About Android game development tools

Android tools and libraries support using, creating, or extending game engines and using popular IDEs.

Create or extend game engines

Development tools and libraries

  • Android Game Development Kit (AGDK): This is our main collection of Android game development and optimization tools and libraries. It supports multiple game engine usage and development scenarios and includes a library for managing Android app events in C/C++ code.

  • Android Game Development Extension (AGDE): This a Visual Studio extension that allows you to build Android games from Visual Studio using your existing projects.

  • Google Play Games for PC: This platform brings your Android game to Windows using high-performance emulation. It allows cross-device play between Android, ChromeOS, and Windows while using the same code base.

  • Android Studio: Android Studio provides many useful support tasks for Android game development, such as Android project management, dependency integration, debugging, and profiling.

Add game services

Many Google Play features are oriented towards distributing and maintaining your game; however, Google Play Games Services provides social and competitive features you can add while developing your game. These include features such as achievements, saved games, and player sign-in.

Optimization

We provide many optimization tools and APIs that are designed for Android games and graphic intensive apps. These are often used as you iterate and maintain your game; however, you may want to consider using some of them as you develop a new game. For example, it might be good to start developing your game using APIs such as Game Mode and Memory Advice. Likewise you might want to start using Android GPU Inspector during the initial testing of your game. See the Android games optimization overview for more information.