Test environment for Ren'Py for Android

[Voight-Kampff]

I'll admit, the prospect of being able to port Ren'Py games to Android is alluring.

However, being without an Android-based device, and without any desire to ever get another phone from the cellular oligopoly in the U.S. (which precludes ever getting an Android-based phone), does anyone have any suggestions for a good, cheap platform upon which I could do some testing?

As far as I can tell, two of the more reasonable options would either be something like an Archos 70, or maybe a Nook Color (which would need to be rooted).

Anyone have any other thoughts?

[tentacle]

You can get some really cheap unlocked android phones around the 200 dollar range, like the ZTE Blade, HTC Wildfire, Huawei something, etc.
You can also just use the free Android SDK to emulate one on your PC.

And what do you mean "which precludes ever getting an Android-based phone" ? How are android phones treated differently compared to other phones? (honest question, I don't live in the US so Im curious).

[PyTom]

I'll just note that Ren'Py for Android does require a fairly high-end device - OpenGL ES 2, a reasonable amount of ram, and a reasonable CPU. The Nook is probably out, since I don't think it has support for graphics acceleration. The archos might work, but at this point, I'd consider waiting for some of the new Honeycomb tablets to reach a price you think is fair.

That being said, one of the big problems with porting to Android is dealing with small devices, like phones. The physically tiny screens mean you need to make buttons much bigger, pixel-wise, to compensate. I suspect most Ren'Py games would be usable on a tablet without major changes, as long as they don't do anything that requires a keyboard, or precise mousing. (Or some of the other unsupported features.)

[EwanG]

You have a few options you could consider. First off, you could put Froyo (haven't tested with Gingerbread) on your PC and run the game in an emulator:
http://a1.blogspot.com/2010/05/putting- ... -your.html

Has the additional advantage that the emulator can be set to different sizes to see how things work without buying a lot of equipment.

Or, you could probably ask folks on here who have Android devices if they'd be willing to beta test in return for a free final copy. For example, I have 2 Viewsonic G-Tablets (10.1" Tegra 2, Froyo), a Motorola Xoom (Wifi only, 10.1" Tegra 2, Honeycomb), and a Nexus One (Gingerbread) and am generally amenable to helping folks out with loading an APK and giving feedback

[PyTom]

I don't recommend testing in an android emulator, at least for tests where speed might be an issue. The android emulator is much slower than actual hardware.

[iichan_lolbot]

Don't want to start a new thread for a stupid question: how do i make my *.apk-archives signed and aligned? It's possible to just open Moonlight Walks and replace /game/ folder with my own, but this won't be a proper apk.

[PyTom]

I don't understand how you can just open MW and replace the game folder.

You can create a key by running the keytool command that's part of java. Use a command like:

Code: Select all

keytool -genkey -v -keystore release.keystore -alias release_key -keyalg RSA -validity 10000

You can then create the file called build.properties, containing:

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key.alias=release_key
key.store.password=qwerty
key.alias.password=qwerty
key.store=/home/tom/ab/keys/release.keystore

Replace qwerty with the passphrase you chose, and set key.store to the path to the keystore file you created. (Keep the keystore file in a safe place - if you lose it, you can't upgrade the app.)

Then run:

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./build.py 1.0.0 release

And you'll have a signed and zipaligned apk.