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.