Want to develop an amazing Android game?
Billions of people use Android devices, and Google Play Store is chock full of free and pay-to-win games they can choose from. These range from simple ones like Flappy Bird, to the complex type such as Dead Trigger 2, or full installations of popular titles like Grand Theft Auto available for you to play.
If you want to tap into this huge audience, there are several resources and tools you can use to amplify your success at each development stage, and build a profitable yet sustainable gaming business.
If you love games but haven’t had the skills to create your own game idea into reality, you can spend time on Udemy – one of the world’s largest online course platforms – and learn how to make your own games.
The educational platform creates an environment where knowledge is imparted to individuals, replacing classroom learning with self-paced instruction from global experts, right from the comfort of their homes.
We’re going to share with you some of the best Android game development courses you can take right now on Udemy.
Factors to Consider Before Creating an Android Game
There are several key components that make Android games, and others, successful and profitable. Before you get started on developing one, you need to consider the following:
Tools of the trade
For Android app development, the standard tool is Android Studio. If you aren’t familiar with it, you can look it up, plus get acquainted with the Java programming language as it’s at the heart of this tool.
Time
You need to invest a lot of time into your app if you want to complete it successfully – unless something comes up that would make you have to stop the project.
Creativity
Nothing sells more than a creative and original idea. For example, the Flappy Bird game now has knock offs on Play Store since people learned they could make a lot of money off the idea. The game was simple, original, and easy to learn, though hard to master. Another successful original game is Rovio, which was designed from a creative background.
Simplicity
Currently, the market favors games that have the most basic concepts. They’re simple, addictive, and fun, plus they have infinite replay value. Complicated games aren’t worth your users’ time trying to figure them out, but they would work better on PC and consoles. Generally, people want to spend a few minutes playing games on their phones, with the exception of games like GTA or Dead Trigger, as they offer an immersive experience.
Beta testing
Make sure you develop test cases for the app so you don’t release a broken game to the public. It’s the most important step in developing Android games, so make sure a few people test it to see how it works and fix potential bugs that would ruin the user experience.
Best Udemy Courses For Android Game Development
There’s a wide range of legit online hobbyist courses on Udemy right now that you can take to learn how to develop Android games in a few clicks and at your own pace.
From flexible and powerful software, to tutorials that don’t require any experience on your part for programming languages, you can learn new skills and develop your first and best game yet.
We did the legwork and pulled 12 of the best Android game development courses from Udemy, covering game development, design, and programming. In no particular order, here’s a roundup of our top picks.
1. Unity Android Game Development: Build 7 2D & 3D Games
This course teaches you the basic concepts, tools, and functions you need to build a fully-functional Android game with the Unity game engine.
Specifically, you’ll learn the following:
- Unity installation and setup
- Leaderboards implementation to create online game leaderboards, plus achievement unlock system
- How to publish on Google Play Store
- Game monetization, to integrate video ads and earn money
- Game art creation to design your own game artworks
- Version controlling with Git, Bitbucket, and Github
- Android game examples you can build such as 3D ZigZag game, Fruit Ninja, Tappy Ball, 3D Runner, and 3D Flick Football
The fundamentals of this course give you a powerful skill at your fingertips. Unity is not only free, but also simple and easy to learn, with helpful documentation, because it’s the game engine you’ll use to build Android games.
Learning how to develop Android games on Unity will also give you a stronger background to build amazing games, and perhaps land a job in the market too.
The course is suitable for newbie programmers and provides 181 lectures with over 33 hours of content, and a quiz after every chapter so you can apply the skills you’ve learned immediately. You’ll need to be familiar with Unity interface and Unity C# scripting though.
Upon completion of the course, you’ll have the knowledge you need to create and develop fully-functional, ready-to-publish Android games, and you get a verifiable certificate to boot.
2. Android LibGDX Game Development Masterclass
If you’re looking to create your own games for Android, you can take this Android game development masterclass that uses Java with the LibGDX game development framework.
Here, you’ll not only learn how to become a real games programmer but also understand the LibGDX framework and how to use it to develop games.
Other important components of the lesson include using Entity Component Systems together with Ashley LibGDX extension, data-oriented design basics, writing clean and maintainable code, among others.
All you need to get started is a computer running either Windows, MacOS X, or Linux, and basic knowledge of Java.
As long as you understand gaming technology, you’ll be one of the most sought after people in tech, with new and exciting opportunities available for game developers and programmers.
