Learn & Master Cocos2D Game Development

I’m excited to announce that I am writing a new book, titled Learn SpriteBuilder. It will be published by Apress and is both sponsored and supported by Apportable with top-notch graphics.

Over the course of the book you will create a level-based, parallax-scrolling game that’s not unlike Badland with some elements from Leo’s Fortune. The game will be complete with main menu, settings, level selection, pause and game over menus, music and sound effects, and room to extend the game with your own ideas, levels, code and other content.

Learn SpriteBuilder is not a direct sequel to ‘Learn Cocos2d’; its focus is on teaching efficient workflows with SpriteBuilder and demonstrating the connection between SpriteBuilder and cocos2d-iphone v3 (now known as cocos2d-swift). Still there’s plenty of Objective-C code necessary to build an iOS game and I’ll take extra care to explain it well, in particular the new Cocos2D v3 features.

The Learn SpriteBuilder book is aimed at beginning to intermediate Cocos2D and SpriteBuilder developers but also experienced Cocos2D developers who are interested in learning more advanced concepts. Among them are the new visual effects system currently in development for Cocos2D and a fully textured, deformable soft-body player character.

Three chapters alone are dedicated to physics editing with SpriteBuilder and physics programming with Objective-Chipmunk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please leave a comment if you can’t find your question answered in this FAQ.

Be sure to check Apress’ own FAQ page because most of the publishing-specific questions (ebook, distribution, sales, etc) are answered there and taken care of by Apress.

What chapters will be in the book?

The following chapter list is tentative. Concepts for the placeholder exist but are subject to change, so I refrained from listing them.

1. Introduction to the book
2. SpriteBuilder Basics, Project Foundation
3. Character Controlling & Parallax Scrolling
4. Physics & Collisions
5. Physics Contraptions with Joints
6. Timeline Animations
7. Designing & Animating Menus
8. ..
9. ..
10. Textured Soft-Body Physics
11. Visual Effects with CCEffect
12. ..
13. Deploying to Android with Apportable
14. ..
15. “Learn to Fish”

The last chapter is named after a popular saying. It is all about learning how to help yourself when encountering an issue and where to find answers and get help - it teaches debugging basics, defensive programming skills, ways to make your life easier with SpriteBuilder and Cocos2D, and it contains the ubiquitous “where to go from here”.

What versions of SpriteBuilder, Cocos2D, Xcode, iOS will the book use?

Xcode 6 and iOS 8.
SpriteBuilder v1.x and cocos2d-iphone v3.x where x depends on what version is available by the time the book is printed.

Will the code be in Swift or Objective-C?

Objective-C.

Cocos2D supports either Swift or Objective-C but Swift itself is still in beta with (currently) severe bugs in both Xcode 6 and the compiler, so using Swift for the book would have unnecessarily delayed the book.

In future updates to the book (new editions or online updates) Swift is definitely on the table.

What devices / platforms / OS will the book project run on?

The example game is designed as a universal app. Minimum deployment target: iOS 5.0.
Oldest supported devices: iPhone 3GS, iPad 1. There may be performance issues on these devices.
The game will also compile for Android using Apportable’s Objective-C cross-compiler.
While the game is not designed for OS X the general principles & SpriteBuilder workflows also apply to OS X apps built with SpriteBuilder and Cocos2D.

When will the book be available in stores?

Tentative: November to December 2014

What ebook formats will the book be available in and where can I get them?

Standard DRM-free (watermarked) Apress eBook formats and distribution channels.

This means EPUB, MOBI, PDF available through Apress.com, Kindle Store, NOOKBook Store, Safari Books Online and Books 24×7. An iBook release is not planned.