Android Game Development with App Inventor, by Anshul Bhagi

Ever since App Inventor found a new home at MIT's Center for Mobile Learning in early 2012 (it was previously housed at Google), it has been receiving significant attention from educational communities that hope to use the tool to facilitate technology learning in the classroom and beyond. Much of App Inventor's current user base is teachers in high-schools and colleges, and as the tool continues to attract more users, it is likely that many of these users will be teachers of students in grades 3 thru 12 (i.e. students who are old enough to know how to use computers and design/develop apps, yet not experienced enough to get their hands dirty with the Android SDK). Students of this age group are quite fond of gaming, and so we anticipate that there will be a strong demand for developing graphically appealing, interactive single-player and multiplayer games using App Inventor in the coming years. It is therefore important that the App Inventor team at MIT prepare for the imminent growth of the App Inventor game development community. Accordingly, this thesis looks at where App Inventor currently stands with respect to game development and how its game development capabilities can be improved and extended.