[BUG] r27 NDK: Update NDK to version 27+ makes the game samples builds to fail

[manugildev]

Description

Updating to NDK r27b+ on any of these samples fails with several compilation issues regarding standard C++ symbols not being found.

The issue is only reproducible on Windows.

Even if a workaround has been discovered, it doesn't seem like a proper solution since this bug might be just surfacing a bigger issue.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open a sample project in Android Studio. The easiest one to use is the game-mode sample.
2. Follow the instructions in the README.md file to set up the project.
3. Update GameActivity to latest available version 3.0.5 in app/build.gradle. This step might not be needed.
4. Go to app/src/main/cpp/native_engine.cpp and replace ALooper_pollAll with ALooper_pollOnce on line 214. ALooper_pollAll has been deprecated in NDK 27 (read more).
5. Go to app/build.gradle.
6. Update project to ndk 27. Replace ndkVersion '26.1.10909125' with ndkVersion '27.1.12297006'.
7. Build the APK.

Results

Errors regarding C++ symbols not being properly linked appear:

ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__ndk1::basic_string<char, std::__ndk1::char_traits<char>, std::__ndk1::allocator<char>>::find(char, unsigned long) const
ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: std::__ndk1::basic_string<char, std::__ndk1::char_traits<char>, std::__ndk1::allocator<char>>::replace(unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, char)
ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: __cxa_guard_acquire ...

Workaround

1. Go to game_mode/app/src/main/cpp/CMakeLists.txt.
2. Add c++ to the bottom of target_link_libraries(...):

target_link_libraries(game
                      android
                      bullet3
                      imgui
                      game-activity::game-activity_static
                      games-frame-pacing::swappy_static
                      atomic
                      EGL
                      GLESv2
                      jnigraphics
                      log
                      z
            ----->    c++
)