Say Hello to Sparrow!

It’s a pure Objective-C iOS game framework. It’s built upon OpenGL for it’s rendering and OpenAL for the sound processing so it’s very fast rendering and has very rich multimedia support. The aspect that attracted me was it has been styled on ActionScript 3! I’ve been using it over the last two weeks and well…. I’m sold!

Read the rest of this entry →

Cocos2D-iPhone and project setup

I’ve been building iPhone applications for a while now and some very simple games using UIKit but unfortunately UIKIT as it stands is just not cut out for games. So I’ve been looking at different frameworks that I could use, and after trying a few I stumbled across the fantastic Cocos2D framework.

I’m always a bit cautious when it comes to learning frameworks, preferring to read the docs, see examples and perform some small test apps before really committing to learning how to develop using it. After doing just that I took the plunge and began developing using it and found that it’s a great framework to have under your belt for iPhone games.

So for the last month I’ve been hammering away at creating a small iPhone game using the fantastic Cocos2D-iPhone framework. The game is really just a test bed to get to grips with everything in Cocos2D land, and there’s a lot!

My main gripe with Cocos2D is the documentation of the project. It’s just not that detailed but it’s definitely improving. What the Cocos2D team (riq?) have provided us with are an excellent set of test apps that come bundled with the source. These tests show lots of the functionalities of the framework in use and are excellent resource to use when it comes to learning Cocos2D.  If you ever need to see how implement AtlasSprites for example, open the AtlasSprite test and you will have a wealth of source to read, learn and use.

I’m hoping to put together a few tutorials together on my travels down the Cocos2D path, hopefully they might be helpful to some of you out there or even if your just curious about the framework. Give it a whirl!

Read the rest of this entry →

These last two months have been scarily busy, I’ve recently waved goodbye to my role as Rich Media Developer in sequence and moved on to pastures new.

In this case the ‘pastures new’ is an agency named Cube Interactive based in Cardiff Bay. If you’ve not heard of them before, they are an incredibly tight knit team of talented designers and developers who focus on creating highly interactive Flash childrens portals, games and websites for clients such as S4C and Microsoft.

The reason why I found Cube so interesting and really wanted to work with them, is that after a few meetings and lots of emails throwing idea’s back and forth, I found they had such a fantastic passion for the work they were doing and the direction they want the company to continue down was perfect for me. I was lucky enough for them to offer me a position and, well, here I am. Absolutely loving working in my new agency and feeling very refreshed.

Cube are extremely supportive of the iPhone platform and I’ll be taking on the iPhone game/app development side of things here. For the last month I’ve been developing a small game using the Cocos2D framework which I’m hoping to show some screen shots or a video of it any day now. The framework is fantastic for 2D games on the iPhone and something I will remain using, my one real gripe is that the documentation is very poor and doesnt make picking up and using the framework a trivial task. It means reading endless source files and learning the methods and how everything ticks (which in an extrememely geeky way, I really like!).

So as the title of the post suggests (see, I was getting to it!) I will be putting together a series of posts on getting to grips with the framework and putting together a small game. I probably won’t be very fast at putting these together as I’m still writing the book but hopefully they should help in some small way. Keep an eye peeled for the first instalment in the next week!

anton.

I am delighted to announce that I have just picked up a book deal with Friends of ED to write a new iPhone development book with a twist!

It’s called “The Essential Guide to iPhone Development for Flash Users” and I am extremely excited about it. I’ve planned the Table of Contents and I’ve just begun writing, all is going well. I’m hoping to really leverage what we as Flash developers already know for game and application creation and how that can be used to learn Obective-C and the basics of iPhone development. So if your a Flash dev and interested in the possibilities of iPhone development but havent made that step yet, this is for you!

I’ll be covering lot’s of topics ranging from basics of the Objective-C language, converting simple Actionscript to Objective-C to much more advanced topics like Mapping and some OpenGL.

I would love to hear any comments, thoughts for topics you’d like to see in the book, anything your currently stuck on if you are trying to learn iPhone / Objective-C or even if you might be interested in doing a little bit of writing as I am looking for a co-author to take on half of the book with me.

Leave as much or as little info as you want, even if it’s just something like “it would be cool if you covered…” as at the end of the day it’s for you guys so I want to include as much of the content you’d like to read or learn about!

anton.

Quick post.

I’ve just come across a Flickr API for Objective-C that seems pretty comprehensive. I’ve not had chance to play with it yet but it’s definitely worth a look.

This version 2.0 rewrite also comes with Mac and iPhone sample applications to show how to implement the API in various projects. Nice.

ObjectiveFlickr:
http://github.com/lukhnos/objectiveflickr/tree/master

anton.

My first game for iPhone is coming along well and it is, in all honestly, pretty straightforward. Since there’s not a lot of complexity and because I’m pretty new to all of this I’m using the standard UIKit. Never Again!

The UIKit generally seems pretty good but there are annoying little quirks like when sending a list of images in an array to a UIImageView using .animationImages, it tends to crash the device… really handy. Yeah I know you can make your own and avoid using the command as it’s obviously bugged, it’s just not ideal. So i think I’m going to have to invest more time in something a little more robust.

I purchased myself a copy of the OpenGL Red Book as per Keith Peters recommendation on his site but I’m still wondering if that’s overkill or if Quartz would be a better option. I’m primarily concerned with writing 2D games. I’ll probably make the move to 3D eventually, just not yet.

For those also looking for OpenGL resources on the iPhone you should probably check out these two resources, they seem pretty good:
1.> http://www.play3d.net/iPhone/
2.> http://nehe.gamedev.net/lesson.asp?index=01

anton.

Here’s a two quick videos of test’s I’ve been putting together while learning iPhone development.

This was my first attempt at creating some old retro style of car dodge game, pretty poor i know but hey, we all have to start somewhere! 

Now this a bit more like it! It runs really smooth on the device itself. I was thinking of turning in in to something like the extremely addictive Black Mamba Racer but I think I’ll save that for another day!

I’ll post some more vid’s of more recent game’s soon.

anton.

Wow I’m busy! The last month has been absolutely manic work wise.

My unannounced little project is coming along nicely, should be ready for unveiling in a week or two.

I’ve also invested a lot of time in iPhone programming and Objective-C and I have to admit… I love it. I was a little apprehensive initially as I found it quite different to languages I’ve used previously like Actionscript, Java and C#. After a very rocky start and plenty of frustrations before picking up the differencies I’ve finally learned to love it, i know, I’m fickle! But honestly, if your struggling to get on with the iPhone SDK and Objective-C, please keep at it, it’s fantastic! I initially bought Beginning iPhone Development by Apress but I found it focused too much on the interface components and not on the actual language itself. What I’d recommend is picking up a copy of Learn Objective-C on the Mac of to accompany it as this focuses purely on the language itself.

I’ve put together a few small bit’s and pieces but I’m currently putting together a game that I hope to put up on AppStore in April. Much more to come!

anton.