LibGDX is cross-platform, so you can move your completely developed games to other platforms with no need for prior experience.
With this Android game development Udemy course, there are over 300 lectures with about 58 hours of video content.
The course instructor is an expert games developer, official contributor to LibGDX and official Oracle Java certified developer, who has worked on many games in a variety of frameworks. This means you’ll learn how to create your own games and game code from one of the best Java game developers on Udemy.
3. Unity Basics: A Monetized Android/iOS Game in 4 Hours
This course doesn’t require any programming experience – just a computer and an internet connection.
It’s suitable for beginners and teaches you to build a complete Android game in Unity, monetize it with ad support, and polish the game to be market-ready. Ultimately, you’ll have the skills you need and knowledge to build and develop your own games.
You’ll learn how to make a simple but addictive Android game in only 4 hours, covering topics like installing and using Unity, mobile setup and input, player movement, monetization design principles, and a lot more.
If you’re a newbie game developer who wants to create Android games with monetization, this one’s for you.
4. Unity Android Game and App Development – Build 10 Games and Apps
If you have a basic knowledge of the Unity game engine and Unity C# scripting, you’ll learn a lot from this course.
Some of the main lessons include learning how to build Android games and apps with Unity & C# and without coding, build 2D and 3D games and publish them to Android.
Some of these games and apps include Tappy Ball, Fruit Ninja, Hello World Android app, Bird Smash Game app, Google Voice Search app, and more.
The basic tools, concepts, and functions you need to build an Android game and app that’s fully-functional using Unity and MIT App Inventor2 are all in this course.
It’s suitable for newbie programmers who will learn all the fundamentals of Unity Android game development and establish a strong understanding of the background concepts in Android game development.
Once you complete a chapter, you’ll take a quiz to apply your newly learned skills immediately. After mastering the basics, you’ll delve into building different example games using Unity and learn a lot more about the development of Android games on the engine.
Anyone who wants to build their own apps and games will find this course useful.
5. Android Game Development with Godot Engine
This course teaches you to create diverse Android games based on your needs, while using the resources in the Godot engine, and publish them in the Play Store. At the end of the course, you’ll have understood the essentials of game creation.
What you need for this course is just a computer using Windows, MacOS, or Linux, a desire to learn and study, plus time. You don’t need prior experience or knowledge on programming, plus all the tools are free to use.
Initially, the course was in Portuguese, but it has since grown due to demand and success such that it’s now available in other countries. The audio is Portuguese but the subtitles are in English, which has to be activated in the video player so you can follow and learn.
The Godot engine is intuitive, free and limitless, and you’ll create five games similar to Flappy Bird, Super Mario, Fruit Ninja, Timberman, and Hand Spinner.
The open-source game engine was initially developed for several companies in Latin America before being publicly released under the MIT license and runs on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It’s very useful for creating games for computers, mobile devices for Android or iOS platforms, and the web platform too.
Whether you’re a student of Computer Science or Engineering, a design or game development enthusiast, or just someone desiring to create his or her own game, this course is for you.
6. Android Game Development for Beginners – Learn Core Concepts
If you want to learn Android Game development using Java and Android Studio, this course will help you get started.
It’s a beginner’s course that teaches the core concepts such as building a complete 2D game in a short time, brushing up on Java skills, creating different game levels, and even monetizing your app via Google Admob to make some money.
The course uses Java because it’s an OOP language, so you need to learn OOP basics prior to taking this course. This will help you learn how to work with Java, Python, Kotlin, C# or C++ among other OOP-based languages.
You also need to install Android Studio and have basic programming experience like if-else, variable, method, loop, and many others.
Some of the key game programming elements you’re going to learn through this course include Object-Oriented concept for Animation, basic XML layout designing, detecting Touch Event and Collision, Frame by Frame animation, and more.
The course is specifically designed for anyone who wants to build an Android game from scratch but isn’t sure where to begin.
If you want to learn game development by writing code in Java or learn 2D game development core concepts like animation, collision detection, and more, this course is perfect for you.
7. Android Game Development – Create Your First Mobile Game
In this course, you’ll learn how to create Android games using Java and Android Studio by creating a complete Flappy Bird game in SurfaceView, within 3 hours and 25 minutes.
It also covers the basic game framework, how to create an efficient game loop, game development fundamentals, and how to monetize your app with Google Admob, plus much more.
What you need is knowledge of Java and how it works, plus other OOP-based languages, and basic programming experience. If you’re a beginner to Android Game development, Java programming, and Android development, this course is designed with you in mind.
