Build Instructions for Android Version on Windows (.NET MAUI)

Preparations

Devices

You need the following devices to follow these instructions:

1. Windows computer — Windows 10 or later, 16 GB or 32 GB RAM, 512 GB or 1 TB SSD space.
2. Android device — Android 8.0 Oreo (API 26) or later (as defined by SupportedOSPlatformVersion in GnollHackM.csproj), but preferably Android 12 or later, 3 GB or more RAM, 4 GB or more free storage space. Note: historically Android 5.0 was supported on older Xamarin versions.

Software Installation

1. Install the latest Visual Studio version with up-to-date support for .NET MAUI. Make sure to also install the Android NDK (usually available via the Visual Studio Installer or Android SDK Manager) as it is explicitly required by the C++ cross-compilation pipeline.
2. Install Tile Sets and FMOD Sound Banks.
3. Install Secrets File.
4. Install Windows Subsystem for Linux.
5. Before building the native solution, start the SSH service in WSL: sudo service ssh start. The SSH connection to WSL must also be configured in Visual Studio (Tools → Options → Cross Platform → Connection Manager).
6. Open the native solution win\win32\vs\GnollHack.sln.
7. Select the Android+Windows platform configuration and rebuild the solution. This compiles the native C core game engine into the Android library (libgnollhackdroid.so) and automatically runs makedefsdroid to translate the shared XAML UI files from GnollHackX to GnollHackM formats.

Android Device Preparation

1. Enable Developer Mode and USB Debugging — Configure on-device developer options in Android

Starting Debugging or Creating Archive

1. Open GnollHackM Solution in Visual Studio. This is different from the normal GnollHack solution.
2. Select the right solution configuration in the menu bar:
   • Debugging — Select Debug.
   • Archiving — Select Release.

Debugging

1. Attach your Android device to your computer using a USB cable.
2. Allow USB debugging on the device if asked.
3. Select your Android device from the Android local devices menu of the device dropdown list with a green start button in the menu bar.
4. Rebuild Solution.
5. Hit the green Start button to start debugging.
   • If the deployment succeeds but debugging does not start, please just try again. It works at some point.

🛠️ CLI Build Command

dotnet build win/win32/xpl/GnollHackM/GnollHackM.csproj -c Debug -f net10.0-android