How to become an Android game developer

The mobile gaming market is developing at such a rapid pace that there has been an acute shortage of personnel in this industry for more than a year. First of all, we are talking about developers, to whom companies offer excellent working conditions and solid financial rewards. It is not surprising that people of different ages are interested in this type of activity, but many are convinced at home that the profession of an Android developer is difficult and not everyone can master it.

In fact, the situation is completely different. Yes, people who are far from the gaming world, have a humanitarian mindset and do not know even the slightest basics of programming at the initial stage will be difficult. But in modern realities, there are so many different tools that allow you to master this interesting profession that everything depends solely on the desire of a person, his perseverance and determination.

Where to begin?

In practice, there are three main ways to learn Android development:

• Selfeducation;
• Get higher education in IT-specialty at the university;
• Complete specialized courses online.

If we talk about self-study using the materials that are on the Internet, then this is not the best way for beginners. Many do not know where to start, what to focus on, and some people simply do not have enough patience and perseverance. The complexity of self-study lies also in the lack of a sufficient number of practical exercises. In most cases, you can train only on template exercises, and there will be problems with solving non-standard tasks.

High-quality and specialized education can be obtained at universities. This is an effective way of learning that will allow you to thoroughly master the profession and in the future find yourself a good well-paid job. But you need to understand that you will have to study for at least 4 years and this “pleasure” is quite expensive. In addition, in the learning process, you will have to study secondary disciplines that have nothing to do with developing games for Android.

Specialized online schools deserve special attention, in which students receive only the necessary material with a minimum amount of theory and a maximum of practice. Students can independently build a training schedule that is convenient for themselves, all webinars are recorded and available in their personal account. Classes are conducted by experienced developers who share their personal experience and give good advice.

In any case, at the initial stage it is necessary to decide on the programming language. Experienced specialists emphasize that, ideally, you need to know two languages: Java – it is in it that most of the existing applications are written, and Kotlin, which is a priority (official) according to Google.

It is also necessary to study development principles, algorithms, data structures, learn the names of functions and variables, since without this it is impossible to write understandable code. For teamwork, knowledge of the Git version control system and the GitHub service is indispensable.

This is just a small list of the information that you need to master in order to become a professional Android game developer. There is no need to be afraid to make mistakes, experience in this area comes gradually, the main thing is not to stop, but to constantly move forward.

Useful and practical information about games for Android can be found on the site destructamobile.com, whose administration constantly keeps abreast of all the interesting events taking place in the world of mobile gaming.

What books to read?

In the process of learning, future developers need to master a large amount of different information. There are many sources from which to draw knowledge, but one of the best and proven for many decades are books.

Design Patterns by Eric Freeman and Elizabeth Freeman will be helpful for both experienced and newbies. There are many clear examples and explanations on the pages of this publication. Everything is presented in an accessible language, but it must be borne in mind that the book is focused on Java.

Clean Code by Robert Martin teaches readers how to write code correctly so that it is simple, concise, and understandable to ordinary people. The publication contains a lot of practical advice on various issues, and numerous positive reviews from readers are evidence that the book is worthy of attention.

Steve McConnell in his book Perfect Code. Master class” tells about programming in the broadest sense of the word. It focuses on the development process, the quality of the code, and the traits that a programmer should have. The book provides not only general information, but also focuses on the details.