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iPhone games are hot! Just look at the numbers. Games make up over 25 percent of total apps and over 70 percent of the most popular apps. Surprised? Of course not! Most of us have filled our iPhone or iPod touch with games, and many of us hope to develop the next best-selling, most talked-about game.
You’ve probably already read and mastered Beginning iPhone 3 Development; Exploring the iPhone SDK, the best-selling, the second edition of Apress’s highly acclaimed introduction to the iPhone and iPod touch by developers Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche. This book is the game-specific equivalent, providing you with the same easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach, more deep technical insights, and that familiar friendly style.
While games are all about fun, at the same time, they’re serious business. With this book, you’re going to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with some hardcore coding. While you may have written games before, this book will take you further, immersing you in the following topics:
Game graphics and animation with UIKit, Quartz, Core Animation, and OpenGL ES
Game audio with OpenAL, MediaPlayer Framework, AV Foundation, and AudioSession
Game networking with GameKit, Bonjour, and Internet sharing
You’ll learn:
Efficient methods for drawing in 2D and 3D to the iPhone screen
Game-specific animation techniques with Core Animation
To use OpenGL ES for more complex and realistic gaming backgrounds and action
Numerous ways to add music to enhance the gaming experience
How to give your users access to their iPhone libraries from within games
The tools and techniques of 3D audio for creating even more realistic gaming experiences
How to do networking right, including two-player games over Bluetooth and multiplayer games over Wi-Fi
Who is this book for?
All game developers who desire to create iPhone and/or iPod touch games
Check out Space Rocks!, one of the project examples from Beginning iPhone Games Development:
Beginning iPhone Games Development is on Facebook!
Not perfect, but definitely good enough for novice game developersJune 7, 2010 E. Kim 14 out of 14 found this review helpful
INTRODUCTION
Last year, I had gone through Stephan Kochan's excellent Objective-C 2.0 book and then followed that with the other Apress beginner's book on the iPhone SDK (by Mark and LaMarche). I became comfortable developing apps that utilized the UIKit using the standard tab bar controllers, navigation controllers, UITableviews, etc, but wanted to venture into game development. There were very few books on the subject, and the reviews of the very few other books (which also only became available recently) were terrible. I suppose I had high hopes for this book based on the Apress Mark and LaMarche beginner's book.
CHAPTERS
Here's a list of chapters, since I didn't find this listed in the Amazon description:
01 pg 001 A Revolutionary Gaming Platform: Games for Everyone, Anytime, Anywhere
02 pg 013 Developing iPhone Games: Peeking Inside the iPhone Toolbox
03 pg 021 Moving Images on a Small Screen --UIKit Controls
04 pg 079 She Shoots, She Hits, She Scores!
05 pg 137 Flipping Out and Sweeping Away with Core Animation
06 pg 161 OpenGL Basics: Wrapping Your Head Around the OpenGL API
07 pg 203 Putting It Together: Making a Game in OpenGL
08 pg 261 The Next Steps: Atlases, Sprites, and Particles--Oh My!
09 pg 315 Introduction to Core Audio
10 pg 353 Making Noise with OpenAL
11 pg 423 3D Audio--Turning Noise into Game Sounds
12 pg 463 Streaming: Thumping, Pulse-Quickening Game Excitement
13 pg 537 Networking for iPhone Games: Introduction
14 pg 543 Going Head to Head
15 pg 583 Party Time
16 pg 637 Connecting with the Outside World
17 pg 649 Putting It All Together: Now Comes the Fun Part
I'm currently on chapter 6 and can say that this book's more than adequate for somebody of my beginning level. Nevertheless, there are some definite negatives that I noticed so far.
CONS
1. The text has the familiar format of taking the reader through the development of a single app (an Asteroids-like game). There are times in which the author(s) really hand-hold and explain every line of code, and then there are other times in which the authors will inform the reader of what code was added to the app, but gloss over any explanations. You may be thinking that perhaps the authors assumed some of the added code should be obvious to even beginners, however, the code they do not provide explanations of are not anything that a beginner or maybe even intermediate-level (non-gaming) programmer would know. Sometimes, the author will just say something like "If it sounded really confusing, don't worry, it is!" and just basically tell us to accept the code and don't worry about how it works. I got the feeling that the author(s) for some of the chapters truly do not know themselves or understand portions of their code expertly.
2. Although I do indeed remember the fundamentals of linear algebra, having taken a course on it in the past, the authors make little effort at explaining anything about transformational matrices to those who may know less than me. They use transformational matrices, of course, but I got the distinct impression that the author(s) themselves had no real idea of the fundamental principles behind the use of transformational matrices. Yes, I understand that the APIs do provide some level of abstraction, but they are still low-level enough that the reader should be given some general review of what transformational matrices do and look like mathematically. The APIs do not provide tremendous abstraction.
3. There is a moderate number of errors and you must use their website for the errata. Some of the errors are not obvious to catch. As an example, a previously used class is later subclassed, but the subclass assumes methods exist in the parent class which the text omitted when first describing the parent class previously. This may surprise you, but I don't find this too objectionable. The Mark and LaMarche beginning iPhone SDK book (first edition) was plagued with errors, too.
PROS
1. It's probably the only decent book out there for iPhone game development for beginners based on the lousy reviews of the two other books on Amazon.
2. Seems to have a lot of information on sounds, which I hadn't seen in other books or blogs regarding game development.
3. It's very comprehensive. Please see the earlier chapter listing.
4. You can buy the PDF version for $10 from the Apress website. You are given a certain amount of time to answer a question from the website about the book and if you succeed (proving that you own the book) they will send you a full book version in PDF for $10.
CONCLUSION
Like some of the other reviewers have commented, this book has frustrating moments, is uneven in its chosen level of hand-holding throughout the development of the Asteroid app, and has some difficult to spot errors, however, I still like it a lot. It's good enough and you have to give the authors a lot of credit for at least making a book for beginning game developers. I never expect a book to be the "bible" of its subject. It will allow me to throw away the book once I read it and move on to Apple's documentation and excellent blogs, like Matt Gallagher's excellent Cocoa with Love and forums like Apple's developer forums, the iPhone/iPad forum of the MacRumors website, and iPhoneDevSDK.
I will of course update this review as I finish reading it (on my iPad using the PDF).
Full of great detailed code examples, fantastic!May 30, 2010 Reader(California, USA) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a fantastic collection of detailed code examples for getting all kinds of stuff done in game programming. I had been shying away from the more complex (OpenGL ES) game development myself but this really opens the door now. It is going to jump-start some project ideas I had. The book is worth it just for the audio and OpenGL ES coverage alone, but it also has a complete game that is developed throughout the book, and it's awesome! Note, as with ANY technical book, it's always good to check the errata page especially for a cutting edge book like this. As to the other reviewer who mentioned mistakes, I would take that review with a grain of salt - maybe a rival author, because they haven't reported any of the "mistakes" they claim to have found on the errata page (at [...]). This is a really thick and heavy book, super dense, with great explanations of the topics, and solutions you can use right away. Sweet book, I am very glad to own it.
Best Game Programming Book in Years, regardless of iPhone focusJuly 15, 2010 L. Burns(Los Angeles CA) I poured over all the iPhone "game" programming books before finally finding this nugget. Let's face it, so many books that claim to teach gaming fall shy of anything practical you end up finishing most books with very little commercial knowledge. This book treats you like a grown up. It gets down to the point and focuses on areas of true interest verses frills that don't impact game development. The book also super charges right in the middle. It stops reviewing every single line change, and saves the additional pages for only the ground breaking reveals. I like this very much. It puts an immense amount of focus on audio, and tops everything off the network communication for both web and head to head. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got through the layout. It's been a good six years since a book this relevant was published on the subject. Bravo folks, great job!
