Is a public key mandatory for publishing an app?

Hi,
I am an indie developer and not that much experienced in publishing games. I had to know that, if i want to publish an app(free/paid) in the google play store, do i need a public key for sure or i can publish it only with my private key? I have opened a google play account already but cant find public key there. Could any one please tell me where to find that or how to set that up?

Thank you.

Yes you must generate a private key to sign your code. Only with the key you will be able do sign and deploy in android. If you lose, you will need to generate a new one and create a new app (could have same name but new id and statistics).

If you are a linux user simple use keytool. If not, well, search :stuck_out_tongue:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore mykey.keystore -alias alias_name -keyalg RSA -validity 10000