iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips » Tag: Cocos2D

News: Cocos2D Game Engine v1.0.0 Released

John — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:21:48 +0000

As you may have noticed if you have been reading this site for awhile, I occasionally mention product updates. This one is pretty significant as after numerous release candidates the incredibly successful open source Cocos2D iPhone game engine has finally released v1.0.0.

There are an incredible amount of feature updates since the previous official release of Cocos2D. This update from the last release candidate itself even adds support for non-power of two PVR textures.

If you are interested in some in-depth Cocos2D game development training please take this survey.

I will be getting together with a successful Cocos2D expert and putting together a comprehensive training course.

We will be giving out some free copies to those who fill in the survey. You can get to the survey by clicking here.

You can read the full feature list showing the updates included in v1.0.0 vs the last major release:
Cocos2D v1.0.0 Release Notes

Steffen Itterheim, author of the Learn iPhone and iPad Cocos2d Game Development book has created an installer that you can run on your Mac to easily install Cocos2D 1.0.0, Cocos3D and all the templates automatically. You can find it here.

You can find the Cocos2D source on Github here:
https://github.com/cocos2d

Exciting news for Cocos2D devs.

Open Source: 2D Isometric Action RPG Game Built With Cocos2D

John — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:28:45 +0000

Cocos2D has many features for those looking to develop isometric games. Handling of z-ordering, and tile maps are all built into the engine.

I’ve found an excellent open source game example known as KnightFight from Loz Archer of an isometric 2D tile based action rpg using Cocos2D. The game features a player controlled character that you move around the map, collisions between the player and map objects, simple computer controlled enemies, and basic player improvement through leveling.

You can find the source code on Github here:
https://github.com/lozarcher/KnightFight

A pretty simple game, but everything within it is very well done so if you are looking to create a tile based isometric RPG with Cocos2D this is a good example.

. Tags: 2d game open source ipad, cocos2d sources, any cocos2d iosmetric open source games, Cocos2D

Tool: Easily Gather Sprite Data For Box2D And Generate Cocos2D Code

John — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:19:41 +0000

Found out about a pretty cool tool for those looking to develop games using Box2D (especially if you’re using Cocos2D — but really good for anyone using Box2D) called SpriteHelper. It is a notch above the other tools I’ve seen doing similar.

What the tool allows you to do is easily gather information on any sprite such as UV, the vertex positions, position of the sprite within another image (for those of you using spritesheets), and the dimensions of the sprite’s rectangle — but most importantly the tool allows you to easily drag and create an outline around the shape, telling you if your shape will work with Box2D, you can then use the generated data, or even generate the actual Cocos2D code for your Box2D shape. Check out this video demo/tutorial:

The tool is currently only 0.99 cents at the moment in the Mac App Store. No word on whether it will go up in price.

You can find it here:
SpriteHelper

What I think really makes this tool different is just the ease of use, and the small details added to the tool that make things a bit easier. If you are using Box2D, and especially Box2D and Cocos2D this should be a good time saver.

Thanks to the creator Vladu Bogdan for mentioning it in the iPhone and iPad development forum.

. Tags: sprite (computer graphics), ios, canvas element, game engine, iPhone, Cocos2D, box2d physics engine, tutorial

Handling Z-Ordering In Cocos2D Map Based Games

John — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:39:47 +0000

If you’ve used Cocos2D for awhile you may have had some difficult when trying to handle the display order of images.

Things get even more complicated if you are creating an isometric game. The player character may need to be placed behind an obstacle such as a rock or a tree. In v0.99.1 automatic z-ordering for tile maps was implemented, and the problem was somewhat solved, but some problems still exist and there is some tweaking to be done.

Another problem, especially with map-based games is creating a player HUD display as the images need to be placed at the right z-ordering and at a consistent location on the screen.

Nat Weiss has created a tutorial on how to overcome these problems by creating two different custom sprite classes which can be found here:
CCZSprite and HudLevelSprite

These two classes should be of help to anyone interested in creating a map-based game in Cocos2D.

Thanks for reading, if you like this please share it!

. Tags: image order, Cocos2D, z-order, map based game

iPhone Game Physics Tutorial: Radial Gravity

John — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:48:48 +0000

Physics can be a great way to enhance your game.

The problem is that implementing physics in your game can be extremely challenging, but I found a couple of great examples showing how to enhance an iPhone or iPad game using radial gravity with Box2D.

The examples are from Nick Vellios, and as you can see in the example above they show how to implement radial gravity on an object so that other objects are drawn towards it (much like how planets are drawn to the sun).

The examples include:

How To Add Radial Gravity To Box 2D
Radial Gravity w/ Box2D SOURCE

And a third example on inverse radial gravity (think of objects exploding in all directions)
Bombs With Box 2D and Cocos2D

Cocos2D is used as the rendering engine in the examples.

By the way, can anyone remember the name of the nifty puzzle game that used radial gravity and won numerous indie gaming awards about 12 years ago? (yeah i’m stretching)

Thanks for reading, if you like this please share it!

