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my question is about creating "non-playable" screens in games with the help of native android tools.

For example, I have an Android LibGDX game (singleplatform), what should I use to provide start screen, level selection screen etc?

Is it "right" to build all screens in LibGDX only (where I know nothing about UI) - skins, scene2d...?

Or is it ok to build all in Android UI (I'm pretty familiar with that, and it seems to me more easy and fast to develop), and only use separate LibGDX Activity/Fragment where the game actually begins?

What is the common approach?

Thank you in advance! :)

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If you just want to create a "SettingsActivity" and a kind of main menu for your game : why not, you may save time indeed.

You can start as much custom activities as you want from an Android LibGDX project. The libgdx launcher class usually generated in templates project is just an activity. So it's technically possible to start other activities and Android screens by editing the manifest, and creating an interface with the Android project where your custom Android code will be located, so that your core project will be able to start/stop activities.

However, i won't recommend it if you have more ambitious "UI projects" for this game or further games :

  • As a player, i usually don't expect a native Android look and feel from a game UI.
  • Scene2D & Skins allows to build very customizable UI that will be much easier to visually integrate into the game.
  • And of course, that won't be cross-platform (And that means you won't be able to test everything on Desktop, which can really be a workflow breaker in my own experience.)

For these reasons, using native UI is clearly not the right way.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ > As a player, i usually don't expect a native Android look and feel from a game UI. I do not mean to use standart android UI elements. (I haven't tried yet, but ) I guess it's possible to design ui which will look not like androids, using custom views and drawables... Or maybe I'm wrong? To simplify my question - in general, is it simplier to build UI with the Scene2D & Skins rather than android default tools? \$\endgroup\$
    – AlexeyGorovoy
    Mar 31, 2015 at 14:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes, indeed it's possible to customize Android themes and add custom images buttons and backgrounds to achieve a game look. I added this as an additionnal argument, since i remember playing games using Android Holo theme and it gives games a weird look IMO. \$\endgroup\$
    – Khopa
    Mar 31, 2015 at 15:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think one of the UI system is more difficult to use. But it will be obviously harder to integrate the Android UI, and it will become a mess if you decide to support more platforms in the future. \$\endgroup\$
    – Khopa
    Mar 31, 2015 at 15:24

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