In this episode you can see the Cocos2D Webcam Viewer in action. I also show you how to update a sprite’s texture while your app is running just by saving an updated version of the image, and how cool that actually is!
The second half of the video is devoted to explaining my work schedule. I’d like to believe that I have a unique and interesting solution to planning but I’m sure in some way or another it’s already been implemented.
I’m certainly influenced by Agile Development as much as I am by books like Getting Things Done and The 4-Hour Workweek. My revelation was simply this: stop wasting time planning tasks! Instead, plan your time and how you spend it.
Episode #4 – I see Road Nuts
• iDevBlogADay: Cocos2D Webcam Viewer
o Mac OS X Webserver File Download
• Kobold2D v1.0.2 released
• Poll: Which scripting language for Cocos2D?
• My work schedule explained
Kobold2D v1.0.2 is now available from the Kobold2D Download page!
Read the Release Notes for detailed list of changes. Most of them are minor as this is a maintenance release, but there’s a bug fix in KKInput’s gesturePanRecognizer that fixes the incorrect translation and velocity values. If you’re using the pan gesture I recommend to upgrade.
I’ve also taken the time to attempt to clarify what Kobold2D is about with this … imagram:
I’ve been reading and enjoying blah blah blah (not to be confused with blah blah blah) which prompted me to try a more visual approach. I highly recommend reading Dan Roam’s book! I’m sure you can’t draw either, but you should do it anyway. Or try Xmind.
Hmmm … have you ever noticed how many great things start or end with an x?
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could update your game’s assets while your app is running? It turns out you can, and it’s not even very complicated.
Whether you want to tweak a game setting or experiment with a variety of image styles on the fly, this will be one of the things you wish you had been using all along! Either for faster development or as a design feature for your game.
In this case, we’ll build a New York Traffic Webcam viewer with Cocos2D. You will learn how to download files to your app at runtime with the iOS SDK and cocos2d-iphone, and how to check if the file on the web server has actually been modified.
Along the way you’ll understand how to use the Mac OS X built-in web server to speed up your development by replacing game assets on the fly. By copying files to a specific directory on your Mac you can make immediate changes to your running app!
And you don’t need any experience with HTML, Apache, or any other web server or web services technology. In fact, I consider myself to be an web-illiterate because I’ve hardly done anything programming-related with web services and servers in the past.
As usual, the project is available from my LearnCocos2D github repository under the MIT License. The project’s name is Cocos2D-UpdateFilesFromWebServer. To improve readability of the article I removed error checking from the code in the article.
After a holiday-season hiatus (Happy New Year btw!) LearnCocosTV is back. This episode is somewhat shorter because I had a lot of catching up to do and a lot of chores which aren’t exactly show-worthy. But I did manage to port most of the Kobold2D projects to Cocos2D 2.0 beta. Too bad they look just the same as before.
A bi-weekly Show & Tell about Cocos2D, Kobold2D and iOS/OSX development by Steffen Itterheim.
Episode #3 – Two And A Half Nuts
• Updating Kobold2D to use Cocos2D v2.0 (beta)
• iDevBlogADay: Tips for updating to Cocos2D v2.0
• iDevBlogADay Source Code available on github
This quick comparison sheet gives you all the info to decide whether to use Cocos2D 1.x or Cocos2D 2.x. Contrary to most programs, a higher version number doesn’t infer “better” or “more”. There are pros and cons for both versions.
At the time of this writing the decision really only boils down to whether you want to use shaders and whether you must be able to deploy your app to 1st & 2nd generation devices. See for yourself, it’s that simple:
Cocos2D v1.x(+) compatible with all iOS devices |
Cocos2D v2.x(+) OpenGL ES 2.0 shader programs |
All other differences to this day are minor, and most new features and bugfixes have been migrated back and forth between versions. For beginners I strongly recommend using v1.x as there’s a lot more documentation available for this version. Those who have no interest in writing shader programs can also safely use the v1.x branch without missing out.
The iOS & Android mobile game revenue has jumped from 19% to 58% in 3 years. While these numbers are only percentages and do not reflect an overall growth in the market, it does make one thing very clear: the dedicated handheld gaming devices are losing market share big time. And just as the 3DS has failed to inspire consumers so will in all likelihood the PS Vita. Continue reading »
It seems like a no-brainer to most computer-affiniados and gamers: eventually, all video games will be distributed online. The question is only, when?
To retailers this seems to be a whole different story. Most of them are in denial, as I can tell from occasionally reading retail game publishing magazines. They’ll be in for quite the surprise in about 10 years, when it will be obvious even to the blind-folded that boxed retail games will soon be a thing of the past. Alongside Blu-ray movies. It is inevitable, as video games and movies alike are moving towards their most natural distribution media format: instant digital home delivery.
Not only will this reduce inventory risks for publishers, it also cuts out the retail middle-man, allowing direct to consumer sales with full control over pricing and availability. With all the advantages of tracking each user’s usage and profile information for marketing purposes. At the same time conveniently disallowing or at least automating the consumer’s rights to re-sell or lend digital products or issue refunds. Neither Floppy Disks nor Optical Media have offered such compelling advantages to media producers.
But first, let’s consult the history of video game distribution before analyzing what it can tell us about the future. One thing I can say with conviction in advance: retail stores selling physical games and movies will be as commonplace in the 2030s as are Vinyl record stores today.
Beginning today until and including Dec 26th January 1st 2012 the Line-Drawing Game Starterkit is only $49,50 instead of $99,00 (50% off).
Just enter this coupon code when you make the purchase:
MERRYXMAS
Merry Xmas everyone – you deserve it! 
PS: I’ll be practically offline until the first week in January, but I’ll make sure to have a short iDevBlogADay post ready for you on Dec 29th.
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