Learning LibGDX Game Development - Second Edition

Suryakumar Balakrishnan Nair, Andreas Oehlke

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781783554782
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming Games
• Index: Computer Science

About This Book

• Write your game code once and run it on a multitude of platforms using LibGDX
• Learn about the key features of LibGDX that will ease and speed up your development cycles
• An easy-to-follow, comprehensive guide that will help you develop games in LibGDX successfully

Who This Book Is For

This book is aimed at indie and existing game developers as well as those who want to get started with game development using LibGDX. Basic knowledge of Java programming and game development is required.

Learning LibGDX Game Development Second Edition

---

Table of Contents

Learning LibGDX Game Development Second Edition

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Introduction to LibGDX and Project Setup

Diving into LibGDX

Features of LibGDX 1.2.0

Graphics

Audio

Input handling

File I/O and storage

Math and physics

Utilities

Tools

Getting in touch with the community

Prerequisites to install and configure LibGDX

Java Development Kit

Eclipse – Integrated Development Environment

Downloading LibGDX

Installing Android SDK

Running Eclipse and installing plugins

Creating a new application

Using the old setup tool

Using the Gradle-based setup

gdx-setup versus gdx-setup-ui

Kicking your game to life

Key to success lies in planning

Game project – Canyon Bunny

Description of the game

Summary

2. Cross-platform Development – Build Once, Deploy Anywhere

The demo application – how the projects work together

LibGDX backends

Lightweight Java Game Library

Android

WebGL

RoboVM (iOS backend)

LibGDX core modules

The application module

Logging

Shutting down gracefully

Persisting data

Querying the Android API level

Querying the platform type

Querying the memory usage

Multithreading

The graphics module

Querying delta time

Querying display size

Querying the frames per second (FPS) counter

The audio module

Sound playback

Music streaming

The input module

Reading the keyboard/touch/mouse input

Reading the accelerometer

Starting and canceling vibrator

Catching Android's soft keys

The files module

Getting an internal file handle

Getting an external file handle

The network module

HTTP requests

Client/server sockets

Opening a URI in a web browser

LibGDX's application life cycle and interface

Starter classes

Running the demo application on a desktop

Running the demo application on Android

Running the demo application in a WebGL-capable web browser

Running the demo application on an iOS device

The demo application – time for code

Inspecting an example code of the demo application

The create() method

The render() method

The dispose() method

Having fun with the debugger and Code Hot Swapping

Summary

3. Configuring the Game

Setting up the Canyon Bunny project

Using a class diagram for Canyon Bunny

Laying foundations

Implementing the Constants class

Implementing the CanyonBunnyMain class

Implementing the WorldController class

Implementing the WorldRenderer class

Putting it all together

Building the game loop

Adding the test sprites

Adding the game world's debug controls

Adding the CameraHelper class

Adding the camera debug controls using CameraHelper

Summary

4. Gathering Resources

Setting up a custom Android application icon

Setting up a custom iOS application icon

Creating the texture atlases

Loading and tracking assets

Organizing the assets

Testing the assets

Handling level data

Summary

5. Making a Scene

Creating game objects

The rock object

The mountains object

The water overlay object

The clouds object

Implementing the level loader

Assembling the game world

Implementing the game GUI

The GUI score

The GUI extra lives

The GUI FPS counter

Rendering the GUI

Summary

6. Adding the Actors

Implementing the actor game objects

Creating the gold coin object

Creating the feather object

Creating the bunny head object

Updating the rock object

Completing the level loader

Adding the game logic

Adding collision detection

Losing lives, game over, and fixing the camera

Adding the game over text and the feather icon to the GUI

Summary

7. Menus and Options

Managing multiple screens

Exploring Scene2D UI, TableLayout, and skins

Using LibGDX's scene graph for the menu UI

Building the scene for the menu screen

Adding the background layer

Adding the objects layer

Adding the logos layer

Adding the controls layer

Adding the Options window layer

Building the Options window

Using the game settings

Summary

8. Special Effects

Creating complex effects with particle systems

Adding a dust particle effect to the player character

Moving the clouds

Smoothing with linear interpolation (Lerp)

Letting the rocks float on the water

Adding parallax scrolling to the mountains in the background

Enhancing the game screen's GUI

Event – player lost a life

Event – score increased

Summary

9. Screen Transitions

Adding the screen transition capability

Implementing the transition effects

Knowing about interpolation algorithms

Creating a fade transition effect

Creating a slide transition effect

Creating a slice transition effect

Summary

10. Managing the Music and Sound Effects

Playing back the music and sound effects

Exploring the Sound interface

Exploring the Music interface

Accessing the audio device directly

Exploring the AudioDevice interface

Exploring the AudioRecorder interface

Using sound generators

The sfxr generator

The cfxr generator

The bfxr generator

Adding music and sounds to Canyon Bunny

Summary

11. Advanced Programming Techniques

Simulating physics with Box2D

Exploring the concepts of Box2D

Understanding the rigid bodies

Choosing the body types

Using shapes

Using fixtures

Simulating physics in the world

Physics body editor

Adding Box2D

Adding Box2D dependency in Gradle

For non-Gradle users

Preparing Canyon Bunny for raining carrots

Adding the new assets

Adding the carrot game object

Adding the goal game object

Extending the level

Letting it rain carrots

Working with shaders in LibGDX

Creating a monochrome filter shader program

Using the monochrome filter shader program in Canyon Bunny

Adding alternative input controls

Summary

12. Animations

Manipulating actors through actions

Actions for manipulating actors

Controlling the order and time of execution

Animating the menu screen

Animating the gold coins and bunny head actors

Animating the menu buttons and options window

Using sequences of images for animations

Packing animations using TexturePacker

Choosing between animation pl...