If you are familiar with the Android SDK, you probably know that using it to create a new game from scratch is no mean feat. Choosing the right game engine, supporting multiple screen sizes and DPIs, implementing error-free gameplay, and managing player data are all demanding tasks that can take days, if not weeks, to complete.
Thankfully, there's CodeCanyon, an online marketplace that, among other things, is teeming with well-thought-out game templates. By using one or more of those templates, you can skip most of the tedious aspects of game development and focus only on the bits that are unique to your game.
In this article, I'm going to introduce you to some of the most feature-rich and awesome Android game templates available on CodeCanyon.
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Android Game Templates on CodeCanyon
There are currently over 1000 premium Android game templates available on CodeCanyon. All of them offer free updates for lifetime and 6 months of support. Besides original ideas, you can easily find clones of popular games and customize them to create your own unique version.
The prices for some of the templates are as low as $5. Don't miss out on the chance to save a lot of your time and money.
1. Zumbla Deluxe
Zumbla Deluxe, developed by gradle, is a recently launched Android game template you can use to create beautiful tile-matching games. If you think there are enough match-three and puzzle games available on Google Play already, I'm sure you'll change your mind once you take a look at the template's rather unique graphics and game mechanics.
Right out of the box, the games you build with Zumbla Deluxe will conform to both the marble shooter and match-three game genres. If you're not satisfied with the default Mayan-inspired sprites they use, you can effortlessly reskin them to match your preferences.
2. Block Puzzle
Block Puzzle is another Android game template developed by gradle. As you may have guessed by looking at the screenshot above, this template is ideal for creating simple yet addictive Tetris clones.
The template comes with smooth animations, colorful graphics, and awesome sound effects, all of which are easy to customize so long as you're familiar with Android Studio.
Additionally, Block Puzzle has support for AdMob ads built right into it. Therefore, you should have no trouble adding banner or interstitial ads to the games you build with it.
3. Bubble Adventure
Bubble Adventure, developed by monkey-creative, is a match-three game template with cute graphics and intuitive game mechanics. If you're someone who wants to quickly publish several fully monetized casual games on Google Play, this template is for you. It features easily reskinnable assets, AdMob ads support, and support for both phones and tablets.
Because the Bubble Adventure Android game template offers lots of levels, combos, and boosters, the games you develop with it will have a high replay value and earning potential.
4. Online Word Quiz
Trivia quizzes tend to be very popular on Google Play. If you're interested in tapping into this market, you should give the Online Word Quiz template a try. It's an Android game template that allows you to build both word quiz games and image puzzle games.
Developed by leenah_albanna, this powerful template uses the Firebase Realtime database to store all your game data, including questions, answers, and puzzles. This means that even after publishing your games, you can continue to add more content to them, thus minimizing uninstall rates.
The template also supports in-app purchases, push notifications, and analytics.
5. Slot Machine Deluxe
Slot machine games are highly addictive and can be extremely profitable. They also have zero learning curve. With the Slot Machine Deluxe template, developed by Droid_Coder, you can create games in this genre in a matter of minutes.
Because this template is built using the native Android SDK, you can be sure that the games you create with it will have optimal performance with smooth animations on all devices running Android 4.4 or higher.
For monetization support, the Slot Machine Deluxe template uses the latest version of the AdMob Ads SDK.
6. Monster Truck
Monster truck is an amazing driving game with high quality graphics. You have to run along the length of a track filled with random obstacles. This is a very popular kind of game. Monster Truck comes with a large number of randomly built levels.
You can change all aspects of the app like its name, icons, graphics and sound. There is integration for both AdMob banner and interstitial ads. It also comes with an integrated Google Play Games leaderboard. The game looks equally good on small as well as large screens. The background music and sound effects make the game play very addictive.
Watch the video preview on the game's description page.
Coloring book apps can be therapeutic for adults and extremely fun for kids. With My Coloring Book, you can create your own coloring book app without writing a single line of code.
This template from Envato author iQueen comes with over 100 different levels, AdMob ads support, and a very intuitive user interface.
