Learn cocos2d 2 is hot off the press and it once again entered Apress’ weekly bestseller chart (see banner on far right).
Now with iOS 6 released it’s about time I updated my Affiliate Products page.
Because there have been some awesome new products released. In order of most recently released:
iOS 6 by Tutorials
Ray Wenderlich and his team wasted no time in releasing this massive 1,500 pages tutorial double-whopper that’s actually a 5-star iOS 6 gourmet menu!
Commander Cool Game Starter Kit
Create your own platformer game for iOS and Mac with this game kit made with Cocos2D. As always with CartoonSmart products, you get an hour-long video documentation. Jump, run and be cool!
Paralaxer: Cross-Platform Platformer Kit
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Paralaxer is possibly the first commercial game kit available that uses Cocos2D-X. Ported to iOS, Android, Windows and Mac it also comes with a free ebook “How to Make a Platformer Game With Cocos2D-X” by Nat Weiss - who previously created the iPhone Action RPG engine.
If you’re working with Cocos2D-X you should spend $49 (limited time) on this excellent starter kit!
It’s a worthy investment, and so far the only really good example code plus documentation resource for Cocos2D-X you can find.
While writing the Learn Cocos2D book I was surprised to find that Cocos2D’s CCSpriteBatchNode was only able to increase the performance of several hundred bullet sprites on screen by about 10-15% (20 to 22.5 fps). I wanted to re-visit that scenario for a long time because as far as I understood, the more sprites I was drawing the greater the impact of CCSpriteBatchNode should be.
But even Cocos2D’s own sprite performance tests (compare columns 9 and 10) revealed a performance difference of under 20% (39 to 42 fps). It’s only when all sprites are scaled and rotated, or most of them are outside the screen area, that sprite batching seems to have a bigger impact (25 to 60 fps). Surely that scenario is not applicable to most games. So I started investigating.
This episode of the Cocos2D Podcast with Mohammad Azam and myself has a very special guest: Ray Wenderlich.
Does he need any introduction? I guess not but on the off-chance that you’ve managed to have an interest in Cocos2D but haven’t heard of Ray’s Cocos2D tutorials, you should check them out.
Just today I was informed that the eBook version of Learn iPhone and iPad Cocos2D Game Development is now available in its final form!
UPDATE: the source code download (also on the book’s page, left side, under Book Resources) now includes all of the source code.
The print edition will follow sometime soon, hopefully within the next ~3 weeks.
On a related note, Ray Wenderlich joined forces with Rod Strougo to help finish Rod’s Cocos2D book, due to an oddly scheduled release date whose publisher apparently feels impossible to postpone. By that I mean to say: Rod’s wife is having a baby. Congratulations to that, and the book! 
