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 select the Mobile development with C++ workload in the Visual Studio Installer (which includes the C++ Android cross-compilation toolchain and Android NDK), as it is explicitly required by gnollhackdroid.vcxproj.
2. Install Tile Sets and FMOD Sound Banks (must be placed in win\win32\tileset and win\win32\bank\Mobile before building the native solution).
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 under Tools → Options → Cross Platform → Connection Manager (Host Name: 127.0.0.1, Port: 22, User Name & Password: your WSL credentials).
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 for both arm64-v8a and x86_64) 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