1. Beginning iPhone Games
Development by Scott Penberthy
Not Perfect, But Definitely Good Enough For Novice Game Developers
iPhone games are hot! Just look at the numbers. Games make up over 25
percent of total apps and over 70 percent of the most popular apps.
Surprised? Of course not! Most of us have filled our iPhone or iPod touch
with games, and many of us hope to develop the next best-selling, most
talked-about game.
You’ve probably already read and mastered Beginning iPhone 3
Development; Exploring the iPhone SDK, the best-selling, the second
edition of Apress’s highly acclaimed introduction to the iPhone and iPod
touch by developers Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche. This book is the
game-specific equivalent, providing you with the same easy-to-follow, step-
by-step approach, more deep technical insights, and that familiar friendly
style.
While games are all about fun, at the same time, they’re serious business.
With this book, you’re going to roll up your sleeves and get your hands
dirty with some hardcore coding. While you may have written games
before, this book will take you further, immersing you in the following
topics:
Game graphics and animation with UIKit, Quartz, Core Animation, and
OpenGL ES Game audio with OpenAL, MediaPlayer Framework, AV
Foundation, and AudioSession Game networking with GameKit, Bonjour,
and Internet sharing What you’ll learn Efficient methods for drawing in 2D
and 3D to the iPhone scr een Game-specific animation techniques with
Core Animation To use OpenGL ES for more complex and realistic
gaming backgrounds and action Numerous ways to add music to enhance
the gaming experience How to give your users access to their iPhone
libraries from within games The tools and techniques of 3D audio for
creating even more realistic gaming experiences How to do networking
right, including two-player games over Bluetooth and multiplayer games

2. over Wi-Fi Who this book is forAll game developers who desire to create
iPhone and/or iPod touch games
Check out Space Rocks!, one of the project examples from Beginning
iPhone Games Development:
Beginning iPhone Games Development is on Facebook!
Table of Contents A Revolutionary Gaming Platform Games for
Everyone, Anytime, Anywhere Developing iPhone Games Peeking
Inside the iPhone Toolbox Moving Images on a Small Screen—UIKit
Controls She Shoots, She Hits, She Scores!? Flipping Out and
Sweeping Away with Core Animation OpenGL Basics: Wrapping Your
Head Around the OpenGL AP Putting It Together: Making a Game in
OpenGL The Next Steps: Atlases, Sprites, and Particles—Oh My
Introduction to Core Audio Making Noise with OpenAL 3D Audio—
Turning Noise into Game Sound Streaming: Thumping, Pulse-Quickening
Game Excitement Networking for iPhone Games: Introductio ?Going
Head to Head Party Time Connecting with the Outside World Putt...
INTRODUCTION
Last year, I had gone through Stephan Kochans excellent Objective-C 2.0
book and then followed that with the other Apress beginners book on the
iPhone SDK (by Mark and LaMarche). I became comfortable developing
apps that utilized the UIKit using the standard tab bar controllers,
navigation controllers, UITableviews, etc, but wanted to venture into game
development. There were very few books on the subject, and the reviews
of the very few other books (which also only became available recently)
were terrible. I suppose I had high hopes for this book based on the
Apress Mark and LaMarche beginners book.
CHAPTERS
Heres a list of chapters, since I didnt find this listed in the Amazon
description:
01 pg 001 A Revolutionary Gaming Platform: Games for Everyone,
Anytime, Anywhere
02 pg 013 Developing iPhone Games: Peeking Inside the iPh one Toolbox
03 pg 021 Moving Images on a Small Screen --UIKit Controls
04 pg 079 She Shoots, She Hits, She Scores!
05 pg 137 Flipping Out and Sweeping Away with Core Animation
06 pg 161 OpenGL Basics: Wrapping Your Head Around the OpenGL API
07 pg 203 Putting It Together: Making a Game in OpenGL
08 pg 261 The Next Steps: Atlases, Sprites, and Particles--Oh My!
09 pg 315 Introduction to Core Audio
10 pg 353 Making Noise with OpenAL
11 pg 423 3D Audio--Turning Noise into Game Sounds
12 pg 463 Streaming: Thumping, Pulse-Quickening Game Excitement
13 pg 537 Networking for iPhone Games: Introduction

3. 14 pg 543 Going Head to Head
15 pg 583 Party Time
16 pg 637 Connecting with the Outside World
17 pg 649 Putting It All Together: Now Comes the Fun Part
Im currently on chapter 6 and can say that this books more than adequate
for somebody of my beginning level. Nevertheless, there are some definite
negatives that I noticed so far.
CONS
1. The text has the familiar format of taking the reader through the
development of a single app (an Asteroids-like game). There are times in
which the author(s) really hand-hold and explain every line of code, and
then there are other times in which the authors will inform the reader of
what code was added to the app, but gloss over any explanations. You
may be thinking that perhaps the authors assumed some of the added
code should be obvious to even beginners, however, the code they do not
provide explanations of are not anything that a beginner or maybe even
intermediate-level (non-gaming) programmer would know. Sometimes, the
author will just say something like If it sounded really confusing, dont
worry, it is! and just basically tell us to accept the code and dont worry
about how it works. I got the feeling that the author(s) for some of the
chapters truly do not know themselves or understand portions of their code
expertly.
2. Although I do indeed remember the fundamentals of linear algebra,
having taken a course on it in the past, the authors make little ef fort at
explaining anything about transformational matrices to those who may
know less than me. They use transformational matrices, of course, but I
got the distinct impression that the author(s) themselves had no real idea
of the fundamental principles behind the use of transformational matrices.
Yes, I understand that the APIs do provide some level of abstraction, but
they are still low-level enough that the reader should be given some
general review of what transformational matrices do and look like
mathematically. The APIs do not provide tremendous abstraction.
3. There is a moderate number of errors and you must use their website
for the errata. Some of the errors are not obvious to catch. As an example,
a previously used class is later subclassed, but the subclass assumes
methods exist in the parent class which the text omitted when first
describing the parent class previously. This may surprise you, but I dont
find this too objectionable. The Mark and LaMarche beginning iPhone SDK
book (first edition) was plagued with errors, too.
PROS
1. Its probably the only decent book out there for iPhone game
development for beginners based on the lousy reviews of the two other
books on Amazon.

4. 2. Seems to have a lot of information on sounds, which I hadnt seen i n
other books or blogs regarding game development.
3. Its very comprehensive. Please see the earlier chapter listing.
4. You can buy the PDF version for $10 from the Apress website. You are
given a certain amount of time to answer a question from the websi te
about the book and if you succeed (proving that you own the book) they
will send you a full book version in PDF for $10.
CONCLUSION
Like some of the other reviewers have commented, this book has
frustrating moments, is uneven in its chosen level of hand-holding
throughout the development of the Asteroid app, and has some difficult to
spot errors, however, I still like it a lot. Its good enough and you have to
give the authors a lot of credit for at least making a book for beginning
game developers. I never expect a book to be the bible of its subject. It will
allow me to throw away the book once I read it and move on to Apples
documentation and excellent blogs, like Matt Gallaghers excellent Cocoa
with Love and forums like Apples developer forums, the iP hone/iPad forum
of the MacRumors website, and iPhoneDevSDK.
I will of course update this review as I finish reading it (on my iPad using
the PDF).
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