The Android gaming industry is on the boom, and more people are adopting mobile gaming as their preferred gaming platform over computers and Xbox. Currently, there are 4,77,000+ games on the play store, and the android gaming industry saw an 11 percent hike in in-game numbers in the first quarter of 2021 (Statista). Looking at the number of android games, developers, using Android studio or Visual studio, showing their interest in gaming development.
Analyzing the above stats, Google had rolled out an Android game development extension kit in a private beta mode. It has been available for all android game developers since July 2021 so that developers can smoothly develop games with Visual Studio software. Let us understand the Android game development extension.
What is an Android Game development extension?
Android game development extension or AGDE is part of the android development kit provided to the developers working in Microsoft visual studio to seamlessly target android with their existing multi-platform game projects. The kit includes libraries and tools required by the game developers and lets developers write flawless codes in C and C++ codes. Although the development kit works better with the android studio but with the recent support for visual studio, developers using Microsoft tool can contribute easily to android gaming development.
Google has recently posted its case studies about Epic games and electronic arts with their successful use of AGDE. Epic games used two development environments for compiling and debugging, which consumed more time and effort from the developers. But with the ADGE, developers can perform both the tasks directly from the Visual studio with a faster and more convenient unity engine development. The same has been enjoyed by the electronic arts developers appreciating the efforts from google to publicly roll out ADGE.
ADGE is a robust kit providing value to Visual Studio users. Let us see some benefits of ADGE.
Benefits of ADGE
Performing important tasks without leaving the exosystem or switching back and forth in two environments, fast speed, and convenience are a few benefits ADGE provides to the android game developers. Let us take a look over a few more benefits of ADGE.
Building
- ADGE easily integrates with the Microsoft build compilers. Linking C++ code with visual studio is easier for Android game development
- Developers can build the project directly in the visual studio environment by integrating Java or Kotlin codes
- Developers enjoy the tools and frameworks available in the Android SDK manager while doing android game development
- The test environment is better and enjoys the benefit of the Android virtual device manager with the emulator snapshots
Debugging
- Debugging support for LLDB is available for developers during debugging
- Developers can directly view the disassembly of native codes with right-click of their OpenGL
- With the memory view, you can run the game and evaluate the memory blocks acquired by values
- With the logcat tool, developers can perform deep digging during debugging and use searching & filtering logs options
Profiling
- Now visual studio can directly run Android studio profilers attached to game sessions.
- Developers can view CPU, memory, and energy directly from Visual studio
Integrations
- The integrations with ADGE are easier for the android game developers
- Google partnered with Epic Games to provide a great experience of the unreal engine to the developers
- Similarly, ADGE also provides smooth integration with Sony distributed build system to provide the power of builds for android with a distributed profile
Now you know about the benefits of using ADGE, let us provide a tutorial to install the same
How to set up Android game development extension on windows?
If running a visual studio on a Windows computer, follow these steps to set up the Android game development extension
What yoBILLu must-have?
- An installed version of Visual studio either 2017 version or 2019 version at least
- .Net core SDK 2.2 on your computer
- Android SDK and NDK on the Android studio 3.5 or later versions
Installing the android game development extension
- Before starting, you have to close your visual studio
- From the downloads page, download the installer
- Right-click on the installer and click on the run or open, which can take up to a few minutes to install
- Once the setup is finished, close the setup by clicking on the finish button
Running the sample
- Open visual studio
- Open sample directory and find Teapot.sln
- Select the android emulator you want to work on, preferable Android x86
- Now create a virtual device in the android virtual device manager
- After selecting the device definition, select system image, preferable x86 ABI due to its faster emulation
- Run the virtual device manager and enjoy your latest benefits mentioned above
Final verdict
Google continuously provides useful kits to the android game developers to overcome the issues and achieve their results faster and effortlessly. Android game development kit decreases extra efforts for the developers who rely on Visual studio for day-to-day coding. Companies like Epic games have proved the efficiency of the Android game development kit. Not only the game companies but some of the best android app development company have enjoyed the benefits of AGDK to provide the best and most entertaining gaming apps to their clients. Their best android app developers have been continuously using google kits to flawlessly solve game industry requirements.
