Newbie wants to know how to rip sprites from Android game

[GameRipper3028]

no worries!! i know i got confused about these too when i was starting out, lemme elaborate a little on em

- I downloaded blue stacks for pc, and downloaded the games from the google play store, as well as a file manager that lists the game files (x plore). However, I see no way of exporting files to the PC, it only offers locations in the emulated phone.

go to my games > system apps > media manager > explore
from here you can long press on the files/folders, and there will be a button up at the top to export to windows. just hit that + select where you want the files to go

sometimes it wont let you longpress on folders, so the alternative is:
- download an app that'll pack stuff into .zip files. rarlab has an official app, i heavily recommend it, just look up rar in the play store
- go to my games > system apps > android settings > storage > (scroll to the bottom) explore > find the files you want > longpress + copy to someplace like your downloads folder
you... can zip the files right in their directory but i dont reccomend it. best practice to copy everything over to a place you know isnt going to mess with the original files
- go into your zip app, find the copied files, and add them to an archive
- navigate to media manager, and find your archive > longpress > export to windows
a little bit of a process, but it works
(soft side note: most android phones that dont allow you root access via. the standard file explorer will allow it through the settings file explorer--you wont ever need to download a third party application)

- I see big file trees on GitHub for assetstudio and the like, and one mention of a GUI, but no understanding of what to download or how to make use of these. Not as simple as downloading an exe.

yep! so, github is a site to host repositories (the source code of any given application, basically), but they also provide a feature for creators to provide the compiled application--this is the 'releases' tab, its on the right under 'about'. here is the release page for assetstudio, download the .zip file. generally, this is how theyre all gonna be, save for some command line tools like apktool--but those tend to be documented on how to install them.
most of these github based applications wont have installer .exes like you might be used to, so heres how to install + run them:
- download .zip file from release page on github
- open .zip, and extract contents to your preferred location. you'll likely need to create a folder to contain the files, they dont usually zip the files with one
- navigate to the extracted files and run the .exe
nice n easy! if you want to update an application, simply run through these same steps and delete the old folder. dont try to fuss with overwriting the old one, the update will have all of the needed files and its cleaner to just install it fresh like that.

Further confusing the issue, I’m seeing some instructions to export certain game files, and others saying to figure out how to rip the game apk to windows first - same export limitation though.

this... REALLY depends on how the game files are stored. this is going to vary with each game you rip, you just have to run through each thing until you find what youre looking for. i find it often depends on the level of security in the game. sometimes games dont store ANY asset files locally--rather calling on them the server every time theyre needed. this is where the cache thing comes from--in order to save some loading times the game will temporarily store asset files in a cache folder, so it can call on them quickly. games like this wont have their assets neatly bundled in apks. some games that are more lax on their security will just... have everything in the apk file.

if you want to grab an apk file, the easiest way is to use a site like this one and get it from there. i... dont know how to grab an apk file from a phone, and i dont really think its worth it. this will give you the apk + obb files right on your computer with no fuss.

since i wrote that previous post ive become more familiar with apks, heres a few ways to view the things in them:
- use an extractor like apktool
- look at them through android studio (its kind of a chunky download, but can format things well (such as drawables), has a built in android emulator, and you can just slap the apk in directly. if you want to edit or extract the files, you will need something like apktool though)
the apk file probably isnt going to hold ambiguous asset files like in the cache, so if theres no directly available assets in plain formats like .png then you may be looking in the wrong area

Hello, I think you know about game extraction very well. Can you still help me about an unity-based pixel art mobile game? It worked bafore with AssetStudio, but after updating, the sprite _data file is moved to outside of UnityCache, and 'UnityFS' indication is removed that I could find in hex editor and _info file doesn't exist for that moved file as well. I think the file is now encrypted.