Android Get Started to Publishing to Market :) Part 2

Getting started with Android

Step 1: Download and Extract the Android SDK to ~/sdk. Getting setup with the most up-to-date Android SDK for publishing applications

1. Download the Android sdk for Mac/ Windows from http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
2. Unzip the downloaded android sdk to ~/sdk
3. Double click the downloaded file.  A new folder with the zip contents will be created
4. Click and drag the new folder to your home directory
5. Rename the new folder "SDK" (without the quotes)
6. Note: "~" is a terminal shortcut for your home directory
7. This will download and update all required Android SDK components, and may take some time.
8. After the update, in the terminal window, type and run (without quotes): "~/sdk/tools/android update adb"
9. This will update the adb process to the latest version

   Now that you've set up the Android SDK on your computer, you'll need to prepare your device.

   Step 2. : Prepping your Android Device

   Setting up your device
1. On your android phone or android tablet, go to Settings, and then to Manage Applications (or "Applications" on some devices)
2. Check the box next to "Unknown Sources" to allow installation of the GameSalad Android Viewer
3. Next, navigate to Storage (typically found in Settings -> SD Card -> Phone Storage or Settings -> Storage); uncheck the box next to USB Storage
4. Turn on USB Debugging (typically found in Settings -> Applications -> Development)

Step 3. Testing your game on your Android Device

Setting up a Project Test

Via USB (Recommended):

1. Plug in your Android device
2. Make sure the device is set to charge only, and does not mount the SD card.
3. Launch Creator 
4. You'll need to re-open any projects you wish to test to apply this change.

Step 4: Publishing to Android

You've set up the Android SDK on your computer, made the necessary changes to your Android device, and tested out your game.  Now you're ready to publish!

1. Select Android as the target platform
2. Choose either “Create New Game” or “Update”; your first time you’ll need to “Create New Game”.

Overview Page:

1. Select a "Primary Category” from the drop-down menu that best represents your game
2. (Optional) Select a "Secondary Category", "Subcategory 1", and "Subcategory 2"
3. Select “Choose File”, and select a 512x512 .png image to use as your icon on the device
4. Enter a title for the project
5. Enter in a description
6. Enter in keywords
7. Select “Next”

Platform Page:

1. Fill out the “Display Name” field to match what you want the icon text to appear as when installed on an Android Device
2. Enter in a “Publicly Visible Version”; this is the game’s version # seen by your users
3. Enter in an “Android Version”; this is a whole number (1, 2, 3, 4) that will be used in the background for determining updates to your application. For example – when you launch your app, the Android Version should be 1. If you later update, then change this to 2, so anyone with the app will be notified that a new version is available to update over the old version.
4. Select “Configure” for Android Settings

Android Settings:

1. Enter in an Android Package Name – This is the name that will be used on the back end to identify your application
2. Enable Accelerometer, if your game uses this feature

If you have a previously created Keystore for application signing:

1. Under Application Signing, select Keystore, and click "Open"
2. In the password field, enter in your password for the keystore
3. If the Keystore contains multiple keys, select the desired key alias in the new dropdown box that appears
4. Fill out your "Password for Chosen Key" and press Enter

If you do not have a Keystore:

1. Open Terminal
2. Type the following command (without using copy/paste) to generate a private key (don’t include the quotation marks):“keytool –genkey –v –keystore my-release-key.keystore –alias alias_name –keyalg RSA –keysize 2048 –validity 10000”
3. In the place of “my-release-key.keystore”, put in your name for this key. For instance, if I had a game called “Space Invaders”, I might name my keystore “space-invaders-1.keystore”. 
4. You’ll always need to include the –keystore command before, and the .keystore addendum after.
5. In the place of “alias_name”, you’ll create an alias for the key. Only the first 8 characters are used. 
6. You’ll always need to use the command –alias before. 
7. You’ll then be prompted to enter a password for the keystore and the alias.

Verification

1. Once you’ve created a Keystore, follow the directions above in Creator.
2. Verify the Keytool, Jarsigner, and Zipalign locations are all valid
3. Select “Done” to return to the Platform page
4. Select “Next” to progress to the Video page

Video Settings (optional):

1. Enter a URL to the desired Youtube Video
2. Select Enter
3. Select Next to progress to the Review Page

Screenshots

1. Drag and drop desired images into the Screenshots panels
2. Select Next to progress to the Review Page

Review

1. Verify that all data is correct
2. Select “Publish”
3. Read the GameSalad Terms and Agreements and then select “Agree and Upload”
4. Publish and Save

You’ll be presented with the following screens during the upload process:

1. Uploading Game Project
2. Upload Complete
3. Signing App Package

You will be prompted to enter a location to save the published file.  Select a location you can find later and select "save".  If everything was configured correctly, you should be shown a "save successful" screen that will have both an unsigned and signed version of your package.

5. Publishing to Android

As part of the Mac GameSalad Creator 0.10.00 update, we’ve rolled out a smoother and more powerful way for users to manage their portfolios with the addition of Web Publishing! 

