Beginning Android Games (Zechner, Mario Green, Robert) (z-library.sk, 1lib.sk, z-lib.sk)

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Beginning Android Games Second Edition Mario Zechner Robert Green Apress

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Beginning Android Games, Second Edition Copyright © 2012 by Mario Zechner and Robert Green Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher's location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. ISBN 978-1-4302-4677-0 ISBN 978-1-4302-4678-7 Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefi t of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Th e use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identifi ed as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. Th e publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. President and Publisher: Paul Manning Lead Editor: Steve Anglin Developmental Editor: Tom Welsh Technical Reviewer: Chad Darby Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Louise Corrigan, Morgan Ertel, Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Robert Hutchinson, Michelle Lowman, James Markham, Matthew Moodie, Jeff Olson, Jeff rey Pepper, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Gwenan Spearing, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh Coordinating Editor: Christine Ricketts Copy Editor: William McManus Compositor: SPi Global Indexer: SPi Global Artist: SPi Global Cover Designer: Anna Ishchenko Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer Science+Business Media New York, 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax (201) 348-4505, e-mail orders-ny@springer-sbm.com, or visit www.springeronline.com. For information on translations, please e-mail rights@apress.com, or visit www.apress.com. Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales–eBook Licensing web page at www.apress.com/bulk-sales. Any source code or other supplementary materials referenced by the author in this text is available to readers at www.apress.com. For detailed information about how to locate your book’s source code, go to www.apress.com/source-code. (eBook)

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Dedicated to my idols, Mom and Dad, and my love, Stefanie. —Mario Zechner Dedicated to my family and everyone who has helped us along the way. —Robert Green

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v Contents at a Glance About the Authors ........................................................................................................ xix About the Technical Reviewer ..................................................................................... xxi Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... xxiii Introduction ................................................................................................................ xxv Chapter 1: ■ An Android in Every Home .........................................................................1 Chapter 2: ■ First Steps with the Android SDK .............................................................21 Chapter 3: ■ Game Development 101 ...........................................................................55 Chapter 4: ■ Android for Game Developers ................................................................107 Chapter 5: ■ An Android Game Development Framework ..........................................193 Chapter 6: ■ Mr. Nom Invades Android .......................................................................237 Chapter 7: ■ OpenGL ES: A Gentle Introduction ..........................................................275 Chapter 8: ■ 2D Game Programming Tricks ...............................................................355 Chapter 9: ■ Super Jumper: A 2D OpenGL ES Game ...................................................433 Chapter 10: ■ OpenGL ES: Going 3D ............................................................................493 Chapter 11: ■ 3D Programming Tricks .......................................................................529 Chapter 12: ■ Android Invaders: The Grand Finale .....................................................583

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Contents at a Glancevi Chapter 13: ■ Going Native with the NDK ...................................................................633 Chapter 14: ■ Marketing and Monetizing ...................................................................649 Chapter 15: ■ Publishing Your Game ..........................................................................659 Chapter 16: ■ What’s Next? ........................................................................................675 Index ........................................................................................................................... 679

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vii Contents About the Authors ........................................................................................................ xix About the Technical Reviewer ..................................................................................... xxi Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... xxiii Introduction ................................................................................................................ xxv Chapter 1: ■ An Android in Every Home .........................................................................1 A Brief History of Android ....................................................................................................... 2 Fragmentation ........................................................................................................................ 3 The Role of Google ................................................................................................................. 4 The Android Open Source Project .................................................................................................................. 4 Google Play .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Google I/O ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Android’s Features and Architecture ...................................................................................... 5 The Kernel ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 The Runtime and Dalvik ................................................................................................................................. 7 System Libraries ............................................................................................................................................ 7 The Application Framework ........................................................................................................................... 9 The Software Development Kit ............................................................................................... 9 The Developer Community ................................................................................................... 10

