Porting a C++ Game Engine to Android

The author of this article shares their experience of porting their C++ game engine to Android. The author mentions participating in the annual GMTK Jam and wanting to build an Android version of their game. They explain that their game engine is written in C++ and it took them about a week to support building for Android.

The author discusses their approach to porting the game engine and mentions using SDL2, a platform abstraction library, for desktop builds. However, they express their dissatisfaction with SDL2's approach to building for Android. Instead, they decide to do it themselves and explain their reasoning behind this decision.

The article then goes into the details of the author's process, starting with some refactoring of their engine's core application code. They explain the steps they took to abstract the application and make it compatible with Android.

The author also mentions their experience with using native (C++) OpenGL rendering inside an Android app, which they are familiar with from their work. They outline their general idea for the porting process and the challenges they faced along the way.

This article provides valuable insights for developers interested in porting C++ game engines to Android. It highlights the author's decision-making process, alternative approaches to SDL2, and the challenges involved in the porting process. Developers can learn from the author's experience and gain a better understanding of the considerations and steps involved in porting a C++ game engine to Android.