Learn & Master Cocos2D Game Development

The cocos2d-iphone reference documentation project dubbed Essential Cocos2D is now available for free. It is no longer bundled with KoboldTouch.

This is just one aspect of several upcoming changes I will be making to KoboldTouch over the next days. I removed Essential Cocos2D from the equation because after the first 3 months as well as the KoboldTouch survey it became clear that KoboldTouch should be all about KoboldTouch - both from my side & my motivation as well as what (potential) customers are interested in.

Instead of adding more hassle to the mix by turning it into a paid eBook project I decided it’s probably the best for everyone to give it away for free.

Essential Cocos2D caused a conflict of interest by taking time & energy away from developing KoboldTouch and its documentation. Now I’ll be using Essential Cocos2D as the container (and easily browsable one too) and inspiration for the in-depth Cocos2D articles I’ll continue to write infrequently for my iDevBlogADay posts.

www.koboldtouch.com

I set aside some time to do what I’ve kept pushing out: setting up a dedicated website for KoboldTouch. I need a public facing side of KoboldTouch to raise interest and awareness. Hosting Essential Cocos2D on the website is just one way to drive (initial) traffic to the site.

The reason I didn’t really want to go live with the website was that I’m not a Linux geek at all, and I had to learn how to setup apache to allow the server to host both Confluence sites for Kobold2D and KoboldTouch. Now that it works I’m quite happy I did invest the two days to set it all up.

The www.koboldtouch.com website will soon host more information about KoboldTouch, including the product order page and KoboldTouch documentation.

KoboldTouch: New Payment Plans (soon)

Currently KoboldTouch is available for 3-month support & update cycles, as both recurring billing and non-recurring billing options. The problem with recurring billing is that customers will eventually cancel it. I hate to see that happen, and I get not one but several emails for each cancellation. Recurring billing & cancellations also make it very difficult to track and project customer growth rates for a variety of reasons.

I will keep the 3-months $39.95 non-recurring plan. I will also add a $19.95 1-month plan as a compromise for a trial period as well as an optimization for those who may want to use KoboldTouch but don’t need frequent updates and support. You can sign up to the 1-month plan 2-3 times per year and still save some money compared to the other plans.

I’ll also add a 12-month plan for $139.95 for those who know they’ll stick around for longer, who want to support me in my goal to make KoboldTouch a game engine for ambitious developers. The greater up-front payment will be a tremendous help while KoboldTouch is still on its way to profitability (current projections point toward break-even by summer).

I think it’s better and healthier for business to go with non-recurring billing. What better motivation than to see dozens of users signing up again for the next term instead of even just a few cancellations? This also gives me greater flexibility because Clickbank has some rather severe restrictions on recurring billing products, including not being able to change any product details (including price) and recurring billing periods can be at most 3 months.

Kobold2D v2.1 Update Coming Soon

I’m aware of new compiler issues with Xcode 4.6 and Kobold2D. One issue is simple to fix: just remove all references to FIXCATEGORYBUG from the source code (use search all files: Shift+Cmd+F). FIXCATEGORYBUG is not actually needed anymore.

I also heard of a compiler issue with Chipmunk. I currently have no information nor a fix for that, but if you google the error message you should be able to find a fix or workaround. I suppose the same issue will occur to user of cocos2d-iphone + Chipmunk with Xcode 4.6. If nothing helps please post a question on stackoverflow.com, I regularly check and answer new cocos2d/Kobold2D questions on SO.

I’ll issue an update to Kobold2D soon. I’m just waiting for the final release of cocos2d-iphone v2.1 because it seems to be right around the corner (rc0 was released last week). The update will also include some fixes regarding iOS 6 autorotation.