Game changing

Ok, so it's been a couple of weeks since blog post #1, and things have changed somewhat..

In the first incarnation of my idea to make a game I was going to get the kids to come up with concept and work with that, but the whole process more or less fell flat on its face as kids will be kids, and arguments ensued.  Within a few hours I'd more or less given up on the idea.

A couple of days later, Mrs Mat started talking to me about mobile games and how she figured, with a good idea, one could make a hell of a lot of money.  The conversation went on and within a few hours I'd decided I wanted to have a go at it - not so much for the money aspect (although that would be nice), but because it would be a bit of a fresh challenge.  I'd even developed a very simple web game a few days before that we were both impressed with and, with a bit more discussion actually seemed like the basis of something that could work very well on mobile.  I can't discuss the game or general idea yet, because we both think it's such a good concept we don't want it stolen!

Anyway, the blog is back up and running but, this time, instead of focusing on a web-based game it's going to be focusing on trying to develop one for Android.

I decided to develop on Android mainly because of the low cost of setup.  To develop on Apple devices I'd first of all need a Mac (lots of cash), and then there's a pretty steep $99 or so per year just to have the privilege to do it in the first place.  For Android the tools are free (yes, free) and can be installed on a Windows PC (which I already have), and it is only a one-off fee of around £15 to have a Google developer account to deploy apps/games.  For me, it's a bit of a no-brainer, if I'm being honest, especially given that I'm prone to getting bored/frustrated very easily - at least if I decide at some point in the future to walk away from the project I don't have to worry about the expense it has cost to get this far.  So, last week I set up a developer account, paid my pennies and set up a Google checkout account (just in case we do finally develop something and decide to sell it - might as well have it all ready before I start, I figured).

And so, here I am.  I've got the idea and I've got the tools.  There's just two things in between me and getting my Android game out there on the Google Play Store:-

1. I need to learn Java from scratch.
2. I need to learn how to develop for Android.

Turns out these two things are pretty big obstacles to get over however.  I'm about a week into trying to learn the basics of Java.  Having never really dealt with pure Object Oriented languages before (I come from a VB classic/VBA background originally, with a bit of HTML/CSS/Javascript thrown into the mix), things definitely are taking some time to sink in, but for now I'm not giving up.

This blog is now going to cover not only the ongoing discussion about the development of our game, but the hurdles and challenges involved in learning how to do it in the first place.  Things are about to get interesting, so please keep on coming back to read more about how I get on.  I'm aiming to have some kind of concept idea working on my Android phone by the end of the year.  Is that overly optimistic?  I don't think so...we'll see how things go.