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Contentsviii Devices, Devices, Devices! ................................................................................................... 11 Hardware ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 The Range of Devices .................................................................................................................................. 12 Compatibility Across All Devices .......................................................................................... 17 Mobile Gaming Is Different ................................................................................................... 18 A Gaming Machine in Every Pocket ............................................................................................................. 18 Always Connected ....................................................................................................................................... 19 Casual and Hardcore ................................................................................................................................... 19 Big Market, Small Developers ..................................................................................................................... 19 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2: ■ First Steps with the Android SDK .............................................................21 Setting Up the Development Environment ........................................................................... 21 Setting Up the JDK....................................................................................................................................... 22 Setting Up the Android SDK ......................................................................................................................... 22 Installing Eclipse .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Installing the ADT Eclipse Plug-In ................................................................................................................ 25 A Quick Tour of Eclipse ................................................................................................................................ 27 Helpful Eclipse Shortcuts............................................................................................................................. 29 Creating a New Project in Eclipse and Writing Your Code .................................................... 30 Creating the Project ..................................................................................................................................... 30 Exploring the Project ................................................................................................................................... 31 Making the Application Compatible with All Android Versions..................................................................... 33 Writing the Application Code ....................................................................................................................... 33 Running the Application on a Device or Emulator ................................................................ 35 Connecting a Device .................................................................................................................................... 36 Creating an Android Virtual Device .............................................................................................................. 36 Installing Advanced Emulator Features ....................................................................................................... 38 Running an Application ................................................................................................................................ 42 Debugging and Profi ling an Application ............................................................................... 46 LogCat and DDMS ........................................................................................................................................ 49 Using ADB .................................................................................................................................................... 51

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Contents ix Useful Third-Party Tools ....................................................................................................... 53 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 53 Chapter 3: ■ Game Development 101 ...........................................................................55 Genres: To Each One’s Taste ................................................................................................. 55 Casual Games .............................................................................................................................................. 56 Puzzle Games .............................................................................................................................................. 57 Action and Arcade Games ............................................................................................................................ 59 Tower-Defense Games ................................................................................................................................. 62 Social Games ............................................................................................................................................... 63 Beyond the Genres ...................................................................................................................................... 65 Game Design: The Pen Is Mightier Than the Code ................................................................ 66 Core Game Mechanics ................................................................................................................................. 66 A Story and an Art Style ............................................................................................................................... 68 Screens and Transitions .............................................................................................................................. 69 Code: The Nitty-Gritty Details ............................................................................................... 75 Application and Window Management ........................................................................................................ 76 Input ............................................................................................................................................................ 77 File I/O ......................................................................................................................................................... 80 Audio............................................................................................................................................................ 81 Graphics....................................................................................................................................................... 85 The Game Framework ................................................................................................................................. 98 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 105 Chapter 4: ■ Android for Game Developers ................................................................107 Defi ning an Android Application: The Manifest File ............................................................ 107 The <manifest> Element ........................................................................................................................... 109 The <application> Element ....................................................................................................................... 109 The <activity> Element ............................................................................................................................. 110 The <uses-permission> Element .............................................................................................................. 112 The <uses-feature> Element .................................................................................................................... 114 The <uses-sdk> Element .......................................................................................................................... 115 Android Game Project Setup in Eight Easy Steps ...................................................................................... 116

