Trying libGDX android game development: Cross-breed of Pac-man, Nethack and Gauntlet. PART I

 About me

I have studied computer science in the nineties and have used Java since version 1.1. As a teenager I had several home computers including TI 99/4a and Spectravideo MSX. I liked game programming and developed many nice little games but kept them in my drawer (and best so, they were not that hot).

I wrote this blog post to share the experiences of developing a simple game in Android and libGdx.

Motivation for the project

The reasons for my little Android game project were

1. Learn about Android development, play store publishing and advertising
2. See that I can still do some game development, it has been a long time since my game development days
3. Share java game development experiences with my son who is interested in programming but has only used tools like Game Maker.

Basic principles

I had some basic principles for my project and game

• Must be able to get the development finished and game published in a sensible time frame. I decided not to spend time in creating graphics and animation. I bought graphics & sounds online. Also I did not polish the code to the extremes so there is quite a bit unpaid technical dept like copy-paste code and cluttered parts that should have been structured with interfaces.
• Game must have some originality.
• Game must be playable with touch screen.

I did not have to hurry with the game and had some long pauses in development because of holidays and busy work periods. The game took over 1.5 years to be completed so the project was an exercise on patience.

Game ideas

The game ideas evolved a lot during the process. I just followed my whims and tested a lot of ideas (most ended up discarded).

The original idea was to create a vertically scrolling game and have levels that were themed after some classic arcade games like pac-man, centipede and so on. The working title was ”arcade triathlon”.

I started developing the first pac-man level and it evolved into a maze shoot-em-up game. Playing with different weapons were so fun that I dropped the idea of several themes and sticked with the new idea. Worms in the game were a remnant of the centipede idea.

I am a big fan of nethack and I couldn’t help not to accompany some ideas from it like shops, scarce resources, gas ammo and sudden deaths.

Now when the game is complete it can be described as a cross-breed of Pac-man, Nethack and Gauntlet.

You can load the game from play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pajun

Overview of the final game

The game is vertically scrolling maze shoot-out which purpose is to survive through several levels to get to the final level and reach the "invaluable star energy capsule". The hero of the game (pink alien in the middle of the picture) is moving all the time. The direction is chosen by swiping the area in the bottom right of the screen. Shooting is done by pressing the bottom left of the screen. The controls can be reversed if player is left-handed. The weapons and actions are chosen by pressing them in the item menu in the top of the screen.



There are items scattered in the maze that can be picked up: diamonds, weapon ammo, health power-ups, chests and other items. The diamonds are used to unlock doors. The amount of diamonds is shown in the top right of the screen. There are shops in the game as shown below. If you have enough diamonds you can enter the shop and take the shop's items.



The player must hurry because the fire is spreading in the maze and trying to catch the player.



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