weeks or more — and it's somewhat arcane. Android apps go live as soon as the developer hits the publish button. Google handles the review process post-hoc, and is much more lax in terms of content. ... For now, if a developer decides to implement a game exclusively for a particular smartphone platform, and the choice is between the iPhone and Android, the tradeoff is between trying to get noticed in an incredibly crowded and competitive market where the potential payoff is huge for those at the top, or entering a market with low barriers, little competition, currently low returns, but the possibility of potential growth."
opinion (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:opinion (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not really a problem in PC, it can be assumed everyone has atleast keyboard and a mouse and if you're playing games, graphics card too. What it comes down to is if you have enough RAM, CPU and powerful enough graphics card and you can see the requirements from the package (or online).
Phones are different because of the actual hardware differences. Like you said, some phones might have (multi)touch or not, physical keyboard or just software keyboard, 3d acceleration, different types of physical keyboards, different resolutions and so on. Since iPhone is always the same kind, it's easier to develop to it.
However for Windows Mobile and Symbian game developers have usually released different versions for different devices. It might create more barrier for an indie developer to entry the market because they have to test their software on all the supported devices and make adjustments, but for studios it's not so much work. But then again, big studios port their games to all platforms; Symbian, WM, iPhone and Android.
But Java on Android.. meh.
Re:Seems a trifle disingenuous to me (Score:5, Interesting)
You're being shortsighted though. While your numbers might currently be true, you're not seeing the big picture in all of this. Apple is 2 years old on the market, they are past their initial launch boost and they have exactly 1 product with different capacities.
Android is less than a year old on the market, many of the Android devices are announced and coming this fall/winter. They have many more carrier deals than the iPhone has, and already more devices. Expect the tables to turn in 1-2 years. Apple will become the niche and Android will be everywhere. That is if they manage to supplant Symbian which right now has 3 times more market share than the iPhone and Android put together.
Re:Seems a trifle disingenuous to me (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Seems a trifle disingenuous to me (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Windows Mobile is on a lot of different devices but according to Canalysis, the iPhone outsold all WM devices combined worldwide last quarter.
2. Rob Glaser, founder and C.E.O. of RealNetworks (circa 2003), ''It's absolutely clear now why five years from now, Apple will have 3 to 5 percent of the player market.'' Plays4Sure devices were suppose to overtake Apple and leave Apple a niche player....
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/magazine/30IPOD.html?ei=5007&en=750c9021e58923d5&ex=1386133200&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position= [nytimes.com]
Re:Seems a trifle disingenuous to me (Score:2, Interesting)
I can't agree with this entirely, you're forgetting that there was life (or rather, there were smartphones) before the iPhone. It's not like there was nothing before, but iPhone wiped the floor and really set the standard.
3 years ago, everyone was clamouring over the new motorola, nokia, treo or what have you. The market was segmented, lots of different standards (anyone remember nGage?), OSes, and phone brands. Then all of a sudden comes the iPhone - one phone, one supplier, one app store, one development environment, and bam, completely flattens everything else. The only remaining phones from beforehand are others with strong brands and purpose/identities - namely the Blackberry.
I don't see how a varied approach can beat the iPhone, in the mainstream arena. It's just too complicated for most people to go back down the multiple options route. To usurp the iPhone, something needs a killer device, and a killer app. You're not going to get something as impactful without a joined-up approach.
Having said that, I'm an iPhone user, really looking forward to Android, and may even develop for it (I hated Objective C and in particular XCode), but I'm a techie, not mainstream. I had a treo, lots of palm apps. Most people want a phone that looks cool, plays good games, has good music playing capability and is fun to use. The iPhone does these incredibly well and simply.
Android will hopefully take off and become a really great niche player for those of us into it, but the iPhone has practically defined the market and expectations single-handedly for mainstream smartphones, and it'll take one hell of an effort to beat that.
Re:Seems a trifle disingenuous to me (Score:3, Interesting)
Think about it this way. If you need to lubricate something (not like that), what kind of lubricant do you reach for? Most people would say WD-40. Yet WD-40 is general purpose, only sells one type of oil, and really hasn't changed in something like 40 years. Having a good reputation is the key. That gets diminished when you put your platform on different hardware. Why do you think Microsoft decided to produce the Zune as a different device than the PlaysForSure shotgun approach before it? They found that in the handheld gadget arena people stick with brands rather than platforms. So they had to craft their own brand separate from their own existing platform.
Re:opinion (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Seems a trifle disingenuous to me (Score:2, Interesting)
Android already has passed up iPhone. Multitasking. Scripting languages. Open application development. All things that Apple has chosen to withhold from the market and all things that will enable users to do more with their android phone. Oh, that and laying the foundation for establishing the standard for open handsets - literally and figuratively.
Re:opinion (Score:3, Interesting)
It might create more barrier for an indie developer to entry the market because they have to test their software on all the supported devices and make adjustments, but for studios it's not so much work.
Indeed, but to add to that, it's far less work that porting to another platform such as the Iphone.
A developer can pick whatever phone they like to develop for. If it turns out that some of those share a common platform (such as Windows, Android, etc) that make it relatively easy to run on other devices, in no way is that a bad thing. It makes it a lot easier to port than it would if you'd picked the Iphone - and even if you don't care about that, you're certainly not worse off...
Once again, Apple fans spin a negative point (every phone being incompatible with it) into somehow being something good.
Re:opinion (Score:4, Interesting)
One could easily say the same about Objective C on the iPhone. It's no Sunday walk in the park.
A programming language is a programming language. They all have features that people like and dislike. With Obj. C 2.0, Apple has made quite a few strides in making Obj. C programming much easier, with things like properties replacing your standard setter/getter methods & allowing for dot notation. The only real pain is that the iPhone doesn't support garbage collection due to performance issues, so you still need to manage your memory. Obj. C is also pretty verbose, but with CodeSense that doesn't matter much. Most people who complain about Obj. C probably haven't spent the week or so it takes to learn all of the nuances. There's even a book out now called Learn Objective-C for Java Developers [tr.im] which helps to bridge the gap.
Re:opinion (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:opinion (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:opinion (Score:5, Interesting)
Just sayin'.