Overview
The iOS Game Programming Collection consists of two bestselling eBooks:
- Learning iOS Game Programming: A Hands-On Guide to Building Your First iPhone Game
- Learning Cocos2D: A Hands-on Guide to Building iOS Games with Cocos2D, Box2D, and Chipmunk
Since the launch of the App Store, games have been the hottest category of apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. That means your best chance of tapping into the iPhone/iPad “Gold Rush” is to put out a killer game that everyone wants to play (and talk about). While many people think games are hard to build, they actually can be quite easy, and this collection is your perfect beginner’s guide.
Learning iOS Game Programming walks you through every step as you build a 2D tile map game, Sir Lamorak’s Quest: The Spell of Release (which is free in the App Store). You can download and play the game you’re going to build while you learn about the code. You learn the key characteristics of a successful iPhone game and important terminology and tools you will use.
Learning Cocos2D walks you through the process of building Space Viking (which is free on the App Store), a 2D scrolling game that leverages Cocos2D, Box2D, and Chipmunk. As you build Space Viking, you’ll learn everything you need to know about Cocos2D so you can create the next killer iOS game.
This collection helps you
- Plan high-level game design, components, and difficulty levels
- Use game loops to make sure the right events happen at the right time
- Render images, create sprite sheets, and build animations
- Use tile maps to build large game worlds from small reusable images
- Create fire, explosions, smoke, sparks, and other organic effects
- Deliver great sound via OpenAL and the iPhone’s media player
- Provide game control via iPhone’s touch and accelerometer features
- Craft an effective, intuitive game interface
- Build game objects and entities and making them work properly
- Detect collisions and ensuring the right response to them
- Polish, test, debug, and performance-tune your game
- Install and configure Cocos2D so it works with Xcode 4
- Build a complete 2D action adventure game with Cocos2D
- Build your game’s main menu screen for accessing levels
- Use Cocos2D’s Scheduler to make sure the right events happen at the right times
- Use tile maps to build scrolling game levels from reusable images
- Add audio and sound effects with CocosDenshion--Cocos2D’s sound engine
- Add gravity, realistic collisions, and ragdoll effects with Box2D and Chipmunk physics engines
- Add amazing effects to your games with particle systems
- Leverage Game Center in your game for achievements and leader boards
- Squeeze the most performance from your games