Hi All,

I'm new here and looking for guidance and advice.

First, I co-founded an app development company a couple years ago, became the CEO and have been building the team, raising capital, all the fun stuff... My experience has always been on the business side. We had the good fortune to meet lots of great app developers as a result.

We learned that most app developers struggle with three things - 1) being heard from in all the noise of the overcrowded app stores; 2) an understanding of the other apps their users have, and; 3) identifying profitable users and finding more.

In the process of building our business we learned about these things. If anyone has questions, I'll be happy to offer advice or make available some of the tools we have used or developed.

Second, in the past six months to nine months I have been starting to learn to code. Real basic stuff like server commands, basic web, etc. Not a pro, probably not even considered amateur at this point.

I want to develop a game. Something simple like a board game, simple strategy, two player, some AI, etc. Looked at Unity, Cocos, XCode and others. Finally ended up choosing Eclipse. (using an iMac and MacBook pro). Am using the tutorials in Eclipse to get going? Android first, then will move it over to iOS.

Any advice on best way to get started? Creating simple graphics, best tools, etc.

Would like to complete this and take on something a bit harder.

Thanks,

Brett

The best way to learn is just do it. It seems you have done your own research in what language and platform you want to use. Most beginners are still confused in that state.

People here can talk in length of best practices, for loops, OOP designs, etc, but without the context and experience, you won't understand why best practices are best practices. So my advice is just get your feet wet and build something.

Since you are just starting out, might I suggest switching to the Android IDE? I believe Google is ceasing support for the Eclipse variant, so you may have an easier time moving forward. Here is the Android Studio: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

The best way to learn is just do it. It seems you have done your own research in what language and platform you want to use. Most beginners are still confused in that state.

People here can talk in length of best practices, for loops, OOP designs, etc, but without the context and experience, you won't understand why best practices are best practices. So my advice is just get your feet wet and build something.

Thanks for the advice. That is how I have been learning so far, trial by fire...

Since you are just starting out, might I suggest switching to the Android IDE? I believe Google is ceasing support for the Eclipse variant, so you may have an easier time moving forward. Here is the Android Studio: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Thanks. Do you know when Google is planning to cease support for Eclipse?

We used it to develop our first apps, so part of the goal in developing the game apps was to acquire familiarity while building a couple games, and then go back and take a crack at making some revisions to the app. Updating, adding new features, etc.

Is the Android IDE build experience the same? What about an app that was created in Eclipse? Would it make more sense to continue in Eclipse to do the updating, then once that is done, flip everything to a new one like Android IDE?

Thanks.

I haven't delved into it much. I am unsure about when support will vanish. As for the curve and learning experience, it shouldn't be too difficult to switch over. Do a test project, something simple, involving all the features of Eclipse you use (compiling, debugging, version control, etc). See if anything functions differently. Since Google was using the ADT addins as their working environment, I'm sure most of the important/useful features are there. It may even make simulating easier.

If you find the transition will be a big undertaking, then perhaps only use it when you start a new project. You can also create a new project to replicate a current one, import all the files, and see how the build process goes. If that transition works, you shouldn't have much issue.

I believe Blueshogun was going to use it, look him up and see what he has to say. I think he's username is spelled blueshogun92.

I haven't delved into it much. I am unsure about when support will vanish. As for the curve and learning experience, it shouldn't be too difficult to switch over. Do a test project, something simple, involving all the features of Eclipse you use (compiling, debugging, version control, etc). See if anything functions differently. Since Google was using the ADT addins as their working environment, I'm sure most of the important/useful features are there. It may even make simulating easier.

If you find the transition will be a big undertaking, then perhaps only use it when you start a new project. You can also create a new project to replicate a current one, import all the files, and see how the build process goes. If that transition works, you shouldn't have much issue.

I believe Blueshogun was going to use it, look him up and see what he has to say. I think he's username is spelled blueshogun92.

Thanks.

I have been coding the last two nights - a couple hours each. Decided to go with the Android IDE and come convert other project later for revisions. Thought it would be easier to learn on one, and I liked what I was seeing about the way A IDE tracked code changes vs Eclipse. That pushed me towards A IDE. Going to finish the sample app. got it to run on one my phones easily - although problems while trying to use Emulator.

Think before I dive into a game, I will download one and take it apart and put it back together. Kind of like building engines when I was younger...

Will look up blueshogan92 with questions.

Thanks again.

BB

If you're using Eclipse or Android Studio would I be right in thinking you're going to use Java? How are you intending to move over to iOS? I like Java, but it can cause problems when releasing for anything other than Android. You might want to look at libgdx. You can write in Java using Android Studio or the IDE it's based on, IntelliJ IDE, and libgdx takes care of the nitty gritty of getting Java to run on iOS (via RoboVM) or even converting it to a web app (via GWT).