need advice before trying libGdx again

General Discussions
#1

Hello everyone ;D !!

Last year i was trying to play around with libGdx but somehow because of my lack of experience and/or some few instability in the libGdx framework i found myself facing a lot of problems which did slow my progression a lot, so in order to achieve my secondary but necessary goal {make money from games} i was forced to move back to Unity3D and i am indeed making a respected incomes from freelancing thanx to unity, but, and like the Unkn0wn0ne has explained here, working with unity make things work fast but it force you to think in a very limited way and the APK size is hilarious sometimes plus it takes a lot of fun from the process (just the fact that am not coding with Java is enough).

Anyway,
I just mentioned that so no one will tell me something like “it’s your fault that you didn’t put enough effort with libGdx”
well it’s true, but i had no choice, and now after hearing that libGdx 1.0 is finally released, i was like " :o !! "
so before giving it another try i have a couple of “specific” questions first and i hope libGdx experts would have the time to help me (please remember that i need help from people who tried the latest release)

  1. Should i buy their book ? (Learning Libgdx Game Development), the book is more than one year old now, will it help with the last version ?

  2. considering that HTML5 games are my next target, i want to know your opinions about libGdx web builds

  3. do you have any other advice ::slight_smile: ??

Thank you all for your time and have a great day

#2

There’s no point in buying the book, there’s plenty of information out there.

I suggest checking out my friend dermetfan’s channel, he has a bunch of high quality videos on the subject.
Honestly just keep working at it. It takes a pretty long time to learn any new api/library/engine so you just have to keep at it.

#3

[quote]buy the book ?
[/quote]
Not really necessary, most of us learned libgdx just like that. And you are free to ask here and in the libgdx forum whenever youre stuck, so…

[quote]opinions about libGdx web builds
[/quote]
Have only tried it twice, like 1-2 years ago. It wasnt… good. As in fast, meaning a slow game might be ok but a fast game… Also only really worked in Chrome; The unity player seems vastly better.
Also at that time the webgl support was still shaky, hence best results in chrome only.

If you srsly wanna do HTML 5 I would personally look into pure javascript solutions. If you missed it, EPIC and mozilla showed off the Unreal Engine running with pure javascript / asm.js

c2uNDlP4RiE

[quote]HTML5 games are my next target
[/quote]

[quote]make money from games
[/quote]
Is there money in the HTML 5 market ? Maybe if you do in app purchases… Other than that the truth seems to be right now:

[quote]In just one year, Zynga lost nearly half of its daily active users
[/quote]

#4

Web is still a nice way for easy deployment, a lot of ppl don’t want to download stuff and libgdx provides an easy way with the html5 port. At the very least, better than applets :wink:

Since a year libgdx has improved a lot, now it has a decent 3d api and more documentation/tutorials as well as other things (heads up, some of your old code might not work anymore).

#5

@Slyth2727

[quote]I suggest checking out my friend dermetfan’s channel
[/quote]
thank you but i prefer text tutorials, but maybe i’ll check it out when he make tutorial about libGdx1.0

@Cero

[quote]If you srsly wanna do HTML 5 I would personally look into pure javascript solutions.
[/quote]
I did a simple prototype with Phaser but i really don’t like the whole prototype thing in JavaScript, so if i can do the same with libGdx then i will definitely pick libGdx instead.

[quote]If you missed it, EPIC and mozilla showed off the Unreal Engine running with pure javascript / asm.js
[/quote]
no i didn’t missed it, but if am going to go with Unreal then i rather stick with Unity3D since i already know it +unity announced that their next update will allow plugin-free web deployment, so i think it’s better to wait for that.

[quote]Is there money in the HTML 5 market ? Maybe if you do in app purchases…
[/quote]
In this moment i am not really planning to make money from my own games (success) cause i do believe that i still need to improve a lot, i currently “funded” a “studio” {lol} with a friend who has a very good art level and we have some cool projects to come but no big hope for any money from it.
Now the thing about the whole HTML5 is freelancing, i missed many opportunities just because i can only make games in a certain level with unity3D and most of the clients want their game either on mobile or on the web which we all now unity is no good for that specially if your game is a small 2D game (it make no sense to use an ultra heavy plugin for something like that )

[quote]In just one year, Zynga lost nearly half of its daily active users
[/quote]
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/4690201/don-mattrick-clapping-o.gif

@Jimmt

[quote]Since a year libgdx has improved a lot, now it has a decent 3d api and more documentation/tutorials as well as other things
[/quote]
and that’s exactly why i want to give it another try :smiley:

Thank you everyone

#6

I did a simple prototype with Phaser but i really don’t like the whole prototype thing in JavaScript, so if i can do the same with libGdx then i will definitely pick libGdx instead.
[/quote]
Nobody wants to but you have to for web stuff u_u
Well if the libgdx GWT port works really well now, let me know :smiley:

#7

The “prototype thing” is actually very powerful. You shouldn’t think of it as OO that you’re used to with Java, at all. That, by default, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

#8

Well it’s bad for enough other reasons.

To paraphrase Carmack: nobody really planned on javascript getting this big, but now it is, and we are kinda stuck with it.

#9

I don’t think so. Lots of good things about JS.

  1. Who cares what he has to say about JS, really?
  2. He’s not wrong in saying that, but then again that could be applied to most things.
  3. He’s now working for Facebook.
#10
  1. He is one of the most intelligent human beings out there plus one of the best and most experienced programmers. Short: I do.
  2. He did a lot of Q/A with everyone who was disagreeing on this. He approached this issues logically and not emotionally as he does every problem. He sees there are potential threats but the benefits of having so much resources being able to push VR forward far outweigh the potential problems. Even hating Facebook with a passion I’m inclined to agree.
#11

Oh please. More to the point that quote is completely pointless and should in no way deter or incite the use of JS.

And really, why should a painter take the advice of a plumber?

#12

I have no idea why a programmer is a painter and another programmer is a plumber…

[quote]The “prototype thing” is actually very powerful. You shouldn’t think of it as OO that you’re used to with Java, at all. That, by default, doesn’t mean it’s bad.
[/quote]
No one said it’s bad, but i think that it’s bad when it comes to deal with large projects, i simply hate the organization of the code, i quit working on my html5 prototye because of that, and to end the debate, let’s say that this is just my opinion {ignoring the fact that JavaScript and it’s prototype thing was made for web development which is a lot less complicated than game development or “standard” application, specially in that time ::slight_smile: }

[quote]1. Who cares what he has to say about JS, really?
3. He’s now working for Facebook.
[/quote]

  1. maybe web developer should not care cause Carmack is no expert in that field, but when it comes to games, the guy know exactly what to say, so, we should care about what he say
  2. yeah he is trying to “connect people” too ;D !! really ?? Facebook has gave OculusVR an amount of money that will theoretically ensure that the rift will success, end of story. Will it be used by facebook ? of course !!
    should we care ??
  • yes if you have business interests in game development
  • no if you are only interested in “real” gaming experience, you don’t care much about farmVille don’t you ?
#13

It’s still possible that oculus (I assume you’re talking about that?) can be used for “normal” games, just with facebook integration, though this seems unlikely. Another thing, if you turn away from javascript just because of what one person (even someone like Carmack) says you need to reevaluate how you evaluate programming languages. Listening to advice is good but experience is better.

#14

I work with Firefox OS for a living. I should know JavaScript ^^

#15

It’s a lot of time since I saw you last time, welcome back. And to the topic, it’s definitely worth checking it out again… what do you think?