Google releases Android Game Development Kit (AGDK)

Google launched the Android Game Development Kit (AGDK) at the Game Developers Conference yesterday, a complete set of tools and libraries to help developers develop, optimize, and deliver high-quality Android games.

Download address: https://developer.android.com/games/agdk

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According to reports, AGDK focuses on performance issues, reduces fragmentation in the Android ecosystem, and aims to cater to enhancements provided by future operating system updates while providing backward compatibility as much as possible. The features of AGDK will follow the following three principles:

• Built for game development. All libraries are built and tested using C or C++ APIs with performance in mind.
• Reduce fragmentation. AGDK tools and libraries are available for many different Android versions, and most of these features support nearly all devices in use today.
• Built by Android, for Android. Future Android platform updates will provide enhanced functionality, and these libraries in AGDK will provide backward compatibility as much as possible.

The current version is still in its initial stage, focusing on covering three main areas: integrated workflow, providing C/C++ game libraries and performance optimization.

Integrated Workflow

Allow developers to combine AGDK with existing projects according to their needs. An example of this is adding Android as a target platform for games on Visual Studio through an extension. Another example is providing plug-ins for game engines such as Unity. Google said that they are also working directly with game engine developers to integrate this capability directly into the tools of game engine manufacturers.

Provide C/C++ game library

Google understands that most games and game engines are written in C++, while Android development usually uses Java. Although there are tools such as JNI to solve this problem, the process is not simple and is very error-prone, and may even introduce errors or performance regressions. AGDK will reduce the dependence on Java and JNI by providing C/C++ game libraries, ensuring that games are easier to build, debug, and maintain.

Currently these libraries focus on basic class functions such as game events, game text input and game controllers, and in the future they will provide functions commonly found in game engines.

Performance Optimization

Performance optimization is also one of the goals of AGDK. Performance optimization is achieved through the frame analysis capabilities provided by the newly launched Android GPU Inspector (AGI), combined with Android Studio's CPU, memory, and power analysis features, as well as the new loading features in Android Performance Tuner.

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Title of this article: Google releases Android Game Development Kit (AGDK)

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