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Contentsx Google Play Filters ..................................................................................................................................... 117 Defi ning the Icon of Your Game ................................................................................................................. 118 For Those Coming from iOS/Xcode ..................................................................................... 119 Eclipse/ADT vs. Xcode ............................................................................................................................... 119 Locating and Confi guring Your Targets ...................................................................................................... 120 Other Useful Tidbits ................................................................................................................................... 120 Android API Basics ............................................................................................................. 121 Creating a Test Project ............................................................................................................................... 121 The Activity Life Cycle ................................................................................................................................ 126 Input Device Handling ................................................................................................................................ 133 File Handling .............................................................................................................................................. 151 Audio Programming ................................................................................................................................... 157 Playing Sound Effects ................................................................................................................................ 158 Streaming Music ....................................................................................................................................... 162 Basic Graphics Programming .................................................................................................................... 165 Best Practices .................................................................................................................... 190 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 191 Chapter 5: ■ An Android Game Development Framework ..........................................193 Plan of Attack ..................................................................................................................... 193 The AndroidFileIO Class ...................................................................................................... 194 AndroidAudio, AndroidSound, and AndroidMusic: Crash, Bang, Boom! .............................. 195 AndroidInput and AccelerometerHandler ........................................................................... 200 AccelerometerHandler: Which Side Is Up? ................................................................................................ 200 CompassHandler ................................................................................................................ 202 The Pool Class: Because Reuse Is Good for You! ....................................................................................... 203 KeyboardHandler: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right . . . ............................................................................. 205 Touch Handlers .......................................................................................................................................... 209 AndroidInput: The Great Coordinator ......................................................................................................... 217 AndroidGraphics and AndroidPixmap: Double Rainbow ..................................................... 218 Handling Different Screen Sizes and Resolutions ..................................................................................... 219 AndroidPixmap: Pixels for the People ........................................................................................................ 224

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Contents xi AndroidGraphics: Serving Our Drawing Needs .......................................................................................... 225 AndroidFastRenderView: Loop, Stretch, Loop, Stretch ............................................................................... 229 AndroidGame: Tying Everything Together ........................................................................... 231 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 236 Chapter 6: ■ Mr. Nom Invades Android .......................................................................237 Creating the Assets ............................................................................................................ 237 Setting Up the Project ........................................................................................................ 239 MrNomGame: The Main Activity ......................................................................................... 240 Assets: A Convenient Asset Store .............................................................................................................. 240 Settings: Keeping Track of User Choices and High Scores ........................................................................ 241 LoadingScreen: Fetching the Assets from Disk ......................................................................................... 244 The Main Menu Screen ...................................................................................................... 245 The HelpScreen Classes ..................................................................................................... 249 The High-Scores Screen ..................................................................................................... 251 Rendering Numbers: An Excursion ............................................................................................................ 251 Implementing the Screen .......................................................................................................................... 253 Abstracting the World of Mr. Nom: Model, View, Controller ................................................ 255 The Stain Class .......................................................................................................................................... 257 The Snake and SnakePart Classes ............................................................................................................ 258 The World Class ......................................................................................................................................... 262 The GameScreen Class ...................................................................................................... 267 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 274 Chapter 7: ■ OpenGL ES: A Gentle Introduction ..........................................................275 What Is OpenGL ES and Why Should I Care? ...................................................................... 275 The Programming Model: An Analogy ........................................................................................................ 276 Projections ................................................................................................................................................. 278 Normalized Device Space and the Viewport .............................................................................................. 280 Matrices ..................................................................................................................................................... 280 The Rendering Pipeline .............................................................................................................................. 281

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Contentsxii Before We Begin ................................................................................................................. 282 GLSurfaceView: Making Things Easy Since 2008 ............................................................... 283 GLGame: Implementing the Game Interface ....................................................................... 286 Look Mom, I Got a Red Triangle! ......................................................................................... 293 Defi ning the Viewport ................................................................................................................................ 294 Defi ning the Projection Matrix ................................................................................................................... 294 Specifying Triangles................................................................................................................................... 297 Putting It Together ..................................................................................................................................... 301 Specifying Per-Vertex Color ................................................................................................ 304 Texture Mapping: Wallpapering Made Easy ........................................................................ 308 Texture Coordinates ................................................................................................................................... 308 Uploading Bitmaps .................................................................................................................................... 310 Texture Filtering ......................................................................................................................................... 312 Disposing of Textures ................................................................................................................................ 313 A Helpful Snippet ....................................................................................................................................... 313 Enabling Texturing ..................................................................................................................................... 314 Putting It Together ..................................................................................................................................... 314 A Texture Class .......................................................................................................................................... 316 Indexed Vertices: Because Re-use Is Good for You ............................................................ 318 Putting It Together ..................................................................................................................................... 320 A Vertices Class ......................................................................................................................................... 322 Alpha Blending: I Can See Through You .............................................................................. 325 More Primitives: Points, Lines, Strips, and Fans................................................................. 328 2D Transformations: Fun with the Model-View Matrix ....................................................... 330 World and Model Space ............................................................................................................................. 330 Matrices Again ........................................................................................................................................... 331 An Initial Example Using Translation .......................................................................................................... 332 More Transformations ................................................................................................................................ 337 Optimizing for Performance ............................................................................................... 341 Measuring Frame Rate .............................................................................................................................. 341 The Curious Case of the Hero on Android 1.5 ............................................................................................ 343

