64Digits

Turns out LibGDX makes your game for you.

Posted by Vance_Kimiyoshi on July 25, 2013, 10:18 a.m.

I wanted to take a break from XNA, so I went to SFML/SDL, retried GM after all these years (but they got rid of object_add, object_add_event AND execute_script so GM is dead to me), tried Unity (which is nice for 3D but I'm not doing 3D)…

I had settled on just using SDL, when my friend from school said to check out LibGDX. It's like, almost GM levels of handling-everything-for-you, works on a billion platforms, etc.

So yeah, I like having my games made for me, let's do that.

Comments

Astryl 11 years, 5 months ago

Does look interesting. Taking a look at it now.

Toast 11 years, 4 months ago

So this is easier to get to grips with than SFML? Hmm. I think I probably could use the experience of learning SFML anyway, I just don't want it to take months to get a sprite drawn on the screen, if you get my meaning.

colseed 11 years, 4 months ago

Quote:

It's like, almost GM levels of handling-everything-for-you

Wait, really?

I did not get that impression at all when I was looking at it…

(I'm looking at it again now though and their dev guide/API is nice and has nice explanations which makes me happy)

spike1 11 years, 4 months ago

Wow, that looks really impressive! It seems to have anything GM has and more :D. I'm not sure if it does handle everything as easily as GM, but it is certainly a valuable tool none the less. The only annoying this about it is that its a library for Java. I messed around with java a little and I really dislike the language :(. It could be that i'm not used to the proper object orientedness of the language, but i just find it difficult to read and maintain.

If it was a library for delphi i would be happy, that language is so awesome and its fun to write in lol, pity its a more or less dead language :(. Really good tool though, and if I ever want to move off gamemaker, and feel like living with Java, I think this looks like a really API. :D

aeron 11 years, 4 months ago

Quote:

Having used both, they take about the same amount of time to get up and running. In SFML you spend a little longer with initial setup (if you are compiling it yourself), but once you do it's trivial getting a sprite on the screen (load texture into sprite; draw sprite). LibGDX is ready to go out of the box thanks to the simplicity of java libraries. It takes a little more time getting familiar with the conventions of asset management (how to actually load resources and from where) and batching techniques.

Though either way you still have the rest of the library to learn as you go. SFML API is a bit more lightweight (meaning more emphasis on how you structure things yourself, but it's quick to become familiar with it all). In LibGDX there are usually a couple ways of doing most things, and which one you choose is largely dependent on your application. LibGDX has more auxiliary classes that do a bit of heavy lifting for you, such as rendering tile maps (supports loading TilEd maps), basic collisions, and also out of the box physics support (Box2D). With SFML, it's up to you to do these yourself or get another library for them.

Really it just boils down to preference. They're both capable of the same things in the grand scheme of things, and really what's more important is how you structure your code to make your actual game. SO if you like Java and hate C++ or using bindings (SFML is available for Java), you'll probably be suited with LibGDX. If you hate Java and love native C++ libraries or using <insert favorite language here> bindings, then you'll probably feel most comfortable with SFML. Just go make your damn game already!

Toast 11 years, 4 months ago

Thanks a lot for the response. I understand the triviality of drawing the sprite itself, what I meant to say is the difficulty of establishing the basic game architecture you want to have in place before you draw a sprite - the stuff a tool like Game Maker does for you (a game has event management and levels with entities with spritemaps with textures etc). You answered the question indirectly so thanks again.

MMOnologueguy 11 years, 4 months ago

make_game(genre,projected sales)