How to create an .apk file for Rpg Maker MZ (not MV)

[Saliacoel]

There are a ton of tutorials for MV, but after hours and hours of trying I give up.

APKCR
a program from a russian programmer alerted my anti-virus - also it did not work (the program just closed itself).

AltimitSystems Android-Stuiod Project (for MV)
I had a bit more success with the Builder-Project from felixjones: https://github.com/AltimitSystems/mv-android-client
I needed to download Android Studio 4.0.1, since I got some errors with the newer Android Studios.

and it worked, I had an apk in the end, but it was unable to load some layer files (its able to load on playtest on pc).

I guess it's because its a project for MV, and I'm having a MZ Project.

Is there any working Android Studio project, just like the one from AltimitSystems, but it works for MZ too?

UPDATE 19 May 2022
Problem Solved:

The problem was:

AFTER building the apk, the android machine had problems finding files through names.

Special characters in file names like the minus or hyphen "-" in the file name caused troubles.

Also file names need to be case sensitive, watch out that the file names are all lower case, and there is no upper case endings like .PNG instead a .png

 

[BenSD]

The easiest way I know is to use Apache Cordova. It should actually work exactly the same as if you'd made it with MV, so you can still follow those tutorials. It's actually kind of a process, and there are literally hundreds of guides already, so I'm not going to try to give a walkthrough here; if you get stuck on something specific, I'll be happy to help.

In general, your .apk is going to be the web format deployment of your game, so there really shouldn't be any difference between MV/MZ, as you're just turning a web page into a native program.

 

[limsoonchiong]

Yes. I tried HTML to Android converter or something and the Apache Cordova method and the Apache Cordova one seems to work best. I followed what this guy teach in his Udemy course. This method is not straight forward. Needs a lot of installations of java + apache stuff. In the end, the APK works well on my mobile after a bit of tweaking. But I'm not sure if the APK is Google Play Store standard.

https://www.udemy.com/course/complete-rpg-maker-mz/

 

[BenSD]

Google play store uses .aab format these days, which is actually for "Android App Bundles." You can make an .aab in Android Studio a lot more easily than you can make the initial .apk, though. If you want it on the play store, you also need to make sure it's signed and not just the debug .apk you'll get otherwise. You can, however, host unsigned apps on websites like itch.io, although I think the informed user would still prefer one that's signed. Again, there are already tutorials, so I won't try to make one. Hope that helps

 

[Saliacoel]

UPDATE:


First:
I created a new brand new RPG Maker MZ project
I used: AltimitSystems Android-Stuiod Project (for MV)
Deployed the Brand New Testproject,
Build the apk with Android Studio.
And it runs!

Then:
I deployed my Project.
I started my project on a browser.
And it runs!

BUT:
If I deploy my project ,
then I use AltimitSystems Android-Stuiod Project (for MV) to build the apk.
I build it (the one who did run earlier on a browser)
And I get an error:


"Failed to load" (in yellow)
"img/layers/MAP005-shadow.png" (in white)

Its a problem with one of the images of GALV_LayerGraphicsMZ

So...yeah....

Edit:
Is some expert here who could do this for me for hire?

 

[BenSD]

Sometimes pictures that are only used in plugins get excluded when you choose 'exclude unused files' at deployment. I bet if you just find that image and copy it into the relative folder of your deployment output everything will work fine.

Edit: also, I don't think I want to do this for hire, and I'm hardly an expert, but I'm happy to build an APK for you if it still isn't working after this.

 

[Saliacoel]

Alright, IT WORKS FINALLY. With the AltimitSystems Android-Stuiod Project (for MV) it also builds for MZ.

The problem was:

AFTER building the apk, the android machine had problems finding files through names.

Special characters in file names like the minus or hyphen "-" in the file name caused troubles.

Also file names need to be case sensitive, watch out that the file names are all lower case, and there is no upper case endings like .PNG instead a .png