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Contents xiii What’s Making My OpenGL ES Rendering So Slow? ................................................................................. 343 Removing Unnecessary State Changes ..................................................................................................... 345 Reducing Texture Size Means Fewer Pixels to Be Fetched ....................................................................... 347 Reducing Calls to OpenGL ES/JNI Methods ............................................................................................... 348 The Concept of Binding Vertices ................................................................................................................ 348 In Closing ................................................................................................................................................... 352 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 352 Chapter 8: ■ 2D Game Programming Tricks ...............................................................355 Before We Begin ................................................................................................................. 355 In the Beginning . . . There Was the Vector ......................................................................... 356 Working with Vectors ................................................................................................................................. 357 A Little Trigonometry.................................................................................................................................. 359 Implementing a Vector Class ..................................................................................................................... 361 A Simple Usage Example ........................................................................................................................... 365 A Little Physics in 2D .......................................................................................................... 369 Newton and Euler, Best Friends Forever .................................................................................................... 369 Force and Mass ......................................................................................................................................... 370 Playing Around, Theoretically .................................................................................................................... 371 Playing Around, Practically ........................................................................................................................ 372 Collision Detection and Object Representation in 2D ......................................................... 376 Bounding Shapes ....................................................................................................................................... 377 Constructing Bounding Shapes ................................................................................................................. 378 Game Object Attributes .............................................................................................................................. 381 Broad-Phase and Narrow-Phase Collision Detection ................................................................................ 382 An Elaborate Example ................................................................................................................................ 389 A Camera in 2D................................................................................................................... 402 The Camera2D Class ................................................................................................................................. 405 An Example ................................................................................................................................................ 407 Texture Atlas: Because Sharing Is Caring ........................................................................... 408 An Example ................................................................................................................................................ 410

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Contentsxiv Texture Regions, Sprites, and Batches: Hiding OpenGL ES ................................................ 414 The TextureRegion Class ............................................................................................................................ 415 The SpriteBatcher Class ............................................................................................................................ 416 Sprite Animation ................................................................................................................. 425 The Animation Class .................................................................................................................................. 426 An Example ................................................................................................................................................ 427 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 431 Chapter 9: ■ Super Jumper: A 2D OpenGL ES Game ...................................................433 Core Game Mechanics ....................................................................................................... 433 Developing a Backstory and Choosing an Art Style ............................................................ 434 Defi ning Screens and Transitions ....................................................................................... 435 Defi ning the Game World .................................................................................................... 436 Creating the Assets ............................................................................................................ 439 The UI Elements ......................................................................................................................................... 439 Handling Text with Bitmap Fonts ............................................................................................................... 441 The Game Elements ................................................................................................................................... 443 Texture Atlas to the Rescue ....................................................................................................................... 444 Music and Sound ....................................................................................................................................... 446 Implementing Super Jumper .............................................................................................. 447 The Assets Class ........................................................................................................................................ 447 The Settings Class ..................................................................................................................................... 450 The Main Activity ....................................................................................................................................... 451 The Font Class ........................................................................................................................................... 453 The GLScreen Class ................................................................................................................................... 454 The Main Menu Screen .............................................................................................................................. 455 The Help Screens ....................................................................................................................................... 458 The High-Scores Screen ............................................................................................................................ 460 The Simulation Classes ............................................................................................................................. 463 The Game Screen ...................................................................................................................................... 479 The WorldRenderer Class .......................................................................................................................... 486

