Thanks. We've brought this up a few times and we've been told that it's being worked on, that's why I just asked for an update.
Tbe problem with building your APK is that the Android port needs to be re-done a little. And I mean that the interface needs to be reworked to allow that a little. Right now it pulls up a list of games. There would need to be a specialized version of the port that can read the directory where the games files will be stored. Moving on to that issue though... Google only allows up to 50mb for the main file. While several games are under that, there are many that are not. You would need to provide expansion files, which you can have up to 2 expansion files of 2 gb each. While thats nice, it requires a heck of a lot of setup/coding. Obb files in theory are not difficult to create and to code into an app. However, for me anyway, there isn't a lot of documentation that makes using obb files easy. Just so I can explain a little bit about how the OBB expansion files work:
1)For the main APK, you need to sign the file.
2)You need to program into the app to check to see if expansion files exist and if they do:
2b) AGS will need to extract the files into the OBB directory (Which should be done automatically)
2c) AGS would either need to move those extracted files to wherever AGS will load the game from or point the game directory to the OBB directory.
3) You have to get some salt/hash security for the expansion files. So to do that, you would have to:
3b) Upload the android apk and the Expansion files to the google market server and not publish it.
3c) Take down the Salt/Hash code and download location/name.
4) Now, you would have to put some code that would allow access to the OBB file from within AGS. I think this is all done to avoid abusing the system. Whatever.
5) After that you would think you are all set... However, while OBB files should download automatically when you are installing the apps, it doesn't always. Sooooo... You would have to program within AGS to check that the obb files downloaded completely and fully. If they did not, then AGS would have to download it itself. Enter the salt/hash/download name crap.
Now, to integrate this into AGS itself is another issue too. The AGS Editor would have settings and such to take care of that (such as package name, author, etc...). AGS would also have to create the OBB Files itself as well as all they really are are zip files within the obb extension. Thats not the hard part. The hard part is making sure that the developer has the Java SDK and the Android SDK installed properly and with the environment properties set up correctly. The reason for that is so that AGS can package the game files properly into the APK and also so that it can automatically sign the APK for you. That is possible, but its a little extra work I would imagine for whoever is coding the editor. But its doable. Eclipse does it and so does Basic4Android. However, the steps for getting the HASH/Salt/Name from the google server will still be up to the game developer and that can prove to be confusing for a few people.
So it may seem like a simple Shell interface would be needed, but its a lot more complicated than that. While I develop Android Apps, I use Basic4Android and it does not currently support OBB Extensions. If it did, I would be all over making a 3rd party set up system for the APK's. If you all need it urgently, go ahead and post on the Basic4Android forums and request it to be added. Right now the developer does not see a need for it, so maybe if enough ask for it, it will be implemented. I would do this in Java, but I know very very little Java. If someone would want to take a whack at trying to implement this system, here are a few good places to start:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.android.com%2Fgoogle%2Fplay%2Fexpansion-files.html&ei=DA39UcP3FpW44AOIu4CgCA&usg=AFQjCNGEPm1MCiQTv-aEKoUJeamBR4eHwQ&sig2=_7uMjtYp_lCPxPTkG7uUcA&bvm=bv.50165853,d.dmghttps://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDcQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fankitthakkar90.blogspot.com%2F2013%2F01%2Fapk-expansion-files-in-android-with.html&ei=DA39UcP3FpW44AOIu4CgCA&usg=AFQjCNFNm1VserLL-cIzaL7zRcPv7k3ZVg&sig2=E2JdB-it5adb71NmvLB8ZA&bvm=bv.50165853,d.dmghttp://labs.exoa.fr/tutorial-unity-4-apk-splitting-google-play-obb/http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11715855/steps-to-create-apk-expansion-fileThis was my suggestion thread on Basic4Android if someone wants to pipe in and add to the suggestions:
http://www.basic4ppc.com/android/forum/threads/wishlist-lib-obb-and-expansion-pack-downloads.29827/Hope this info helps.
