Learning iOS Game Programming: A Hands-On Guide to Building Your First iPhone Game

by Michael Daley

Overview

Since the launch of the App Store, games have been the hottest category of apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. That means your best chance of tapping into the iPhone/iPad “Gold Rush” is to put out a killer game that everyone wants to play (and talk about). While many people think games are hard to build, they can actually be quite easy, and Learning iOS Game Programming is your perfect beginner’s guide. Michael Daley walks you through every step as you build a killer 2D game for the iPhone.

 

In Learning iOS Game Programming, you’ll learn how to build a 2D tile map game, Sir Lamorak’s Quest: The Spell of Release (which is free in the App Store). You can download and play the game you’re going to build while you learn about the code and everything behind the scenes. Daley identifies the key characteristics of a successful iPhone game and introduces the technologies, terminology, and tools you will use. Then, he carefully guides you through the whole development process: from planning storylines and game play all the way through testing and tuning.

 

Download the free version of Sir Lamorak’s Quest from the App Store today, while you learn how to build the game in this book.

 

Coverage includes

• Planning high-level game design, components, and difficulty levels
• Using game loops to make sure the right events happen at the right time
• Rendering images, creating sprite sheets, and building basic animations
• Using tile maps to build large game worlds from small reusable images
• Creating fire, explosions, smoke, sparks, and other organic effects
• Delivering great sound via OpenAL and the iPhone’s media player
• Providing game control via iPhone’s touch and accelerometer features
• Crafting an effective, intuitive game interface
• Building game objects and entities and making them work properly
• Detecting collisions and ensuring the right response to them
• Polishing, testing, debugging, and performance-tuning your game

Learning iOS Game Programming focuses on the features, concepts, and techniques you’ll use most often—and helps you master them in a real-world context. This book is 100% useful and 100% practical; there’s never been an iPhone game development book like it!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780321699527
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	09/03/2010
Series:	Learning
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michael Daley is co-founder of 71Squared.com and author of Learning iOS Game Programming. 71Squared.com is an indie development shop that produces OS X-based tools for game developers namely Particle Designer and Glyph Designer. Mike also produces video tutorials through the 71Squared.com blog, which cover the basics of game engine design using a relaxed easy to follow approach. Mike is a strong believer in delivering resources that help new entrants into game programming get up and running by breaking things down and introducing simple approaches first. This allows people to see results and not get too bogged down before they even get started. In what time he has left he flies light aircraft, plays games and tries to introduce his children into the world of all things Apple.

Table of Contents

Preface xxi

1 Game Design 1

The Game That Started It All (For Me) 3

So, What’s the Big Idea? 4

A Game That Fits with the iPhone 4

The Storyline 5

What’s in a Name? 5

The Game’s Objective 6

Game Play Components 7

Time 7

Lives 7

Health 8

Objects 8

Doors 9

Weapons 10

Entities 10

Player 11

Summary 11

2 The Three Ts: Terminology, Technology, and Tools 13

Terminology 14

Sprite 14

Sprite Sheet 16

Animation 18

Bitmap Fonts 19

Tile Maps 20

Particle System 21

Collision Detection 22

Artificial Intelligence (AI) 23

Game Loop 24

Technology 26

Objective-C 26

Cocoa Touch 27

OpenGL ES 27

OpenAL 30

Tools 31

The iPhone SDK 32

Summary 38

3 The Journey Begins 39

Creating the Project in Xcode 39

Running the Project 42

Under the Hood 43

Application Delegate 43

Examining the Header File 44

Examining the Implementation File 46

EAGLView 49

EAGLView.h 49

EAGLView.m 50

ES1Renderer 58

Examining ES1Renderer.h 58

Examining ES1Renderer.m 59

Creating the Framebuffer and Renderbuffer 60

Defining the Color Values 66

Positioning 67

How OpenGL Works 68

Applying Transformations on the Model 69

Rendering to the Screen 70

Summary 72

4 The Game Loop 73

Timing Is Everything 73

Collision Detection 74

The Game Loop 75

Frame-Based 75

Time-Based, Fixed Interval 77

Getting Started 78

Inside the EAGLView Class 79

Inside the EAGLView.m File 79

ES1Renderer Class 82

Configuring the View Port 85

Game Scenes and the Game Controller 86

Creating the Game Controller 87

The GameController Class 87

Creating the Singleton 89

Inside GameController.m 89

AbstractScene Class 92

GameScene Class 93

Summary 95

Exercises 95

5 Image Rendering 97

Introduction to Rendering 97

Rendering a Quad 98

Texture Mapping 101

Texture Coordinates 101

Interleaved Vertex Arrays 104

Structures 106

Image Rendering Classes 107

Texture2D Class 108

TextureManager Class 116

ImageRenderManager Class 119

The Image Class 126

I nitialization 126

Retrieving a Sub-Image 129

Duplicate an Image 130

Rendering an Image 130

Getters and Setters 134

Summary 134

Exercise 135

6 Sprite Sheets 137

Introduction to Sprite Sheets 137

Simple Sprite Sheet 138

Complex Sprite Sheets 139

Using Zwoptex 141

The SpriteSheet Class 142

Initialization 143

Retrieving Sprites 146

PackedSpriteSheet Class 147

Initialization 147

Parsing the Control File 148

Retrieving a Sprite 149

Summary 150

Exercise 151

7 Animation 153

Animation Chapter Project 153

Introduction to Animation 154

Frames 154

State w155

Type 155

Direction 155

Bounce Frame 155

Animation Class 156

Initialization 156

Adding Frames 157

Animation Updates 158

Animation Rendering 160

Finishing Things Off 161

Summary 163

Exercise 163

8 Bitmap Fonts 165

Bitmap Font Project 165

Introduction to Bitmap Fonts 166

Creating the Bitmap Font Sprite Sheet 167

The BitmapFont Class 170

Header File 170

What’s with the C? 171

Initializer 171

Parsing the Control File 172

Rendering Text 176

Rendering Justified Text 178

Text Width and Height 180

Deallocation 181

Summary 181

Exercise 182

9 Tile Maps 183

Getting Started with the Tile Map Project 183

Introduction to Tile Maps 184

Tile Map Editor 186

Tile Palette 188

Layers 188

Creating a Tile Map 189

Create a New Tile Set 190

Creating Map Layers 191

Creating Object Layers 191

Drawing the Map 192

Placing Objects 192

Understanding the Tiled Configuration File 193

Map Element 193

Tileset Element 193

Layer Element 194

Object Group Element 195

Tile Map Classes 196

Layer Class 196

TileSet Class 202

TiledMap Class 204

Initialization 205

Parsing a Map File 207

Creating the Layer Images 216

Rendering a Layer 218

Getting Tile Informaiton 220

Summary 220

Exercise 221

10 The Particle Emitter 223

Particle Emitter Project 224

Introduction to Particle Systems 225

Particle System Parameters 226

Life Cycle of a Particle 227

A Particle Is Born 227

A Particle Lives 228

A Particle Dies 229

A Particle Is Reborn 229

Particle Emitter Configuration 230

Particle Emitter Classes 231

TBXMLParticleAdditions Class 231

ParticleEmitter Class 233

Have a Play 247

Summary 248

11 Sound 249

Sound Project 249

Introduction to Sound on the iPhone 250

Audio Sessions 250

Playing Music 252

Playing Sound Effects 252

Creating Sound Effects 254

Stereo Versus Mono 256

Sound Manager Classes 256

SoundManager Class 257

Sound Effect Management 273

Loading Sound Effects 274

Playing Sound Effects 276

Stopping Sound Effects 279

Setting Sound Effect and Listener Position 281

Handling Sound Interruptions 281

Summary 284

12 User Input 285

User Input Project 285

Introduction to User Input 287

Touch Events 287

Processing Touch Events 289

The touchesBegan Phase 290

The touchesMoved Phase 292

The touchesEnded Phase 294

Processing Taps 294

Accelerometer Events 296

Summary 298

13 The Game Interface 299

Game Interface Project 299

OpenGL ES Interface 300

Rendering the Interface 301

Defining Button Bounds 304

Handling Touches 304

Handling Transitions 308

OpenGL ES Orientation 308

UIKit Interfaces 312

Creating the Interface 312

Wiring Up the Interface 315

UIKit Orientation 318

Showing and Hiding a UIKit Interface 320

Summary 323

14 Game Objects and Entities 325

Game Objects and Entities Project 325

Game Objects 326

AbstractObject Class 327

EnergyObject Class 329

Game Entities 338

AbstractEntity Class 339

Artificial Intelligence 341

Player Entity Class 343

Saving a Game Object or Entity 352

Summary 355

15 Collision Detection 357

Introduction to Collision Detection 357

Collision Pruning 358

Frame-Based Versus Time-Based 359

Axis-Aligned Bounding Boxes 360

Detecting Collisions 361

Collision Map 362

Entity-to-Map Collision Detection 365

Entity-to-Entity Collision Detection 367

Summary 368

16 Putting It All Together 369

The “Camera” 369

Saving the Game State and Settings 371

Saving Game State 371

Loading Game State 373

Saving Game Settings 375

Loading Game Settings 376

Saving High Scores 377

Adding a Score 379

Saving High Scores 380

Loading High Scores 381

Performance and Tuning 382

Using Instruments 383

Leaks Instrument 384

Using the OpenGL ES Instrument 387

Compiling for Thumb 389

Beta Testing 390

Multiple Device Types 391

Feedback 392

Summary 392

Index 395

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Learning iOS Game Programming

“An excellent introduction into the world of game development explaining every aspect of game design and implementation for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices. A great way for anyone interested in writing games to get started.”

–Tom Bradley, Software Architect, Designer of TBXML

“A great developer and a great game.That’s everything you can find in this book to learn how to write an awesome game for iPhone.Maybe you’re the next AppStore hit!”

–Sebastien Cardoso

“With Learning iOS Game Programming, you’ll be writing your own games in no time. The code included is well explained and will save you hours of looking up obscure stuff in the documentation and online forums.”

–Pablo Gomez Basanta, Founder, Shifting Mind

“I always thought that to teach others one has to be an expert and a person with an established reputation in the field. Michael Daley proved me wrong. He is teaching others while studying himself. Michael’s passion in teaching and studying, ease of solutions to problems, and a complete game as a resulting project makes this book one of the best I have ever read.”

–Eugene Snyetilov

“If you’re interested in 2D game programming with the iOS using OpenGL and OpenAL directly, this book walks you through creating a complete and fun game without getting bogged down in technical details.”

–Scott D.Yelich

“Michael Daley brings clarity to the haze of iPhone application development. Concrete examples, thorough explanation, and timesaving tips make this book a must have for the up and coming iPhone game developer.”

–Brandon Middleton, Creator of Tic Tac Toe Ten

“This is the A-Z guide to iOS game development; Michael’s book takes you from the basics and terminology to using the techniques in practice on a fully working game. Before you know it, you will find yourself writing your own game, fueled by a firm grasp of the principles and techniques learned within. I could not ask for a better reference in developing our own games.”

–Rod Strougo, Founder Prop Group

From the Publisher