What this book covers

Chapter 1, Diving into Libgdx, introduces the reader to the Libgdx development environment so as to get ready for the rest of the book. It also presents the basic architecture of the framework, how to run applications across devices, and how to put a project under source control.

Chapter 2, Working with 2D Graphics, covers the most important aspects of the Libgdx 2D API. The readers will learn how to render and animate textures, work with cameras, and deal with different resolutions.

Chapter 3, Advanced 2D Graphics, shows the reader how to achieve juicy effects with particles, shaders, and image composition.

Chapter 4, Detecting User Input, explains how to make your applications interactive across different devices. Keyboard, mouse, touch, and controller-based inputs are all found in this chapter.

Chapter 5, Audio and File I/O, shows readers how to play background music and sound effects to give that extra sparkle to the project. It also covers how to use the file's API and read popular formats such as JSON and XML.

Chapter 6, Font Rendering, details the different approaches to render text through Libgdx. Moreover, it also teaches how to overcome common pitfalls such as special characters and font scaling.

Chapter 7, Asset Management, provides information on how to control your assets' life cycle so as to accommodate low memory devices and make the most out of the hardware. It also gives insight into how to achieve asynchronous loading, so apps stay responsive while they stream content.

Chapter 8, User Interfaces with Scene2D, covers the powerful Libgdx scene hierarchy API focusing on how to build UI layouts. Moreover, it goes as far as skinning and custom widget creation. The reader will learn how to create great menus and in-game HUDs.

Chapter 9, The 2D Maps API, explains the simple Libgdx mechanisms to load and render levels created with tools such as Tiled as well as to query their metadata. The maps 2D API also allows users to provide loaders and renderers for additional formats.

Chapter 10, Rigid Body Physics with Box2D, shows the reader how to use the many features of the popular physics library that comes with Libgdx. Bodies, shapes, joints, sensors, collision handling, level geometry, raycasting, and fixed timestep are all covered in this chapter.

Chapter 11, Third-party Libraries and Extras, goes through the most popular Libgdx extensions, so the reader can make use of their enhancements. It covers a wide range of topics such as lighting, skeletal animation, localization, and entity systems.

Chapter 12, Performance and Optimizations, provides the readers with advice to achieve their performance targets. This becomes crucial when targeting mobile devices and browsers.

Chapter 13, Giving Back, lays out the process of publishing a finished application as well as contributing to the main Libgdx repository.