Skip to content

Currently Reading – iOS

Initial thoughts on four different iOS game development books I’m currently reading/skimming/learning with. I’ll post follow up posts as I go forward.

My qualifications?

Current iOS student, gamer, and previously a proofreader for O’Reilly, and a technical editor for PHParch magazine.

Primary objective:

Get to know SpriteKit so I can use it for my Personal iOS project this semester.


 

Game Development with Swift by Stephen Haney (July 2015 packt pub)


iOS Game Development by Example by Samanyu Chopra (August 2015 packt pub)

Progress: Currently in Chapter 4

Started with this book over the winter holiday because I liked the cover the best. 😉

  • Gains instant points for pointing to copyright free game assets.
  • Good progression of examples with code direction, samples and lots of check in compiles to make sure you are heading in the right direction.
  • Frustrating: Some changes in Swift 2 break some examples.  It’s a good exercise in debugging, but I’d love an update to my ebook or errata for it.  Especially since the book is less than a year old.
  • Have found a few minor typos.

iOS Game Development Essentials by Chuck Gaffney (Bovember 2015 pack pub)


 

Mastering iOS Game Development by Miguel DeQuadros (December 2015 packt pub)

Started this book in January because I was frustrated with the other book code examples being out of date, so started the book published in at the end of 2015.

Progress: Currently in Chapter 3

  • Loses instant points for possible copyright/trademark graphics. (Mario and Megaman sprites as examples)
  • Plus – Has a nice early section on game design.
  • Jumps into throwing frameworks at your project, including 2 downloaded, and then starts in with pre-headers.
  • Plus – I know now where to add that Audio library, and that it’s included in xcode.
  • Minus – is this pre-optimizing? Why not show me  with the bare minimum and then show me how to improve it?

 

 

Published inGameDeviOS

One Comment

  1. […] I looked a bit at some iOS game books I purchased from the Packt.com ebook sale at the end of last year. I started a post about those books in the post titled: Currently reading – iOS […]

Leave a Reply to iOS Project Log 2 – Stacie Arellano Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *