iPhone iOS 4 iPad SDK Development Tutorials, Programming Tips, News » game

Beginners iPhone Action Game Tutorial: Source Code

John — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:16:50 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted a short video similar to this one:

I’ve been asked since then when I would come out with the tutorial. I was finally able to get around to completing the source file, and I’ve added line by line (well pretty close) comments in plain english to make it easier to follow.

The above video utilizes the exact source code from this tutorial running in the iPhone simulator.

Following the suggestions of a friend of mine who is just starting to learn this I’ve used as few methods as possible, and made extensive use of autorelease objects to make the flow easier to follow for beginners.

The tutorial features:

Loading/Placing Images
Animation
Touch Events
Text
Sound Effects
Background Music
Buttons
Resetting The Game

Coming up next week I will be posting a more comprehensive tutorial, but I am posting the source code now. If you look through this code and the comments you should be able to grasp what is going on, and I hope that the upcoming tutorial will fill in the gaps. Be sure to come back next week when the full tutorial is posted!

I recreated this from scratch using Sparrow Framework and Objective-C because in my findings it was easiest to follow for a beginner looking to create an action game.

Things could change a little as I haven’t really looked through it myself.. just quickly coded it and wrote line by line comments. If you open it up, and are wondering which files to look at to understand things go to the Game.h and Game.m files.. the app delegate files were created automatically with the Sparrow project and I didn’t comment those.

Update! I have modified the project to remove an error that occurred on some systems due to a recursive search being done in the project for already included files. Please re-download if you encountered this problem.

You can download the source with music/sound effects here:
BalloonGameTutorial

Graphics are included so the example will run but are slightly different because I am using graphics similar to those in the video in my own game.

As far as licensing goes feel free to use this in your own apps, and if you do send me a message or post a comment about it, and I’ll mention it on this site. You may not use any portion of this project in your own tutorials, books, etc. (and definitely don’t submit it to a site buying tutorials.. you know who you are!) without permission.

Please be sure to check back next week when the entire tutorial is posted which will give you a much better idea of how to extend/use this source code and utilize the Sparrow Framework.

If you have any questions as to why I did something or have any suggestions for the tutorial then please post them below — it will help to make the final tutorial better.

Also, if you could share this post that would be great too and help motivate me to make more!

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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, 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]

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Incredible iPhone Game Programming Tutorials With Video

John — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:56:54 +0000

Just like to turn you guys on to what are the best video iPhone game programming tutorials on the web so far in case you haven’t seen them.

– Update Jan. 2nd 2010 – Tutorial 11 has been added, and I have upgrade this list to reflect that.

These tutorials are from 71 squared. They run through the steps to creating a game on the iPhone in tremendous detail, and include source code. Included are in-depth videos.

Here they are:

Now these gents are also writing a book on iPhone game programming. So absolutely if you like their tutorials I suggest you check it out. I don’t think it’s available for pre-order yet but you can read some info about it here.

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The Open Source iPhone Game Engine Comparison

John — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:40:55 +0000

I’m often asked about which iPhone game engine to use, and I know most people are looking for a free game engine so here is a comparison of the different open source iPhone game engines that actually have apps out there.

Update. I’ve added in the Sparrow Framework.

Sparrow Framework

The Sparrow Framework is a very lightweight 2D game engine created in Objective-C. In a very short amount of time I was able to understand the framework, and I find it to be very intuitive.

While I have not done much Flash game programming the developers state that the game engine was created with Flash game developers in mind.

The game framework includes all the necessary features you’d require for creating a basic 2D game such as easy animation, and a sound engine.

Cocos2D IPhone

The Cocos2D iPhone game engine is a port of a game engine originally created in Python and converted to iPhone Objective-C. As you can tell from the name, Cocos2D is designed for 2D games, that being said, although the engine is in a 2D world, the engine includes a growing collection of high quality 3D special effects.

Cocos2D has been used in many games on the iPhone app store, you can visit the official site here, where many are listed.

