A: 

Well, that's invalid XML, because there's no root element. Also, all of your TextView widgets have android:layout_height="fill_parent", which is rather strange. You might also consider using hierarchyviewer to examine your layout more closely and see what else may be going wrong.

CommonsWare
Thanks for the answer, I was just dumb and had my game loop starting form onCreate(), but the layout wasn't being rendered until after onCreate() I guess? Anyways, solved by making my my class with the game loop a Runnable
Kalypso
@Kalypso: Correct -- until you return control to Android, your UI will not be rendered.
CommonsWare
A: 

you should put a (linear)layout underneath them, as your xml is invalid.