. Tags: Cocos2D, physics, gravity, box2d

Great Cocos2D iOS Example Featuring Common Game Elements

John — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:45:08 +0000

As Cocos2D has increased it’s feature set it has become increasingly difficult to keep up with the many features of the engine. The game has evolved from a simple rendering engine with some timing control into a full-fledged 2D game engine.

Fortunately there is an active community and some great examples are available. You can find examples of almost anything.

I found this example to be particularly exceptional, as it contains many desired game elements — including:

CocosDenshion (Cocos2D Audio) Usage
Object Rotation
Health Bars
Spritesheets And Animations

The example is from Ray Wenderlich the creator of the Space Game Starter Kit and co-author of the Learning Cocos2D book, Steve Oldmeadow, and Victoria Wenderlich and can be found in Cocos2D versions 0.99.4 or higher (download here).

In order to view the example you will need to set the active target, and executable to Cocos Denshion – Tom The Turret.

Make sure to select the iphone simulator — if you can’t find it, hold down the option key when clicking on the pulldown selector where you set the active target and executable that will bring up more options.

Update: Added video to show those with issues running the game in the right simulator how it’s done.

[Source: Ray Wenderlich]

. Tags: game, Cocos2D, ios, example

Book Released Featuring Cocos2D and Unity 3d Programming

John — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:22:37 +0000

Just got an interesting note that a new book has been released early from Apress featuring Cocos2D and Unity 3D programming.

I haven’t talked about iPhone and iPad development books on here for awhile because for the most part the ones I’ve seen in the last few months have just been re-releases of the same old stuff.

This one caught my eye because it features chapters that are of particular interest to me specifically those on Unity 3D, Cocos2D, importing 3D assets into your games, and on using OpenCV in iPhone apps.

Hopefully I’ll be able to check it out in the future, no Kindle version yet (can’t wait for it!) and I didn’t see it available locally, but you can search through the contents or get the paperback book here.

Thanks to the eBuddy blog for pointing out that this was available, they are also featured in the book with a tutorial on push notifications.

Please post any thoughts on the book below, especially if you have had a chance to read it.

[Source: eBuddy Blog]

. Tags: iphone development book, ipad development book, unity 3d, Cocos2D

How To Create A Game With The Cocos2D Engine And Tiled Map Editor

John — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:45:25 +0000

Some of the most popular games on the iPhone and iPad are platformer type games. One of the more time consuming aspects of creating these games is building the tile engine, and editing the maps.

There are a couple of great open source tools which can greatly help in creating platformers on the iPhone and iPad. Two of them are the Cocos2D game engine, and the Tiled map editor which are designed to work together.

Ray Wenderlich, creator of the Space Game Starter Kit and co-author of Learning Cocos2D book, has posted a couple of excellent tutorials on creating a game using Cocos2D and tiled these tutorials go through the process of building a game from the ground up, and explain everything from laying out the tiles, and creating the game in a straightforward manner so if you are interested in creating an iPhone or iPad platform game check them out.

Tutorial #1: Creating The Project, Making The Map and Adding It To The Game
Tutorial #2: Collisions, Modifying The Map Dynamically

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. Tags: tiled, platform games, Cocos2D, tile editor

iPhone and iPad Particle Designer With Cocos2D Support

John — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:49:49 +0000

The great guys at 71 Squared, creators of these brilliant iPhone game programming tutorials with video have recently updated their excellent particle designer. You can see a video showing how easy it is to use here:

If you’ve gone through the tedious process of tweaking particles so that they fit right in this game you are going to love this. It allows you to easily tweak a multitude of particle settings in real time so that you can get things right quickly.

What’s even better is that with the latest updates to the designer and Cocos2D it now integrates easily with Cocos2D and supports the iPad!

It costs $7.99 (once you see the quality of this program you’ll be surprised they sell it so cheap), but has a free trial.

You can find the free trial here.

[source: 71 Squared]
[via Cocos2D Blog]

. Tags: particle engine, video demonstration, particle designer, Cocos2D

Easy And Accurate 2D Collisions

John — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:48:13 +0000

It is a simple process to perform box collisions in Cocoa Touch using the CGRectIntersectsRect function, and while this is easy and provides decent performance it does not make for the most accurate collisions.

A couple of new tutorials have been created featuring techniques for creating more accurate collisions methods.

The first tutorial is from 71 Squared on Collision Detection Methods which has a some nice straightforward functions written in C that you can drop into your code for Circle to Rectangle, and Circle to Circle collisions.

The second tutorial is from Ray Wenderlich, the creator of the Space Game Starter Kit and co-author of the Learning Cocos2D book, and goes through the process of how to use sprites in Cocos2D and how to get extremely accurate vertex based collisions using box2D in How To Use Box2D For Just Collision Detection In Cocos2D iPhone.

[Source: 71 Squared, Ray Wenderlich]

. Tags: circle to circle, Cocos2D, collision detection, vertex based, 2d