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I'm looking for a Java framework to develop 2D games on desktop and Android. I've looked at Slick and I really like the API, however the developer himself says if you want a framework for Android and desktop best go with libgdx atm.

Now I'm reading up on libgdx, but I'm wondering if there are simpler alternatives for just doing 2D sprite stuff on Android and desktop. I'm only interested in creating NES like graphics, nothing too fancy. Something like this.

Because on the wiki of libgdx it says you can't use the OrtographicCamera with OpenGL ES 2.0 (http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/wiki/OrthographicCamera), but I read (http://www.badlogicgames.com/wordpress/?p=504) when your device supports OpenGL ES 2.0 it doesn't support 1.0, so you can't effectively use OrtographicCamera on OpenGL ES 2.0 devices?

I'm confused, should I go with libgdx? Are there simpler alternatives?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Can someone confirm whether the OrthographicCamera work on OpenGL ES 2.0? This question cites the libgdx wiki as saying it doesn't, but looking at that wiki page now (which was last updated two days after this question was asked), I'm not seeing any mention of OpenGL ES anywhere on the page, nor has my googling found any other mention of conflicts.. so it would seem that the OrthographicCamera will work, but it'd be nice to make absolutely sure before diving in. \$\endgroup\$
    – Josh1billion
    Commented Aug 8, 2012 at 5:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ Yes, I'm currently working on a project that uses OrthographicCamera and gles2; there are no problems using them together. Also, most (if not all) gles2 devices support gles1 as well. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dan Hulme
    Commented Jun 2, 2013 at 9:13

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As a new android game developer myself, I understand what you are trying to look for. I've researched on this for a while and I chose libgdx as a game dev framework.

There can be several reasons.

  1. The developer of libgdx is also the author of "beginning android games". For some reason the author does rarely mention about libgdx in that book and I liked it because I could fully understand basic game development before getting into libgdx. And then when you looked at libgdx, I could understand many of its APIs without much effort.

  2. The library (or framework) is pretty awesome in a sense that you can quickly develop a game once you understand all right components of it. For me, first week of learning the framework was really hard but it has been better ever since. its demo games are pretty good to understand its APIs too. And its community is active.

  3. You are not going to stick with android. Once you are used to it, you might want to move to iOS development. In that case, you might want to use OpenGL ES anyway. Getting into game development is big investment for anybody and you don't waste what you have learned and done.

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    \$\begingroup\$ One big flaw of LibGDX is an extreme lack of documentation. It's really hard to track down how to get things done. I'm just saying. I chose LibGDX too, but the lack of docs/info really slows me down. \$\endgroup\$
    – ashes999
    Commented Feb 11, 2012 at 2:51
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    \$\begingroup\$ I really like LibGDX its simple, fast and pretty easy to use. Altho, to me, the whole library seems kinda messy as far as the design goes. It seems like it wasn't developed with OOP in mind. It's still a good engine choise tho. \$\endgroup\$
    – 0x6C38
    Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 1:00

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