I got an email from Apress. They say the Learn Cocos2D Alpha Book “enjoys an unprecedented success”. Other phrases in that email include “staggering number” (which I can’t disclose) and “great positive feedback”.
Wow, just wow! 
What’s more, it looks like the book will be released early. Currently, it is scheduled for release on November 30th, 2010. This is still a rough date though, and street date may be off by a couple days.
Chapter nil - EXC_BAD_ACCESS 😀
The book is done! No more chapters, finito.
I WROTE A BOOK!!! I can’t believe it! It took me just about 4 months to write, or 16 weeks, not counting the weeks of proposing the book and the coming weeks in which I’ll be reviewing the edits made by Apress and making last minute changes and additions.
For now, don’t offer me to write another book! I’m done writing books. For this year. So maybe next year. And maybe one about the Corona Game Edition? I’m certainly finding myself interested to finally try out Corona, if only for fun. I’m attracted by their clean and elegant API, the fact that they’re using Lua which I know inside out, and the professional atmosphere associated with it. But don’t worry, those are just thought plays right now.
I’ll certainly keep adding more Cocos2D content to this website of course. If the Alpha Book program and the number of questions I receive by email are any indication of what’s to come, I want to be prepared and be able to cope with a potential onslaught of questions. I’ll make an announcement about that soon, stay tuned.
Summary of working on Chapter 15 - Out Of The Ordinary
I’m not sure if the title will stick, I found it to be very fitting. Out of the ordinary should be the guiding principle for whatever you do. Create something that’s different, and don’t be afraid to be different. Maybe that sounds cheesy and if you don’t get it right away, I know that Chris Guillebeau and his Art of Non-Conformity articles and book will be able to shed at least some light on what I mean by that.
In this last chapter I’ve included a section about where to get help, and not just places where to ask questions and where to find tutorials. I also mean finding free game art and audio, as well as freelancers and tools. I also wrote a section about technologies that may be of interest to Cocos2D game developers, including a complete list of social networking SDKs. But also including server technology as well as ads and analytics.
I devoted several pages to marketing. Marketing yourself and your game by writing a blog and being active on Twitter. The benefits and caveats of public relations (PR) and press releases, and a heading about working with publishers and what you can expect from cooperating with a publisher. Finally I made comprehensive lists for both outstanding Cocos2D games as well as the commercial source code projects that are currently available.
Capital C and D
In case you’re wondering why I’m writing Cocos2D instead of cocos2d, it’s a copyedit thing. Cocos2D is a proper noun and as such it must be capitalized, while the D following a number stands for dimension and the commonly accepted way to write 2D and 3D is with a capital D. Cocos2D is written like this throughout the book, as you can see from the title, and now I actually prefer to write it like this. In its own way the book helps to bring Cocos2D to a new level. I like to think that this is reflected by capitalizing the word.
The Alpha Book just got an update with 6 new chapters! And the first 5 chapters have been updated as well with a few corrections and minor changes.
Get the new Alpha Book Chapters here. You’ll have to login with your email address and password you got from the Alpha Book purchase. Then look for the cocos2d book in the list and click on “View Chapters” to download the updated chapters.
Thanks to @shadex and @mrad02 for making me aware of the new chapters via Twitter before I even got the Alpha Book notification email from Apress.
Alpha Book Q&A
If you haven’t purchased the Alpha Book yet, here’s a quick FAQ because I receive a lot of questions:
Q: Will there be more chapters available after this update?
A: Chapters 6-10 was the first update. I assume (can’t say for sure) that there will be another update with the remaining 5 chapters before the book goes to print. I’ll let you know when it happens.
Q: When will more of the book’s source code be released?
A: I don’t know but updates are coming. Please be patient, I’ll let you know.
Q: If I purchase the Alpha Book, will I get the final eBook for free?
A: Yes.
Q: If I purchase the print book, do I get the eBook as well?
A: Not that I know of.
You’ll find more Q&A at the Apress website.
Update:
Chapter 11 Isometric Tilemaps is now also available!
The Learn Cocos2d Alpha Book’s page now lists the source code for download. It’s 44 MB, contains the source code for the first 9 (!) chapters as zip files.
I’m not sure if everyone can download the source code, or only eBook purchaser. I wasn’t asked to login, so I think it may be available for everyone. Try it out! Here’s a direct download link:
Direct Download: Learn Cocos2d Alpha Book Source Code
Before you ask: no, Chapter 6 and beyond are still not available yet. They will have to wait until they have gone through the editorial process. I believe Chapter 5 is currently in this process so it will still take at least a week, maybe 2-3, before you’ll get your hands on Chapter 6. But I hope that once the editorial process has caught up with the already available 5 chapters, new ones should be available on a regular basis. Every 1-2 weeks I hope, but no guarantees. This process is very new to me too so I try to be very careful making any assumptions.
I’m happy to announce that the cocos2d book I’m writing is now available for early access as an Alpha Book! If you click on the previous link or the image you can view the book’s description. Look for the “Buy Alpha Book” button on the left side of the book’s website, inside the “Book Details” frame.
Access to the Alpha Book costs $27,99 - the same as the eBook version. You get to read the unedited, unfinished pre-release chapters of the book. The full book isn’t available yet, but when it becomes available, you will be able to download the full eBook.
At the moment 5 chapters are available with new chapters being written on a weekly schedule.
Your feedback will be very valuable to make this book the best it can be! Please send your feedback to Apress, not to me directly. Apress will evaluate your feedback and send it to me with duplicate and already planned or implemented feedback sorted out, so that I can focus on writing.