Cocos2D is the first engine to check out, while many may be turned off by the engine not supporting a 3d world, if you look at most of the top iPhone games the gameplay is 2D, in fact the iPhone’s touch screen controls can make it difficult to operate in a 3D world.

Also included is support for the in-game Chipmunk engine, and the latest version of Cocos also includes an OpenAL based sound engine.

The engine provides more examples than any of the other engines out there because of the large community. Overall I’d say the engine is as easy to use as any engine that does not have an environment editor.

Uses the LGPL license.

Sio2Engine

The SIO2 game engine is an excellent 3D game engine written in C. There is a free oepn source version, and a an indie version for $49. The free eidtion requires you to show a splash screen at the start of your game illustrating your use of the engine. This in my opinion is extremely fair considering the quality of the engine.

The game engine uses blender in it’s toolchain for scene and model creation. If you haven’t used Blender, it is a sophisticated open source 3D modeling program. In my opinion this is the only thing I don’t really like about sio2, while some love it, I can’t stand using blender as I’ve found it can’t compare to the top commercial modeling programs. Fortunately there are many blender plugins that allow you to import a wide variety of modeling formats.

SIO2 comes with an excellent set of tutorials, and provides support for sophisticated features such as skeletal animation, and soft-body physics which are explained in the tutorials.

I’ve found the performance of the latest version of the SIO2 game engine, version 1.4 to provide significantly better performance than previous versions. If you haven’t checked out SIO2 in awhile then I suggest you check it out again.

I recommend SIO2 to those who insist on a 3D world and thus can’t use Cocos.

Oolong Engine

The Oolong game engine is a 3D engine written in C++, and provides excellent performance. The downside of the Oolong engine is that it is difficult to use for those that are not familiar with OpenGL ES.

Oolong provides support for a wide variety of features, and very good performance, as I said my only problem with Oolong is that it is difficult to use. This is a low-level engine designed for programmers so if you’re just getting into game development I would stay away.

You will find the latest version on google code, there is very little documentation for Oolong, but the community is very active, and you can get answers to many of your questions there.

I would recommend Oolong to those looking to create their own game engine looking for something to start with.

Uses the MIT license.

Irrlicht Engine

I mention Irrlicht here only because I received a message from someone stating that it was available on the iPhone.

The Irrlicht game engine is a 3D game engine written in C++.

While there is no official port available on the Irrlicht website for the iPhone with some tinkering I was able to get the OpenGL ES version running on the iPhone — somewhat. You will find the OpenGL ES version hidden away in the repository.

Irrlicht is an excellent open source engine that has support for an extremely wide variety of file formats, and has the best support for the “classic” BSP format that I’ve seen in an open source game engine. There are also numerous other tools that have been created for the engine.

All this being said, I can’t recommend Irrlicht because there is no official port, and if you check out the forums there really is no one willing to provide help to those looking to get it running on the iPhone although some have created apps running on the iPhone.

The Irrlicht engine uses the Zlib license.

Summary

Cocos2D makes an excellent first choice for those developing a 2D iPhone game. You will learn Objective-C while using the engine, and the engine has been proven in a wide variety of games.

For 3D games my choice is SIO2, although I’m not a fan of blender this does make it more accessible than the other proven 3D iPhone game engines.

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Doing Some iPhone Game Programming

John — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:35:44 +0000

Just in case there’s any graphics designers interested, I have finally finished off some more of the contract work, and with a lighter load, my next ambition is to do some iPhone game programming.

My intent is to develop a number of iPhone games in a short amount of time. Ultimately all will be open sourced, released as 0.99 cent or free games, and have coinciding tutorials written. I actually created a very simple game this evening in a couple of hours that could already use the styling of an artist. I’ve planned out the next few games, and they shouldn’t take to long, all the games will be 2D, the first few written wiith Cocoa, and the rest using Cocos2D.

So just in case there’s any graphic artists out there reading interested in the possibility of some publicity and possibly profit from iPhone graphics work feel free to contact me. Please understand that my intent with the games is for publicity, although I do believe future work customizing/rebranding these games is possible after talking with a few peers.