Note: GameSalad Creator version 0.10.00 is the update immediately following the 0.9.94 release. For more information on why and how we adjusted the version numbers associated with our releases, please visit our forum announcement on the topic at http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/47652/update-gamesalad-version-number-changes

For iOS and Android publishes, the resulting file can then be used to install your game onto a mobile device (such as an iPhone or Kindle Fire) so you can test your game in the most authentic environment available (also known as ad-hoc testing).

Note: With the exception of the Arcade/HTML5 platform, publishing is a separate and distinct process from submitting your game to an application distributor, such as the Apple App Store or Google Play. During HTML5 publishing, users can choose whether to make the game visible to everyone or only visible to themselves, if the game is a work in progress.

If you’d like to follow along with this guide as we go but don’t have a project file you’re ready to publish with, don’t worry! Simply open up one of the template project files in the ‘Create a New Project’ column of the new dashboard and use that project to go through publishing process with. 

A new feature with Web Publishing is being able to permanently delete games from your portfolio, allowing you to stay better organized by keeping your portfolio tidy.

We won’t be making any edits to the project file itself, and instead we’ll head directly into the new Web Publishing process by using the ‘Publish’ button in the upper right-hand corner of the Mac Creator window.

If you use a template project (or any new/unsaved project file) to go through the publishing process, it will first prompt you to save the project file, before allowing you to continue on. If your project has previously been saved, the Creator will prompt you to confirm that you wish to upload this file. Select ‘Upload’ to continue on.

This will now launch your default web browser, which attempt to the first step in the new Web Publishing process: Asking you whether you want to create a new game in your portfolio or update an existing game.

Note: If you are not currently logged into your GameSalad account on our website prior to uploading, you’ll be prompted to log in now. After signing in, the website will automatically navigate you to the first Web Publishing step, motioned above.

For this walkthrough, we’ll be selecting ‘Create New Game’.

Note: Projects published in GameSalad Creator versions previous to 0.10.00 will not appear in the new web-based portfolio or in the ‘Update Existing Game’ list. Users who wish to populate their online portfolio with previously created games will need to re-publish these projects using the new Web Publishing process.

After selecting ‘Create New Game’, you’ll see the following screen, which we’ll cover in detail in this guide.

Note: Before we move on to the rest of the publishing process, take a moment and locate the 'Download' and 'Remove' buttons, in the upper-right corner of the above screenshot. The 'Download' button will allow you to save a local copy of the uploaded project file onto any computer. You can use this to assist in transferring your project files between computers, as well as to download a back-up copy of your file should the original become lost, corrupt, unintentionally changed, or accidentally deleted. Furthermore, the 'Remove' button provides users with an easy way to keep their portfolio well organized. Please note that removing a particular entry from the web portfolio will also remove it's corresponding project file, making it unavailable for any future download attempt.

The primary Web Publishing user interface is divided into three sections: The top header and the left-hand column, with the rest of the window’s space used to show various settings, info, and configuration options.

Note: Users are now able to upload either 512 by 512 or 1024 by 1024 PNG icon during publishing. We recommend using a 1024 by 1024 icon, as some third-party application distributors now require these dimensions. As an added convenience, 1024 by 1024 images will automatically be down-scaled to the appropriate dimensions as required.

In the left-hand column you’ll see several top-level categories, including: General Info, Services, Platforms, and Notifications Log. Depending on which item you select from this column, the area to the right of the column will change to show different options and information.

Immediately upon selecting ‘Create New Game’, you’ll be defaulted to the ‘General Info’ tab. The options displayed for this tab are used in combination with HTML5/Arcade publishing, which we’ll be covering later in this walkthrough. For now, I’d like to draw your attention to the sub-categories listed under ‘Platforms’ in the left-hand column: Android, HTML5 , iPad, iPhone, Mac, and New.

The red-boxed numbers indicate the number of remaining notifications left for each particular platform.

Note: While every platform will be listed for each uploaded project file, this does not mean that the game will run ideally on all platforms as-is. Users will still need to tailor their game to fit each platform they wish to publish for, just as they did prior to GameSalad Creator version 0.10.00.

Mousing over the various book/question mark icons found throughout the Web Publishing process will trigger helpful and informative tool-tips to appear.

Android

Sections required for publishing:
• Icon (Note: Icon upload located in the top header section)
• Android Package Name
• Display Name
• Android Version Code
• Publicly Visible Version

Optional sections:
• Hardware
• Touchscreen
• Custom Loading Image
• App Store URL (Note: Only applicable to games which are also published to the GameSalad Arcade)

Additional requirements:

Publishing for Android also requires an active GameSalad Pro membership subscription. More details on Pro memberships can be found here: http://gamesalad.com/creator/pricing

You’ll also need to install and set up the Android SDK onto your computer. More information on this process can be found here: http://cookbook.gamesalad.com/tutorials/4/parts/11

In addition, you'll need to have a valid Keystore ready to supply for Android publishing. If you don't already have one, you can find steps for Keystore creation available at http://cookbook.gamesalad.com/tutorials/4/parts/20

Once the above prerequisites have been fulfilled, use the ‘Generate APK’ button, then the ‘Sign APK’ button to start the signing process. This may bring up the Launch Application prompt. If it does, simply select GameSalad Creator, since this is where the signing process occurs.

Once the app has been signed, choose where you would like to save the file.