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Contents xv To Optimize or Not to Optimize ........................................................................................... 490 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 492 Chapter 10: ■ OpenGL ES: Going 3D ............................................................................493 Before We Begin ................................................................................................................. 493 Vertices in 3D ..................................................................................................................... 494 Vertices3: Storing 3D Positions .................................................................................................................. 494 An Example ................................................................................................................................................ 496 Perspective Projection: The Closer, the Bigger ................................................................... 500 Z-buffer: Bringing Order to Chaos ...................................................................................... 502 Fixing the Previous Example...................................................................................................................... 503 Blending: There’s Nothing Behind You ....................................................................................................... 504 Z-buffer Precision and Z-fi ghting .............................................................................................................. 507 Defi ning 3D Meshes ........................................................................................................... 508 A Cube: Hello World in 3D .......................................................................................................................... 509 An Example ................................................................................................................................................ 512 Matrices and Transformations, Again ................................................................................. 515 The Matrix Stack ........................................................................................................................................ 515 Hierarchical Systems with the Matrix Stack .............................................................................................. 518 A Simple Camera System .......................................................................................................................... 524 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 528 Chapter 11: ■ 3D Programming Tricks .......................................................................529 Before We Begin ................................................................................................................. 529 Vectors in 3D ...................................................................................................................... 530 Lighting in OpenGL ES ........................................................................................................ 534 How Lighting Works ................................................................................................................................... 535 Light Sources ............................................................................................................................................. 536 Materials .................................................................................................................................................... 537 How OpenGL ES Calculates Lighting: Vertex Normals ............................................................................... 538 In Practice .................................................................................................................................................. 539 Some Notes on Lighting in OpenGL ES ...................................................................................................... 553

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Contentsxvi Mipmapping ....................................................................................................................... 553 Simple Cameras ................................................................................................................. 558 The First-Person or Euler Camera ............................................................................................................. 558 An Euler Camera Example ......................................................................................................................... 561 A Look-At Camera ...................................................................................................................................... 567 Loading Models .................................................................................................................. 569 The Wavefront OBJ Format ........................................................................................................................ 570 Implementing an OBJ Loader .................................................................................................................... 571 Using the OBJ Loader ................................................................................................................................ 576 Some Notes on Loading Models ................................................................................................................ 576 A Little Physics in 3D .......................................................................................................... 576 Collision Detection and Object Representation in 3D ......................................................... 577 Bounding Shapes in 3D ............................................................................................................................. 578 Bounding Sphere Overlap Testing .............................................................................................................. 578 GameObject3D and DynamicGameObject3D ............................................................................................. 580 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 581 Chapter 12: ■ Android Invaders: The Grand Finale .....................................................583 Core Game Mechanics ....................................................................................................... 583 Developing a Backstory and Choosing an Art Style ............................................................ 585 Defi ning Screens and Transitions ....................................................................................... 586 Defi ning the Game World .................................................................................................... 587 Creating the Assets ............................................................................................................ 589 The UI Assets ............................................................................................................................................. 589 The Game Assets ....................................................................................................................................... 590 Sound and Music ....................................................................................................................................... 592 Plan of Attack ..................................................................................................................... 592 The Assets Class ................................................................................................................ 593 The Settings Class .............................................................................................................. 596 The Main Activity ................................................................................................................ 597 The Main Menu Screen ...................................................................................................... 598

