Easy to use game engines & tools

Here are some game engines and tools that make it easier to develop games for web and mobile. Maybe we will see the start of the UGGC (User Generated Game Content) era.

http://gamesalad.com/
Logic based. Drag & drop functionality.

• Web
• iPhone
• iPad
• Mac OSX Desktop

http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/
Games, Interactive Books and Apps

• Android
• iPhone
• iPad

http://www.yoyogames.com/make
Windows, Mac and HTML5 game maker

• Windows
• Mac
• HTML5

http://www.unity3d.com
Visual world builder and scripting

• Web
• iPhone/iPad
• Android
• Windows Desktop
• Mac OSX Desktop
• Consoles (requires separate DevKit from Console maker)

Tools for game assets
http://www.mixamo.com/
http://www.world-machine.com/
http://www.quadsoftware.com/ (Grome)
http://www.speedtree.com/
http://www.allegorithmic.com/
http://www.levelhelper.org/
http://www.mapeditor.org/

Specifying the XML layout file for Android in Landscape mode & Multiple Screen Sizes

Create the res/layout-land folder (this is a new folder in addition to the standard res/layout folder)
Add a new main.xml file (Try opening using: Right-Click > Open With> Android Layout Editor

Multiple Screen Sizes
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
 (see section on qualifiers; i.e. res/xxxx-qualifer format)
Resource directory qualifiers for screen size and density

Android: Handlng Landscape Mode (Emulator Keyboard Shortcuts)

Switch to previous layout orientation (for example, portrait, landscape)	KEYPAD_7, Ctrl-F11
Switch to next layout orientation (for example, portrait, landscape)	KEYPAD_9, Ctrl-F12

Eclipse Content/Code Assist or Code Complete (Use Ctrl + Space)

Press Ctrl + Space on code to complet.
Configure the behavior of the content assist in the Java > Editor > Code Assist preference page.

Useful tips on keyboard shortcuts for eclipse

Android UI (Views and Layouts)

View objects are the basic units of user interface expression on the Android platform. The View class serves as the base for subclasses called "widgets," which offer fully implemented UI objects, like text fields and buttons. A View object is a data structure whose properties store the layout parameters and content for a specific rectangular area of the screen. As an object in the user interface, a View is also a point of interaction for the user and the receiver of the interaction events.

On the Android platform, you define an Activity's UI using a hierarchy of View and ViewGroup nodes, as shown in the diagram below.

The ViewGroup class serves as the base for subclasses called "layouts," which offer different kinds of layout architecture, like linear, tabular and relative. The most common way to define your layout and express the view hierarchy is with an XML layout file. XML offers a human-readable structure for the layout, much like HTML. Each element in XML is either a View or ViewGroup object (or descendant thereof). View objects are leaves in the tree, ViewGroup objects are branches in the tree 

How Android Draws Views

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/how-android-draws.html

When an Activity receives focus, it will be requested to draw its layout. The Android framework will handle the procedure for drawing, but the Activity must provide the root node of its layout hierarchy.
Drawing begins with the root node of the layout.

 (source: developer.google.com)

Android Processes and Threads

When an application component starts and the application does not have any other components running, the Android system starts a new Linux process for the application with a single thread of execution. By default, all components of the same application run in the same process and thread (called the "main" thread). (source:developer.google.com)

Android Services (Daemons in Android)

A Service is an application component that can perform long-running operations in the background and does not provide a user interface. Another application component can start a service and it will continue to run in the background even if the user switches to another application. Additionally, a component can bind to a service to interact with it and even perform interprocess communication (IPC). For example, a service might handle network transactions, play music, perform file I/O, or interact with a content provider, all from the background. (source: developer.google.com)

Android Intents (Events/Message mechanism)

Three of the core components of an application — activities, services, and broadcast receivers — are activated through messages, called intents. Intent messaging is a facility for late run-time binding between components in the same or different applications. (source: developer.google.com)

Android Activity Life-Cycle

Helicopter view (10000m view) of Android Stack (from developer.google.com)

Android SDK with emulator: ERROR: unknown virtual device name

My users directory was changed from C: to D: and I had errors every time I ran the Android SDK emulator.
Finally, realized that the Android SDK starts looking in C: by default. It could not find the .android in C:\Users\ and pops out the emulator error message.

Two ways to fix this.

1. Use a mklink to create a symbolic link from your C:\Users\{my home}\.android to D:\Users\{my home}\.android
2. Set the ANDROID_SDK_HOME environment variable to D:\Users\{my home}

Both methods worked for me.

Here is where I picked up these tip:
http://techtraveller.blogspot.com/2009/07/android-fixed-unknown-virtual-device.html