LibGDX is a lot of fun to work with, and a great way to target both Android and iOS with the same code base.
What you might not have thought of, is that you don't have to limit yourself to games. I created a successful productivity app entirely in LibGDX (shameless plug, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.absoluteat...). Features common in games and LibGDX, such as the very good performance and the rich animation capabilities can add a bit of flair to an otherwise boring app and make it stand out from the crowd.
I see that with the 1.0 release, you can now even embed a LibGDX fragment into your otherwise 'native' Android app. I can see this being very useful for apps where you want to have your animated custom gauges and widgets surrounded by the native OS chrome.
I found the most powerful feature is that you can create an app without a need to deploy it to a real device over and over again. It saves a lot of time even creating a multi touch game like Sum and Blossom https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carrotfiel...
I agree fully, it's a huge productivity win. I built a small layer that simulates or at least stubs out all the device-only APIs for the desktop target; switching resolutions & DPI dependent assets (works), loading translated strings from Android XML files (works), opening the marketplace (stub), setting alarms and timers, etc.
I estimate I spent 99% of the development time on the desktop target with a redeployment cycle of just a few seconds, and only test on the device occasionally.
I'm considering using for the same thing. Especially with scene2d ui available - the temptation is large to build something that targets all desktops and ios and android easily.
It's time for cross platform uis again, native is getting old.
What you might not have thought of, is that you don't have to limit yourself to games. I created a successful productivity app entirely in LibGDX (shameless plug, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.absoluteat...). Features common in games and LibGDX, such as the very good performance and the rich animation capabilities can add a bit of flair to an otherwise boring app and make it stand out from the crowd.
I see that with the 1.0 release, you can now even embed a LibGDX fragment into your otherwise 'native' Android app. I can see this being very useful for apps where you want to have your animated custom gauges and widgets surrounded by the native OS chrome.