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Contents xvii The Settings Screen ........................................................................................................... 601 The Simulation Classes ...................................................................................................... 604 The Shield Block Class .............................................................................................................................. 604 The Shot Class ........................................................................................................................................... 605 The Ship Class ........................................................................................................................................... 605 The Invader Class ...................................................................................................................................... 607 The World Class ......................................................................................................................................... 611 The GameScreen Class ...................................................................................................... 617 The WorldRender Class ...................................................................................................... 624 Optimizations ..................................................................................................................... 629 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 631 Chapter 13: ■ Going Native with the NDK ...................................................................633 What Is the Android NDK? ................................................................................................. 633 The Java Native Interface ................................................................................................... 634 Setting Up the NDK ............................................................................................................. 636 Setting Up an NDK Android Project .................................................................................... 636 Creating Java Native Methods............................................................................................ 637 Creating the C/C++ Header and Implementation ............................................................... 638 Building the Shared Library ................................................................................................ 640 Putting It All Together ......................................................................................................... 643 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 648 Chapter 14: ■ Marketing and Monetizing ...................................................................649 Monetizing Your Game ........................................................................................................ 649 Advertising ................................................................................................................................................. 650 In-App Products ......................................................................................................................................... 651 Virtual Currency ......................................................................................................................................... 652 To Sell or Not to Sell .................................................................................................................................. 653 Licensing ................................................................................................................................................... 653

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Contentsxviii Getting Your Game Discovered ........................................................................................... 654 Social Network Integration ........................................................................................................................ 654 Discovery Services .................................................................................................................................... 654 Blogs and Conventional Web Media .......................................................................................................... 655 Monetizable by Design ....................................................................................................... 655 Discoverable by Design ...................................................................................................... 656 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 657 Chapter 15: ■ Publishing Your Game ..........................................................................659 A Word on Testing ............................................................................................................... 659 Becoming a Registered Developer ..................................................................................... 660 Signing Your Game’s APK ................................................................................................... 661 Putting Your Game on Google Play ..................................................................................... 666 Uploading Assets ....................................................................................................................................... 668 Product Details .......................................................................................................................................... 669 Publishing Options ..................................................................................................................................... 670 APK Files Management .............................................................................................................................. 672 Publish! ...................................................................................................................................................... 673 More On The Developer Console ........................................................................................ 673 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 674 Chapter 16: ■ What’s Next? ........................................................................................675 Location Awareness ........................................................................................................... 675 Multiplayer Functionality .................................................................................................... 675 OpenGL ES 2.0/3.0 and More ............................................................................................. 675 Frameworks and Engines ................................................................................................... 676 Resources on the Web ........................................................................................................ 678 Closing Words ..................................................................................................................... 678 Index ........................................................................................................................... 679

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xix About the Authors Mario Zechner has been programming games since age 12. Over the years, he created many prototypes and fi nished games on various platforms. He’s the creator of libgdx, an Android game development framework used by many top-grossing Android games. Before he joined his current employer, Mario was the tech-lead at a mobile gaming startup in San Francisco. Mario’s current day job involves working in the fi elds of information extraction and retrieval, visualization, and machine learning. You can meet Mario at conferences, where he gives talks and workshops on game programming, read his blog at www.badlogicgames.com, or follow him on Twitter @badlogicgames. Robert Green is the founder of the game studio Battery Powered Games in Portland, Oregon. He has developed over a dozen Android games, including Deadly Chambers, Antigen, Wixel, Light Racer, and Light Racer 3D. Before diving full time into mobile video game development and publishing, Robert worked for software companies in Minneapolis and Chicago, including IBM Interactive. Robert’s current focus is on cross-platform game development and high-performance mobile gaming with BatteryTech SDK. Robert often updates his personal blog with game programming tidbits at www.rbgrn.net and his professional game development software at www.batterypoweredgames.com.

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xxi About the Technical Reviewer Chád Darby is an author, instructor, and speaker in the Java development world. As a recognized authority on Java applications and architectures, he has presented technical sessions at software development conferences worldwide. In his 15 years as a professional software architect, he’s had the opportunity to work for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Merck, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and a handful of startup companies. Chád is a contributing author to several Java books, including Professional Java E-Commerce (Wrox Press), Beginning Java Networking (Wrox Press), and XML and Web Services Unleashed (Sams Publishing). Chád has Java certifi cations from Sun Microsystems and IBM. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. You can read Chád’s blog at www.luv2code.com and follow him on Twitter @darbyluvs2code.