Hi! I am a high schooler with a current passion for becoming a video game developer/programmer! I am starting this blog to showcase my progress on this game I am working on, The Basic LibGDX Game. I am already well into the game's development, so into it that the game's core aspect itself is practically complete. This game, including ones I make in the future, uses the Libgdx java framework(which is just amazing). Here is a link to the library if you want to check it out yourself: https://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/.

I am using the IntelliJ IDE for programming the game which is mainly an android application/game that is run on an emulator (for testing), and then on my own phone for testing on a real mobile device. This means that I will not be looking and working on the desktop version. What I mean is that, the way libgdx works is that it has a core project, and then has projects like Android and Desktop which are dependent and connected to the core project. So all the game functionality and tools will be the same for both apps, however, that doesn't mean that the app will look exactly the same on both platforms as some differences will occur. An additional library I am using for this project (included with libgdx) is the Box2D extension which gives a lot of great tools for handling the physics within the game.

Back to the game, what is my game about?

My Game Idea

What I am going for is a mix of geometry dash and the google dinosaur game. I have a player (a cube right now) on the left side of the screen on a platform. This platform is twice the width of the screen width. What we see on screen is the left half of the platform, while the right half of the platform on the right of the world within the screen. We cannot see this right half. What is the reasoning for this? Well, I felt that instead of a moving player and platform, I have the game obstacles move toward the player. These obstacles will be spawned on the right half of the platform and then will be given a velocity to the left, where they can appear in front of the player. This makes it feel like the player is moving, prevents large numbers for world and position coordinates, and altogether is much similar to implement.

Currently, here are the details and features of the game:

• The player, platform, and the obstacles are just white rectangles.
• The obstacles are different sized rectangles of randomized (yet controlled) widths and heights.
• The obstacles are constantly generated every few seconds.
• The player must jump over these obstacles without touching them.
• If the player touches the obstacle, the game ends by blacking out everything except for the score label and upon touching the screen, the application closes.
• The score label is text centered on the top of the screen during and after the game which shows the number of obstacles the user has jumped over.
• The player jumps with a tap of the screen, and if tapped mid-air, the player will near-instantly move back to the ground (like the google dinosaur game).
• There is a home / main screen which a label “Basic LibGDX Game”, the current title of the game, and a button under it with the label “Start”, both centered.
• Clicking the start button will take you to the game screen and the game then commences.

What am I working on?

Well, right now I am working on creating an end screen that displays the high score anyone has ever reached on the device and the current score the user got. Then, I want the person to be able to continuously play the game without the application having to close itself each time the player loses. This means that the home screen can take the player to the game screen, and when you lose on the game screen it takes you to the score screen, from which you can go to the home screen, or start another game.

Here are snapshots and pictures of the current game!

PLEASE FOLLOW THE BLOG FOR UPDATES ON THE GAME!