How did this project started?

Short answer: I love this game so much—it was great, but it's not playable on newer Android devices. Therefore I want to use my skills to bring it back to life and let everyone enjoy it as much as I do.

My experience with the game

At age 12 (2013), I got my first phone, a Nokia 110. Despite its tiny 128x160 resolution, it opened up a world of gaming. I was captivated by The Petking 5 for its vibrant visuals and engaging story. I spent countless hours completing quests and collecting pets, though occasional crashes disrupted the experience.

In 2016, I upgraded to my first smartphone, a Galaxy Y. It was small, underpowered, and stuck on Android 2.3.6, but I could still play many games, including The PetKing 5, which I enjoyed as much as the first time.

By 2018, I had a Lenovo Z5 running Android 9. I tried playing The Petking 5 again but had to uninstall it due to lag. I hoped for a future where better hardware could resolve the issues.

In college (2019), I received a Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro from my brother. Excited to revisit the game, I discovered it was no longer supported on Android 10, ending my journey with The PetKing 5.

I haved tried RE serveral times but all lead to nothing

• 2019: I started my journey as a Computer Science major and got familiar with programming. It was also the first time I encountered the term "reverse engineering." However, it was just a fancy term for a beginner like me.

• 2020: I learned Android development and started reversing some simple games using Jadx. I explored and experimented with reverse-engineered Java code, but nothing substantial came out of it.

• 2021: I actively searched for a clean APK file (one that wasn’t obfuscated and didn’t include SDK payment integrations). I found one! But when I tried to export the Gradle project from Jadx and build it, I ran into Gradle configuration issues. That was my first failure.

• 2022: I returned to this project, retracing the same steps as before—finding the APK and reversing the Java source code. This time, I made some progress: I learned how to configure Gradle to make the project buildable. However, there were numerous errors due to decompilation issues, and I quit again. This marked my second failure.

• 2023: I decided to take the project seriously (at least, that’s what I thought). I resolved all the compilation errors and even managed to make the app buildable. I could see the main menu screen and the first scene. But then the app crashed. I followed the trace and resolved the crash issue, only to face a more complex problem: the app got stuck and rendered a blank screen. This was my third attempt.

• 2024: I quit my full-time job and found myself with free time, so I returned to this project once again (and, of course, created yet another repository 😔). This time, I had sufficient skills to debug, log, and follow the call graph. The biggest leap forward was learning Smali language and using it to edit the original APK.

So, basically, I’ve spent 5 years and am still stuck at the starting point.
I’m quite certain that other developers could have completed all these steps in days rather than years like me.
Yet, somehow, I believe this time will be different.