Book Review – Learning iPhone Game Development with Cocos2D 3.0 by Kirill Muzykov

Occasionally, very good books come along that meet two important needs of beginner programmers – they are written in an engaging illustrative manner, and they cover the basic background knowledge or theory foundation required to commence larger projects. One such book is Learning iPhone Game Development with Cocos2D 3.0 by Kirill Muzykov – and that’s what this post is all about!

As mentioned earlier, Cocos2D is a truly versatile game engine that is crossplatform (a single source file can be cross-compiled to multiple platforms) and has been so popular that dedicated versions (ports) for several programming languages have been developed. In this book, Kirill uses the Objective C version of Cocos2D , named Cocos2D Swift (previously named Cocos2D for iPhone) and illustrates concepts about Cocos2D game development remain valid on all versions/ports of Cocos2D

Book Content

The book starts out in Chapter 1 with an explanation of the benefits of game engines, an introduction to Cocos2D and some examples of interesting iphone games created with it. Chapter 2 provides instructions on how to download the Cocos2D Swift distribution package, and install the bundled demo projects. Chapter 3 discusses the structure of the Cocos2D framework and configuration options. This chapter is also very useful to programmers who are using the Cocos2D framework in other programming languages (e.g javascript, c, java etc) . Chapter 4 – 9 cover important aspects of any good 2D game, namely – animating objects (sprites) in your game, handling touch and motion input, rendering text, particle effects (explosions, smoke, fire), sound, menu interface creation and navigation respectively. Chapter 10 examines the use of a physics engine to create mechanically fluid effects, collisions etc. Finally, Chapter 11 is dedicated to Tile Maps .. fitting several images in a single image file and accessing portions as needed.

Why You Should Read/Use this Book

1.) Excellent Explanation
The ideas in the book are laid out in clear terms , appropriate analogies that aid learning are also properly utilized. The entire material is laid out in a consistent manner in which new ideas build on previously explained concepts and paint a picture of gently increasing complexity.

2.) A Concept-Example-Sample Code Approach
I am a huge fan of learning by example. Infact, for many developers working temporarily on new projects, this is fastest and most convenient way to learn. This book does not let you down in this aspect.  As new concepts are introduced, examples are given, sample codes is provided, and a screen cap of the expected result is also provided. Great to help pace learners.

3.) Quizzes and Thought Guides
The book provides nice short quizzes to test understanding of concepts discussed.

4.) A Good Guide Across Platforms
As mentioned earlier, Chapter 3 mainly , and the rest of the book provide a great guide to the Cocos2D framework in general irrespective of the particular language in use.

A Few Things To know before You Start

– The book assumes you have a basic understanding of Objective C. You are not required to be an expert, but you should be familiar with things like creating a class, adding an instance variable or property, calling a method , using classes like NSString or NSArray etc
– You will need a Mac computer (0oops) running OS X 10.8.4 mountain lion or higher
– You will need the Objective C Ide – Xcode 5.1 or higher
– The book is aimed at beginner programmers.

Possible Future Work

The book provides a downloadable Chapter that covers integration of Apples Game center and in app purchases which are important for any game. It would be good to see more information on how to store data (some apps are data heavy) using things like Apples Core data framework, Sqlite etc.

How to Get the Book

You can purchase it on amazon or directly from the publishers at Packt Publishing. The book Author Kiril Muzykov has also written several AWESOME tutorials on game developement published on Ray Wenderlich’s game tutorial website too.

Book Giveaway

I have been able to get a few copies of the book, and I’ll be hosting a giveaway soon here on denvycom. Stay tuned!
Did you get the book already ? Share your opinions in the comments below!