Thanks for reading.

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Update For Cocos 2D iPhone Game Engine

John — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:44:51 +0000

The excellent and free Cocos2D iPhone game engine has been updated with a plethora of new features.

The highlights include:

a new sound engine

touch dispatcher

faster actions

an improved particle system

If you haven’t tried Cocos and are looking to develop a 2d game on the iPhone quickly without having to purchase a commercial engine you should check out Cocos2D here.

[via cocos2d for iPhone]

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11 Cocos2D iPhone Game Engine Resources

John — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:48:49 +0000

I mentioned the open source Cocos2D iPhone game engine on my list of iPhone game engines.

For those that don’t know Cocos2D is an open source LGPL licensed 2D game engine for the iPhone that has already been used in many games. Mitch Allen has posted a nice list of resources for the open source Cocos 2D iPhone game engine.

My favorites from the list are:

1. iPhone Dev – Which contains a collection of Cocos 2D tutorials for beginners.

2. iPhone App Shared Libraries http://www.clintharris.net/2009/iphone-app-shared-libraries/ – A good tutorial for using static libraries

3. Coloring Sprites With Cocos2D iPhone – an article on how to color sprites.

Check out the full article and the rest of the resources here at: Cocos2D Game Engine

[Source: iphone.mitchallen.com]

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iPhone Game Programming: CoreAnimation vs. OpenGL ES

John — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:15:57 +0000

I saw an interesting question being asked by an aspiring iPhone game developer, "Should I use CoreAnimation or OpenGL ES?".

Simple answer:

Core Animation is fine for games where performance is not critical, and for new programmers will likely be easy to use, OpenGL is needed for anything else.

Long Answer:

Core Animation utilizes OpenGL ES, it is high level, and in my testing works fine in situations where performance is critical.

OpenGL ES is an open standard that is used on a growing number of devices created by a wide variety of companies, and because CoreAnimation is a higher level framework built atop OpenGL ES it cannot provide nearly the same performance.

My opinion is that Core Animation is likely the appropriate choice for games where performance is not critical such as simon says type games, card games, and trivia games. Some might argue that OpenGL ES is easier to use, and it likely is if you’ve studied say.. DirectX.. but Core Animation (and Quartz 2D for that matter) is much easier to do simple effects in, and can be used with existing UIViews.

OpenGL ES is your choice for performance critical games. Which is essentially anything but simple mostly static games like the ones mentioned I above such as first person shooters, flight simulators and the like. You also get the added benefit of potentially being able to port your games to a device other than the iPhone, and there is alot of existing game code in OpenGL that can be converted the other way. That being said for simple, static games for a newcomer to graphics programming my choice would be Core Animation although if you can wrap your head around the tutorials and frameworks on my OpenGL ES resources page OpenGL ES may be for you.

I hope this provides answer for anyone trying to decide whether they should program in OpenGL ES, any opinions from those who have done more with Core Animation than I have would be greatly appreciated.

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8 Sensational iPhone Game Engines (2D and 3D)

John — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:12:56 +0000

After finishing up a contract, I decided to start work on my first graphical iPhone game title. Originally I had set out to create to an iPhone game, and tested out several of the engines available, but put things on hold to work on some small contracted apps. Now I’ve decided to get back to that, and took another look at the iPhone game engines available, so here they are with a small writeup about each engine.

Bork 3D – Bork 3D is a 3D engine specifically for programmers. No wysiwig tools here. I haven’t had a chance to check out this engine as I just heard about it, but Bork 3D was used in the create of the Anytime Golf game. Something that I find very appealing is that the author provides the full source and the cost for the engine begins at only $49.

