Day 5: Shooting and HP

If you noticed,there was no day 4 post. This project is extensive but I still have real life matters to attend to so there may not be a blog post every day. The posts will still be numbered based up how long since the project began to keep it resembling a journal.

Progress today has been good and noticeable visually. I've fixed the problem with my shots not displaying (mixed up my X and Y coordinates) and implemented an HP bar for the ship based on a percentage. I've also drawn a background to make it look more appealing and not so plain.

Today also is the day that I show my first screenshot of my progress! Now before anything I must post the disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER: This and every other progress photo do not represent the final product. Everything in these photo's are subject to change without notice and only are meant to show progress in development. This and other related photo's are from various stages of development but will remain posted for the sake of visually understanding the progress made. Actual screenshot of the final build will be posted on the android market webpage once the game is released.

Now, without further ado, here is the first public screenshot of my game currently in very early in development! Again, I want to emphasize that ALL GRAPHICS in the picture are simply placeholders to test how it would look and make sure size/hit detection is correct. These graphics will ALL be replaced before release with much more modern and good looking alternatives. Still looking for artists to contribute anything if you are reading :)



I also want to let everyone know that I'll be in palm desert for the next 5 days for the holidays. Hope everyone has a great holiday season and my blog will most likely go without updates during this time.

Best Regards and Happy Holidays
ML

Day 1: First Steps

This is my first official blog post on my new blog Journey Through Android. This blog will be dedicated to chronically my journey through developing an android application that will (hopefully!) be released in the android market upon completion. My name is Mehdi, I am a CS major at Cal Poly Pomona and 19. I have not  attempted anything in android before but I do know JAVA and have a willingness to research and learn everything I need to push through this project.

The project I'm going to attempt to create in a currently unnamed space shooter similar in style to Galaga. It will encompass many different aspects of android and java programming along with openGL for graphics and will be no simple task.

So far I've created the basic template for my main menu GUI including New Game, About, High Score, Help, and Options. These buttons were made using the android provided XML style menu's. I've also included a basic title at the top. I've began exploring how to make the actual game through OpenGL and bound that test openGL activity to my New Game button. The main problem facing me at this point is figuring out how to physically move my objects drawn in openGL in response to touch screen inputs.

The more I research about Android and openGL, the more I realized how much I need to learn. This project is going to be a huge undertaking and I'm excited to meet the challenge.

See you on the other side,
ML