Tools is my passion, especially tools for native programming. Being a game developer wannabe, I’m especially excited when I see game developers using the tools I help build. And that’s one reason why I’m closely following and helping out with tooling for the Android Native Development Kit. There’s a great community there that could really benefit from a good CDT integration, and maybe who will come help make that integration great.

At any rate, I watched Chris Pruett’s session on Android game development from Google I/O and found it very educational. The first half was about technical details and tips behind Android game development, but the second half was just about good game development for mobile platforms. It’s a great view and I’ve embedded it at the end of this post.

The real game changer (sorry to use the pun 🙂 in my mind is the growth of app stores or markets. Pretty much every mobile platform vendor is creating some sort of one stop shopping experience for their devices and it’s a great vehicle for app developers to quickly get their wares into the hands of paying customers. And with systems like Valve’s Steam, you also get this great experience on your desktops and laptops.

The biggest advantage of markets, as Chris illustrated, is that it’s also a great way to keep in touch with your customers. Customers tend to be brutally honest about what you’ve provided them, and it’s good to get first hand looks at that feedback. And also, thanks to the markets, it’s also easy to get updates and fixes into their hands. It’s a win/win.

Anyway, it’s a great view. Take a look.

Update: The embed didn’t work very well. Just click this link instead.