8. Master Programming Android Firebase (Learn with 2D games)
This is an excellent Android game development initiation course where you’ll not only learn, but also get the code for apps, graphic resources, and all the necessary lessons to learn to create your Android 2D games.
If you’re a beginner developer with no Android knowledge, or an experienced one who wants to design 2D games, a programming student interested in Android, or just want to enter Android game development, take this course.
You’ll learn 2D game development on Android, Java programming for Android, how to connect apps like Google Firebase, and Android app development, plus much more. All you need is an internet connection, a desire to learn, and have notions of general programming.
Some example games you’ll develop include the Duck Hunt game, TicTacToe, and many others.
Note: This course isn’t for you if you want to create 3D or advanced games. Also, it is ideal for learners that understand the Spanish language.
9. 2D Games for Android and iOS: Learn Creating 7 Games
This course will teach you how to create many types of Android games like Candy Crush, Super Mario, Pac-Man, and more. Thousands of students are taking the course and learning how to create various games for Android and iOS platforms, based on their needs.
Other lessons include how to publish games on Play Store, using Godot engine’s many features, understanding basic game design principles, and using A* algorithm for artificial intelligence.
All you need is a desire to learn and a Windows, MacOS, or Linux computer. All the tools you’ll use are free, and you don’t need previous programming knowledge to start.
There’s also an exclusive forum where you can ask questions related to the course that the instructors will be happy to respond to.
If you’re a game development or design enthusiast, or just have the desire to develop your own Android game, take this course.
10. Android Game Programming and Development for Beginners
Want to build playable Android games but don’t have any previous experience? This course will teach you how to do it using Java and Android Studio.
You’ll learn how to code in Java from the ground up or refresh your knowledge of the same, build playable games like Space Invaders or Breakout, create smoothly animated arcade-style graphics and efficient game loop, plus much more.
To get started, you need only be proficient with your operating system, without knowledge of coding, because you’ll learn the Java introduction or refresher lesson.
The course is displayed on a Windows computer, but relevant for MacOS too, apart from the Android Studio setup.
You’ll get a fun introduction into game programming, Android, and Java language. If you’re a beginner to Java coding, Android development, or game development/coding, this is for you.
11. Become a Game Designer the Complete Series Coding to Design
Here we have a best selling course with over 64,000 students. The “Become a Game Designer the Complete Series” course has 4.5 stars out of over 7,600 ratings on Udemy.
Such a high rating is proof that it’s one of the best Android game development courses on the platform.
The course teaches how to create 2D and 3D Android games and applications. You’ll also learn how to develop games for other platforms, including iPhone, PS4, Nintendo, Xbox, PC, and Mac. General computer knowledge is all you need to begin.
Like most other courses on this list, you’ll work with the Unity game engine. However, you’ll also work with tools like Maya, Mudbox, and 3DS MAX to build game models.
The course has 24 sections with 710 lectures and runs for about 85 hours. Note that the course content is updated from time to time. Hence, more sections could be added and others removed.
In addition to the course videos, you also get access to 18 support files and 12 articles. The course is available in English, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Portuguese. Upon completion, you get a digital certificate.
12. Android Game Programming & Development for Beginners
Like the description states, this course is ideal for beginners. You can opt for it if you’re new to programming in general, not just game development.
The course explains the intricacies of Android game programming in simple language, making comprehension easy.
In particular, you’ll learn the basic framework for Android games and how to code in Java. The course makes you build games like Space Invaders and Breakout. Afterward, you can create your own game.
You’ll learn how to create game loops, add sound FX, and create arcade style graphics.
The Android Game Programming & Development for Beginners course is straightforward and you can complete it in a day. It runs for about 6 hours with 3 sections and 49 lecture videos.
The first section covers getting started with programming and Java, while the second and third section explains how to build an arcade game. You also get two support files.
If you take this course, it’s best to use a browser compatible with Windows PC. The only requirement is to be familiar with the Windows environment. You’ll be working with different software programs but majorly Android Studio.
Finally, note that the Android Game Programming & Development for Beginners course is only available in English.
Wrap Up
We hope you now know which Android game development courses you can take on Udemy if you’d like to get started or brush up on what you already know.
It’ll take lots of time, practice, and research to create and build a truly great Android game, but be sure to consider originality and simplicity as you design your own.
When you’re done, carry out thorough beta tests before you release the game to the world, as broken games are hard to recover from once released.
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