I am going to be writing a tower defense game for Android phones. I have knowledge of Java and the Android SDK; however, I am new to animation and have a few questions about where to start.
I will be using only 2D graphics (maybe later down the road 3D graphics but for now I will keep it simple), have basic animations (enemies moving along pre-determined paths, stationary towers shooting at moving enemies, and maybe a few explosions here and there), and some sounds that result from different in game actions. Just to give you a rough idea of what I am thinking about, my game would be very similar to bloons tower defense 4.
My question is, based on what I have stated above would you suggest I incorporate Flash, HTML5, or Android’s native animation libraries? What are the pros and cons of using each one? If none of these are good options than what is?
I’d suggest using Android’s native libraries. Adobe has already said they’re not longer going to support flash on Android so you’ll slowly users over time. And beside, Android’s native libraries are going to give you better performance anyway. In addition, there are some really nice frameworks out there that make developing games on android with OpenGL super easy (see andengine or this Gamers post for more details).
As far as HTML5 goes, I’d say stay away from it. Most users prefer a native app over a web-app and I can almost guarantee you that you’re going to get better performance with a native app.