Android as a gaming platform

[Guest Stevos]

I've been interested in the development issues of android games, and whether low end android phones like the Pulse are suitable for gaming, and came across "Replica Island".

It's encouraging to see smooth scrolling, and a well running game - much smoother and better than any I've seen before running on the pulse. It's released by one of the Google developer advocates (along with a small team I think) and is open source so that people can use it for learning. Available free on the market.

Check it out if you haven't seen it. There's a video talking about some of the development issues here http://developer.android.com/intl/en/video...l#v=U4Bk5rmIpic

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come as more developers start exploring the platform.

[Guest Rem1x]

Just downloaded this yesterday. It's amazing, designed with Android in mind, the trackball and all!

[Guest Stevos]

Just downloaded this yesterday. It's amazing, designed with Android in mind, the trackball and all!

Personally I find that the trackball is a bit sluggish to be used in this way (I also find that it's sluggish in listviews and the app screen - it seems to only work by sending one direction event per movement, rather than based on the size of the movement.) Control systems are sometimes problematic with the iphone/touch stuff as well, as using the touchscreen blocks being able to see what's on the screen. I think perhaps control systems are an area where more work needs to be done on many platforms, but perhaps the variety of input hardware on android makes this more complex ( ? ).

Actually if you look in the options menu, there's an experimental tilt sensor control system to move the android which is interesting to play with, and more responsive. Have a look.

As a tech demo rather than as a game, I'm most interested in how the developer has managed to get the game "physics", rendering and performance to work so well and smoothly. It's noticably better than most of the stuff in the store, and shows what can be achieved on these phones.