Basics of Android Development
Native Android
Introduction
In short, we can say that it is an Operating system for touchscreen devices, and any device that runs on this Operating System is known as an Android Device. Now for every operating system, some applications can run on it to perform specific tasks. Similarly, for Android Devices, we have Android Apps that can run on them to perform specific tasks.
The official language for Android development is Kotlin, but Java is still used in many famous courses and many projects, so you are free to use any of them.
Installation
Android Studio
Android Studio is the official Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Android app development. This software is a bit heavy on normal systems (8 GB Ram & 1 TB HDD) and can be quite laggy for any systems below this configuration.
While developing an android app you will need to test it on a device. You can test it in two ways -
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Real Device (Preffered for slower systems)
For testing you apps on a real device you will need to have a USB cable and an Android device. Follow this tutorial to enable USB debugging in order to run your app in the device.
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Emulator
An Android Emulator simulates Android devices on your computer so that you can test your application on a variety of devices and Android API levels without needing to have each physical device. It provides almost all of the capabilities of a real Android device.
How to get started
If you haven't had any chance to develop android apps earlier then don't worry it's not too late to start now. Here are few resources to start with android development.
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Video Tutorial
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Written Tutorials
Challenge
As an aspiring developer, you'd need to keep building things to keep your knowledge on tips. Now that you are good to go with the basics of native Android Development, we want you to build one of the games from the following list on your own.
- Tic-Tac-Toe Game
- Sudoku game
You have to provide your Repo and APK File as part of submission
Judging
The evaluation would be done mainly on the following basis:
- User Interface and User Experience
- Authenticity and readability of the code
- Completion of mentioned tasks
- Bonus Points for implementing extra features depending on your creativity😉
Remember, the deadline for this week's task is June 13th, 2021, 23:59.
Tic Tac Toe
Objective: You need to build a Tic Tac Toe game
Tasks:-
- Task 1: Implement a two-player mode that allows two people to compete against each other.
- Task 2: Add a single-player mode that allows users to play with an intelligent bot that never loses.
- Task 3: Add an option to select which shape to begin with (X/O).
- Task 4: In single-player mode, add an option to choose who will start first - computer or player.
- Extras: You may keep a record of scores and use player names for interactivity.
Resources
Minimax Algorithm in Game Theory | Set 3 (Tic-Tac-Toe AI - Finding optimal move) - GeeksforGeeks
Sudoku
Objective: You need to build a Sudoku board game.
Tasks:-
- Task 1: Implement a Sudoku game. (The board may remain the same every time).
- Task 2: Implement a board generator and generate a random board in every game. You may use backtracking or naive approaches to generate the board.
- Task 3: Add a timer to the game, where the user may select a particular time to complete the game within it. Bonus: As the time reaches 0, the user can be warned about the time running out.
- Task 4: Warning the user about incorrect inputs and user engagement.
- Extras: To make the game more engaging, you may provide hints if the user is stuck for like 10-20 seconds.
Resources
Program for Sudoku Generator - GeeksforGeeks
Generating and solving Sudoku puzzles with Python
Submission
This Blog is a part of CSoC'21 Dev Frontend.
Remember, deadline for this task is June 13th, 2021 23:59.
As done in the previous week, you'll fork the repository, add your repo and deployed site link into the list of submissions in the Androd.md file . Submit pull requests from your newly created branch for this challenge.