An Arcade staple in the palm of your hand! Beginner-friendly to set up.
My first android App
Hey there, fellow gamers and devs! I’m Mike, and I’ve just wrapped up an exhilarating journey building RetroShooter, my first Android game. What started as a late-night idea—channeling my love for classic shooters into a modern mobile experience—turned into a rollercoaster of code, crashes, and triumphs. Today, I’m thrilled to share how it all came together and what this little green rectangle shooter has to offer.
The Spark and the Struggle
It began a few months ago when I fired up Android Studio, determined to create something fun. Inspired by the pixelated chaos of old arcade games, I envisioned a simple yet addictive shooter where a green player rectangle battles waves of colorful enemies. Armed with Kotlin and a crash course in SurfaceView, I dove in, sketching out Player.kt, Enemy.kt, and Bullet.kt. The early days were rough—my first build crashed with a Theme.AppCompat error, and XML syntax in colors.xml nearly broke me. But each bug squashed, like fixing the app:mergeDebugResources failure, felt like leveling up. With guidance from online communities and a lot of trial-and-error, I pushed through, tweaking fireRate and bulletSpeed to balance gameplay. Uploading it to GitHub was the cherry on top, a proud moment of sharing my creation with the world.
Features That Bring the Fun
RetroShooter is more than just rectangles—it’s a playground of action and strategy. Here’s what you’ll find:
Dynamic Gameplay: Control the green player with a drag-to-move mechanic, tapping to pause or select upgrades. Shoot fewer but faster bullets (thanks to a fire rate of 1000ms and bullet speed of 25f), making every shot count against enemies in red, yellow, and magenta.
Enemy Waves: Enemies spawn in circular patterns, challenging your reflexes as they fire back with red bullets. Their fire rate (2000ms) and bullet speed (15f) keep the pressure on.
Power-Ups and Upgrades: Collect cyan, yellow, magenta, and green power-ups to boost health, fire rate, damage, or bullet speed. Between levels, choose upgrades to tailor your playstyle.
Retro Vibes: Built for API 35 on a Medium Phone emulator, the game runs smoothly with a minimalist design—perfect for a quick, nostalgic fix.
Lessons Learned and Looking Ahead
This journey taught me resilience. Debugging XML errors or syncing Gradle felt daunting, but each fix sharpened my skills. Just because I used AI to help me make it doesn’t mean there wasn’t a bunch of troubleshooting on my part. Sharing it on GitHub, complete with a README.md and .gitignore, opened doors to feedback and collaboration. Next, I’m dreaming of adding sprites from OpenGameArt.org and sounds from FreeSound.org to give RetroShooter more flair. Maybe even a high-score system or multiplayer mode—who knows?
If you’re a dev or gamer, clone it at https://github.com/mgrffn117/Android-retro-shooter, build it in Android Studio, and let me know what you think! This app is my tribute to the games that shaped me, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us next. Happy shooting!