I'll be waiting for that Advanced follow-up! Subjects to consider: Facebook API, OpenGL ES 2.0 mega review, iPhone 4.x SDK, Text in 3D, importing 3D models and textures.
Really great introduction to games developmentJuly 30, 2010 EX600 At just over 700 pages, BIGD takes you various aspects of games development, such as animation, sprites, sounds, streaming data and connected gaming. The first few chapters give you a very short introduction to Cocoa Touch, Objective-C and memory management. If you're new to all this, you *will* need separate books on these subjects.
In chapter 3 you will be playing with NSTimer and CADisplayLink to animate objects, learning the differences between the two.
Chapter 4 introduces you to the wonderful world of Quartz, where you will be creating sprites for an Asteroids-like game.
Chapter 5 introduces Core Animation. You'll learn how to animate UIViews with simple movements, animation curves, reverse/repeat, transforms, transitions and animating layers. The good thing about this chapter is you'll be able to reuse some of this stuff in non-game apps, on UIViews that represent data. Nothing wrong with giving your data apps a touch of Core Animation sexyness.
Chapter 6 introduces the basics of OpenGL. You'll learn about subjects such as objects, camera, lens and camera position and the link with model matrices, viewport and the projection matrix. OpenGL is continued in chapters 7 and 8 where you will continue work on your Asteroids game: drawing your ship, the rocks and how to implement collision detection. It sounds complicated (and it is: entire books have been written on the subject of OpenGL) but you get good source code to learn from.
You step away from the graphical stuff and enter the wonderful world of audio in chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12.
Chapter 13 introduces network play and explains the different ways of connecting: tcp/ip, Bonjour, Sockets, BSD Sockets API, CFNetwork, NSNetServices and GameKit. Most of this chapter is available in other Apress iPhone books as well. In the following chapters all these networking concepts are explained in detail showing you how to build simple head-to-head games, multiplayer games, and internet connected games while also explaining dangers such as lag.
Chapters overview:
1: A revolutionary gaming platform: games for everyone, anytime, anywhere
2: Developing iPhone games: peeking inside the iPhone toolbox
3: Moving images on a small screen - UIKit controls
4: She shoots, she hits, she scores!
5: Flipping out and sweeping away with Core Animation
6: OpenGL basics: wrapping your head around the OpenGL API
7: Putting it together: making a game in OpenGL
8: The next steps: atlases, sprites and particles - oh my!
9: Introduction to Core Audio
10: Making noise with OpenAL
11: 3D Audio - turning noise into game sounds
12: Streaming, thumping, pulse-quickening game excitement
13: Networking for iPhone games: introduction
14: Going head to head
15: Party time
16: Connecting with the outside world
17: Putting it all together: now comes the fun part
If you are new to Cocoa Touch and if you are hoping that this book will let you write your first game, then this book is not for you.
If you have experience with Cocoa and have at least heard of some topics like OpenGL and Core Animation then you will enjoy this book a lot. It is not *the* bible on game development but no book is. You could build a nice library with dedicated Quartz and OpenGL books alone. What it *does* do is give you a very-well explained introduction on all these topics, kindle your intrest to hopefully make you learn more.
No book on games development has held my interest for so long.
It also teaches the data developers a few cool tricks to improve their apps.
Great for novice game developersAugust 8, 2010 Dave Wooldridge(California, USA) Developing productivity apps is my comfort zone, but occasionally, I tinker with the idea of creating a game. But game programming requires quite a different set of skills. If you're an iOS developer interested in making games, this book is a great place to start! This massive 700+ page guide touches upon all the key ingredients you'd want to learn to produce game logic, animation (Quartz 2D, Core Animation, OpenGL ES), music and sounds (Core Audio, AudioAL, AVFoundation), and networking (Bonjour, GameKit). As a fellow Apress author, I'm admittedly biased toward Apress books, but I only recommend the ones that I truly love. I personally learned a lot from this book and feel it's a very worthy read for any beginning iOS game developer.
