Sunday, July 31, 2011

How to reference a .jar file in an intelij project.

I've been using IntelliJ to develop my Android game Bugsy. It's been excellent but when I started trying out Flurry I found referencing external .jar files to be a bit of a pain. It's really not obvious how to do this basic task.

I've tried a few different ways which seems to work but once my laptop was rebooted the compiler no longer finds the jar.  After a few rounds of trial and error here is a procedure that has stuck!

  1. Create a folder in your project ('jars' for example and drop the .jar file in there).
  2. Open Project structure dialog (you can tooltip-hunt the button but ctrl+alt+shift+s is easier).
  3. Click "Modules" on the left.
  4. Click the "Dependencies" Tabs
  5. Click the Add... button
  6. Choose 1. Single-Entry Module Library
  7. Browse your project for the file .jar file and select it
  8. Click OK then OK again to close the project structure.

Rebuild the project and get on with doing something much more fun!!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Android Developers Blog: Android 3.2 Platform and Updated SDK tools

Android Developers Blog: Android 3.2 Platform and Updated SDK tools

Saturday, July 16, 2011

CHART OF THE DAY: Android Is Blowing Everyone Away

Android is on the march.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Bug Is Born!

I've been showing off a beta of my game "Bugsy". We are getting a great response,  people are particularly impressed with Rachel's graphics and we are both very excited about the project and cannot wait to see it in the store.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

IOS vs Android vs Blackberry

The first big decision to take is which platform to target for my whizzy new game! If this was an entirely commercial decision then the iPhone would be the obvious choice.  Here's what I like about the iPhone:

  • Quality. Apple really seem to care about what gets released onto their platform. Having to get your code reviewed before you can release it is a bit of a hurdle but its a great way to make sure that battery and memory management aren't bodged. Sure android is a lot more accessible but the market is rife with crapware
  • Low Fragmentation - there's a very limited (but growing) range of devices to design and test for.
  • Its got the biggest market.
  • Apple users are more prepared to pay for apps than on other platforms.
  • Apple is innovating the other platforms are chasing. 
Despite this, I'm developing for android. Here's why:
  1. I already have all the hardware I need. I have an android phone and a windows laptop and I know how to use them. I really don't need another computer and I don't want to get distracted buying more stuff!
  2. I already know how to program in Java. I also know C / C++ and C# so I'm sure objective-c wouldn't be a problem but I really want to focus on writing this game and not learning a new language.
It's a sad fact that I didn't really give blackberry much consideration at all. There doesn't seem to be the same buzz about blackberry that there is on the other platforms.

So there it is, I'm an android developer now.  I'd be a fool to ignore IOS so if my app does well on android I'll be looking to make an IOS version, either myself or perhaps I will find a partner. I might even take a more serious look at blackberry

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Flurry Blog - Mobile Application Analytics | iPhone Analytics | Android Analytics

This is a great market research site for mobile development. Essential reading if you ask me.

The Flurry Blog - Mobile Application Analytics | iPhone Analytics | Android Analytics