Cocos2D is an extremely popular iPhone game engine, and has an extensive community. There are many great tutorials available out there, so when I first saw that the Learn iPhone and iPad Cocos2D Game Development book was being written by Steffen itterheim I wasn’t sure exactly what value the book would contribute. I was glad to see that the book covered a lot of more advanced topics that are difficult to find the right answers for.
The book was created for those who already have a background in programming, and you will definitely need to have an understanding of Objective-C. That being said it starts out with some easier to understand examples and topics so even if you’re new to Cocos2D you shouldn’t have much of a problem jumping right in.
There is a really extensive number of examples available within the book. My favorites are:
– a game where you avoid falling obstacles by rotating the device
– a side scrolling shooter
– an isometric tile based map/movement/collisions demo (shown in video below — btw, the frame rate doesn’t do the example justice, it is much smoother than that, but it does show the beginnings of what could become a nice game).
The author, Steffen Itterheim also makes himself highly accessible to readers on his Learn Cocos2D blog, and on Twitter. So if you have any questions or issues on the book he is very easy to get in touch with.
Overall I rate the book 5/5 (I know I rate books pretty highly – that’s because I don’t read the bad ones =p). The book really leaves you with the feeling that you can create a good iOS game with Cocos2D, and the examples give you something concrete to work with. You can read further reviews on Amazon, I’m not sure about the issue that one reviewer had with the Kindle version as I was not viewing it on Kindle.
Read More: Cocos2D Examples And Tutorials
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