How to draw a line in LibGDX?

Libgdx vs Android SDK for Game Development - Which approach is better?

• My friend says that if you start from very basic things like drawing shapes and all it will take very much time and effort as compare to if I use libgdx. He says as far as 2-d games are concerned like angry bird etc. you will never have to actually draw a line and triangles. I just want to enter in the android game development and want to know the pros and cons of libgdx.

• Answer:

  Libgdx is obviously the better choice for starting to develop games for Android. Reasons for not using the Android SDK for game development: First of all, if you are completely new to the Android SDK, you will have to garner a substantial command over the SDK itself. This would mean that initially you would be focusing on the Android SDK rather than the game development itself. Secondly, after learning Android SDK, you will have to shift to a different paradigm encompassing game development techniques. These would include things like OpenGL rendering, game logic, sprite management, model loaders, polygons, math utilities as well as implementing your own physics engine (or setting them up with your Android project in case they are already available). Note that this list can be exhaustive. In all that case, you will limit your creativity by implementing a separate game library before implementing the actual game. If you are focusing on pure game-development on Android, I can find no reason to suggest you to build your game on the Android SDK itself while a much more superior framework is already available for you. However, if you think that Libgdx (or any other framework for that matter) might prove too limited in the long run (for your game/game development), you can go on with implementing your own library that may fulfill your peculiar requirements. Reasons for using Libgdx framework: Firstly, Libgdx will abstract and hide all the underlying native Android SDK code from you. That means that you will not even see a glimpse of the Android SDK while you code for your game. This would generally mean a lower learning curve for starting up with game development concepts (considering that you have no prior experience with that). Secondly, Libgdx is extensive, providing all the tools to start with your game development. Some of its features are as follows: Cross-platform graphics, audio, input, and file i/o abstractions Direct OpenGL ES 1.x and 2.0 access Meshes, textures, framebuffers, shaders and other OpenGL wrappers Sprites, atlases, fonts, particles Linear algebra and geometry utilities 2D scene-graph and UI library Box2D physics and TMX tilemap support 3D model loaders (OBJ, MD2, MD5, Ogre) [work in progress] By using Libgdx, you automatically get a powerful tool set at your disposal. So you will start coding for your game and using these tools as per your need, rather than implementing them on need-per-basis (in case if you have used Android SDK). Thirdly one of the major advantages of Libgdx is that while you create your game for Android, you can build and test it on your Windows, Linux or Mac OS machine. This means that you will save yourself from slow "build and deploy" Android application development cycles. Lastly, Libgdx is a cross-platform library and currently supports the following platforms: Windows Linux Mac OS X Android (1.5+) Javascript/WebGL (GWT) This will allow you to write your code once and deploy it on multiple platforms. About the Libgdx community: Libgdx is an open source project and has a vibrant community to get help from. The API itself is well documented and Libgdx has a great wiki to help you start with your development. Moreover, all the help that you will ask from the community will be focused on game development API rather than anything else. In that time, you may learn several new game development techniques from the community. Links: Libgdx Official Site: http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/ Libgdx Wiki: http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/wiki/TableOfContents?tm=6 Libgdx Forums: http://badlogicgames.com/forum/ Libgdx Source Code: http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/download.html Libgdx Documentation: http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/documentation.html