- The Mobile Game Market
- The World of Computer Games
- AndEngine Examples
- Summary
- Exercises
AndEngine Examples
We will be using the AndEngine game platform in the rest of this book, so now would be a good time for you to get a taste of what that game engine can do. Scores of games built using AndEngine are available on Android Market, but instead of downloading another game, let's download an example program that demonstrates many of the features of AndEngine.
Nicolas Gramlich, the lead developer for AndEngine, created the example program, and has made it available on Android Market for free. Go to Android Market from an Android device, and search for "AndEngine Example." You should get the screen shown in Figure 1.4.
Figure 1.4 AndEngine download from Android Market
Nicolas has generously made the source for AndEngine Examples available as well (at http://code.google.com/p/andengineexamples/). These resources are excellent references for how features can be used. If you prefer (or if you don't have access to Android Market for some reason), you can download the .apk installation file from that site, and load it onto your Android device (or the emulator) using adb (Android Debug Bridge). We'll get into building source in more detail in Chapter 12. For now, just install the app on your phone, and start it up. You will see a menu of features, as shown in Figure 1.5.
Figure 1.5 AndEngine start-up screen
The menu items form a hierarchy of options, each of which demonstrates one aspect of the AndEngine platform. Take some time now to just play with the examples to get a taste of what AndEngine can enable your game to do.