Víctor Caveda Blog » Android

Riptide GP: An Android Game Postmortem

caveda — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:44:22 +0000

The website Gamasutra frequently publishes articles where game creators talk about the development process of a game. These papers are called Postmortem because they are written once the game’s been finished/released and that’s precisely what it makes them so so valuable. They are no just about “how brilliant we are”, on the contrary, Postmortems usually focus on mistakes and lessons learned.

Although most of them may be considered a must-read, I’ve found particularly interesting the one about Riptide GP where the guys of Vector Unit describe the process of porting a 360 xBox game (Hydro Thunder Hurricane) to the Tegra 2 platform. Hot topics such as funding, monetization and piracy are also addressed in the write-up . Definitely a good read!

Postmortem: Vector Unit’s Riptide GP

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Android: Finding Memory Leaks

caveda — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:34:43 +0000

Recently while I was working on the next version of Archer Master, I’ve had to roll up my sleeves and find a memory leak. By and large, a memory leak in one’s application is frequently a synonym for having painful time, no matter which language you’re coding in. I have experience in finding leaks in the non-managed languages such as C/C++ but this was my very first time with a managed language (Java). In my case, the leak was caused by a lost strong-reference to a LinearLayout used to hold advertising, so each time a level was played, the entire activity remained in memory and wasn’t collected. As a result, after playing several levels (the number depended upon the particular device), a OOM exception raised and the game crashed.

It’d have been virtually impossible to find the leak without a tool like MAT. Moreover, a good understanding of the different types of references (strong, weak, soft…) and the concept of Dominator Tree also help.

When I’ve got a little more time I’ll write about the whole process I went thru (if anyone is really interested please let me know)… but meanwhile, this is an invaluable resource if you find yourself in a similar situation and don’t know how to start:

Good luck with your leaks!

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Archer Master weekly report – Week #2

caveda — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:15:53 +0000

I’ve published the weekly Archer Master report on Quoders website. The following chart shows downloads per day:

More? Here.

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Quoders and Archer Master

caveda — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:21:27 +0000

It’s been a long time since my last post and this time there’s a good reason for it I’ve been working hard to release the first version of Archer Master, an archery game for Android. Archer Master is free, so give it a try!

Moreover, I’ve co-founded a new development studio named Quoders.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of something great…

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How to market your (mobile) app

caveda — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:44:04 +0000

Due to the fact that I’m currently engadged in an Android project, seemed to me worthwhile to take a look at how other people are making money out there. I’ve found quite useful this presentation that shows a real business case of a mobile application for IPhone. So, no matter what your target market is, there’s always a lesson to learn when it comes to mobile app business.

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My New Nexus

caveda — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:59:23 +0000

It’s been six weeks waiting for the Nexus One and finally it’s here. The N1 runs smoothly and fast a Cyanogen ROM. Even though I’m using the same 3G connection (vodafone ES), now browsing the web is a delightful experience compared with HTC Magic. The battery lasts almost a couple of days with a normal use (email, web, rss, etc).

The parcel didn’t include any sort of manual except a couple of sheets with tips and tricks.

Here you can see more pictures.

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It’s been six weeks waiting for the Nexus One and finally it’s here. The phone runs smooth and fast even using the same 3G connection (vodafone ES), now browsing the web is a delightful experience compared with HTC Magic. The battery lasts almost a couple of days running a Cyanogen ROM.

The parcel didn’t include any manual except a couple of sheets explaining tips and tricks. Here you can see some pictures.

Developing Android Apps with Java Part 2

caveda — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:42:50 +0000

It’s been announced the second part of the course “Developing Android Apps with Java” by O’Reilly. It will start in May 18th and it’s going to consist of six sessions in which a Twitter client app for Android will be developed. Interested? You can register for free at the course home page. No excuses to learn Android Programming

I wrote a review of the first part of the course in this post.

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Hello, Android

caveda — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:23:41 +0000

Hello, Android

By Ed Burnette

Regarding books, one of the things I appreciate the most is an honest relationship between title and contents. Unfortunately it’s quite common to find books out there promising things they don’t fullfill.

“Hello, Android” meets perfectly the commitment of its title. Don’t buy it expecting a reference manual of Android because it’ just an introduction to this platform, and I must admit that it does the work gracefully. It’s quick and brief so it tells you the essential and gives you resources for further research such as the sample projects that can be free downloaded from the book website. A nice aspect to highlight is the hands-on approach, throughout the book concepts are illustrated with lots of code. Furthermore a Sudoku game is parcially developed during a couple of chapters.

So I basically recommend this book for beginners mainly for two reasons:

Starts from the Scratch: Nothing is assumed so it’s a good point to start out as Android developer.
Brevity: I don’t have time for an eight-hundred-pages book to start to develop. I’ll deal with the ins and outs as I go, not before.

Of course, like any book about Android, Java (or C++, C#, etc) basic understanding is recommended.

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Developing Android Applications with Java: Review

caveda — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:51:31 +0000

The course “Developing Android Applications with Java” I was attending, has finished. It’s been six session (12 hours) of Android developing. One of the things I like was the hands-on approach of the trainning, actually 80% of sessions duration was developing time which helps me a lot with the environment Eclipse (I was used to Visual Studio).The level of this course was Beginner so the first sessions was basically dedicated to prepare the environment. After that, the next sessions (five) focused on explaining the foremost aspects of Android Programming while a Task Manager application was developed. The covered areas included:

Activities.
Basic Interface
Database (SQLite)
Location and Google Maps API.

You could take a look at the contents table in the course page. By the way, the course was given by Tony Hillerson. You can check out his profile here.

In a nutshell:

Pros:

Completely free.

Hands-on approach. Most of the time developing the “Task Manager” sample project let the audience get down to the nitty-gritty.
Publishing the source code of each session in advance. It helps to focus on Tony’s lessons.
Really good organization. And it wasn’t easy: live audience in Seattle, instructor in Denver and a number of online attendees. Actually, it was possible to ask questions to Tony (thanks to Ruth and Beth).In short, O’Reilly and CreativeTechs did a great work.
A forum was set up for posting homework, technical questions and all that stuff.

Cons:

A tiny thing. I missed one hour of the last session because the Daylight Saving Time in US starts two weeks before Europe. Course Organizers could have warned online attendees about it.

In Short:

I’d do it again so I recommend it. Five out of Five.

Update (03/20/2010)

Good news! I’ve received an email from O’Reilly with a couple of great announcements:

It’s gonna be a second part of the course this Spring.
They are giving free phones (Motorola DROID or Nexus One phone) to attendees who meet some conditions (take a look at the terms of the registration page for further information).

Update (03/23/2010)

Another email from O’Reilly telling that I’ll receive a free phone (hopefully a Nexus One) from Google for attending this Android Course. I just can say: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

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Mobile Market View

caveda — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:20:45 +0000

Great presentation about the current Mobile Market.

It’s quite surprising the huge difference between Apple Store and the rest of competitors.

Source: Android-Spa

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