Because it's built using the cocos-2d-x multi-platform game development framework, games you develop using this template will be able to run on Android, iOS, and Windows too.
8. Quizix
Quizix is a native Android game template with lots of features. The gameplay consists of trivia questions from a category picked by users. There is a single text- or image-based question on each screen with two, three or four options. Users score points by answering the questions correctly.
The categories, sub-categories and questions are added by you in the back-end. The app takes care of rest of the functionality. The admin panel is built using Laravel and notifications, authorization and leaderboard data is handled by Firebase.
Here are a few more features of the game:
- AdMob integration
- full RTL support
- random quiz questions
- bulk question upload
- social login
9. Jumper
Jumper is an addictive arcade game similar to Doodle Jump. The aim of the game is for the players to keep jumping from one platform to another. You have to get as high as possible. The direction of jump for the player is determined by the tilt of the device.
The game comes with lots of additional elements to make it more interesting. You can add things like coins, powerups, trampolines and bombs etc. to make the game even more interesting. It is also possible to tweak the difficulty levels of the game by adding and removing bars.
Jumper comes with integration for AdMob interstitial Ads and Facebook Share feature.
10. Classic Highway Car Avoidance Game
This is similar to the highly popular racing game that most of us have played at one time. The idea is pretty simple. You just have to avoid hitting incoming vehicles on the road. There are boosters and checkpoints on the highway to increase score and speed. This keeps the game exciting.
You can tweak a lot of things within the game as a developer. For example, it is possible to change the types of vehicles and add other objects like trees in the game screen. The game comes uses inbuilt device accelerometer to move the car around.
Some other features of the template include:
- integration with Admob
- the ability to pause game
- 22 different sprites
- top 10 high scores
- and more
You can read more about the game and its features on the description page.
Tips for Finding the Right Game Template
As I mentioned earlier, there are over 1000 Android game templates available on CodeCanyon. It can take a while for you to find one that meets all your needs. The following tips will help you pick the right template quickly.
1. Searching for Templates
You can always just check each template one by one. However, starting with a basic idea of the type of game you want to create will give you a head start when selecting a template. You can also filter the games by use of tags included by developers. For example, you can search for 2D arcade games.
2. Think About Monetization
The next thing you want to do is decide your ultimate plan for the game. Most people who are creating games usually run ads to earn revenue. You can get a game with AbMob integration to do this. Another nice idea is strategic product placement within the game. This can be achieved by editing the sprites to add company logo and product. You should look for games that have editable sprites if you want to go down this path.
Free Android Game Templates
You can also find some free Android game templates by searching for them on GitHub. However, there are a few things that you should keep in mind. These free game templates are more suited for learning purposes than for being made into commercial apps. There is also a good chance that they won't be updated regularly, making it hard for you to take advantage of latest developments in Android gaming ecosystem.
Here are a few free Android game templates to help you get started.
11. Memory Game
This is a very basic memory game for kids with three different themes an six difficulty levels. It does not have any integration for ads or other complicated screens.
12. Android Chess
This is a chess game developed using Java. It comes with a lot of useful features like training mode for beginners, online and offline mode, and chess puzzles. The graphics are pretty simple and there is no integration for ads.
13. IonicMathGame
This is a very basic Maths game based on the Ionic framework. Users have to mark the correct answers in time to score points.
14. Casual Chess
Casual chess is developed using Ionic and Firebase. It allows you to invite your friends to play a chess game with you by sharing a link. It does not implement any other fancy features and comes with a very basic UI.
15. 2048 Android
This is an Android port for the 2048 game. It basically consists of a WebView that loads locally stored HTML files of the game.
Conclusion
If there's one thing Android users can't get enough of, it's new games that are fun and beautiful. That's probably why a majority of the top-grossing apps on Google Play are games. Indeed, if you are a budding Android developer looking to find success on Google Play, creating a new game is your best bet. I hope you use one of the Android game templates you learned about in this article to kickstart the development of your next game.
Put one of these templates to use right now, or check out some of the other game templates available on CodeCanyon. In addition to games, CodeCanyon also sells complete templates for lots of other kinds of apps. Learn more about them right here on Envato Tuts+!