Cocos 2D iPhone – Cocos 2D iPhone is an extensive open source framework for producing 2D games on the iPhone. Cocos has been used as a starting point for many developers interested in creating iPhone games, and title after title is produced using this framework. The feature list continues to grow, and the question is where will it end.. these guys seem to be putting everything into it. You certainly can’t beat the price at free.

iTGB – A 2D game engine with an extremely easy to use visual scene editor. This is an excellent 2D engine with a very rich feature set. The full source is included, and I believe this would be an excellent way to get started with game development on the iPhone if not for the cost starting at $750.

iTGE – A 3D game engine from the makers of iTGB. From what I understand this engine uses Oolong at it’s core. The engine has a visual scene editor and an extensive feature set. The Torque Game Engine that iTGE has been used in many hit indy game titles on the Windows platform. The cost starts at $650.

Oolong engine – Oolong is a game engine written by author/graphics programmer Wolfgang Engel. It contains an extensive feature set and a very liberal MIT license. That being said, it is definitely an engine created for programmers, and requires solid knowledge of OpenGL ES to use. There is a discussion list, and a nice collection of examples. The only thing that I don’t like is the lack of documentation. Free MIT licensed.

Shiva Ston3d – Shiva is a game engine with a visual editor for scene design and from checking out the forums it appears as though some very nice games have been/are being created with it on the iPhone. Shiva utilizies a Lua like scripting langue. There is one huge negative for me personally which is that the editor runs in the windows environment, it runs in parallels but not too well on my Mac. The price starts at ~$250.

Sio2Engine – SIO 2 Engine is an open source 3d engine with an extensive feature set that utilizes Blender for scene creation. I’m not the world’s biggest blender fan so I can’t say too much about the engine., but still this game engine has been used in many different iPhone titles so it is worth looking at and the price is definitely right as there is no charge as long as you place a splash screen at the start of your game advertising the engine.

Unity 3D – Unity 3D is a game engine that has been around for a number of years, and has grown quite a following for it’s ease of programming. Unity 3D has it’s own visual editor for scene design, and utilizes the C#, and Boo programming languages. Unity is well known for it’s ease of use, and has established been used in many iPhone different games. Costs begin at $199 + $499.

Ultimately I have decided not to use any of the current iPhone game engines, but have decided that at least for my first few titles I will attempt to create a 2D game engine on my own, and go from there. My main reason for doing this is simply because while I have used/purchased some indy game engines in the past for development of freeware/shareware hobby titles I would like to learn how to do this myself, and put all the graphics programming, and math that I learned in college to use.

If you have any experience using any of the above game engines, or a title you created using one of them feel free to post about it below.

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Easiest Game Creation For iPhone

John — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:08:01 +0000

Something I seem to be asked alot of on twitter is “What is the easiest way to make games for the iPhone?”. Usually from individuals who have developed games in Flash or using a program such as the windows Gamemaker. Game development using Objective-C and OpenGL ES is considerably more difficult.

In the past I’ve mentioned a few tools out there that allow you to create games visually which can speed up your game creation time considerably. The game engines I’ve mentioned are Unity 3d, Shiva, and iTGB. With Unity 3d and Shiva being both 3d game development tools. Now the problem most people have with these tools is the cost.

Well, I’ve found a game creation program that is even easier.. in fact much easier than those programs, and is free. While it only supports 2D game creation I’ve read that the ability to compile games for the iPhone and sell them in the app store using this program is imminent. This game creation program is known as Gamesalad. It has already been set up for the iPhone screen size so once the ability to compile games for the iPhone is added you won’t have to do any porting. There will apparently be a small cost for transferring the games to the iPhone, but I can’t imagine it being anywhere near the cost for the other aforementioned iPhone game engines.

Check out this video, and just see how easy it is (Please note that Cinammon is now known as Gamesalad, and has evolved considerably since this video was made).

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Now performance is often an issue with these rapid game creation programs, but even though it’s still in beta and needs alot of polish (and of course the ability to compile for the iPhone) it could be worth learning especially if you’re new to programming as using these tools you can learn how to understand the logic of programming quickly.

So check out Gamesalad if you’re looking for a really easy way to create games.. coming soon for the iPhone.

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