Chapter 1, The Environment – Installing and Working with Xcode, covers how to download, set up, and install Xcode. You will also learn what Xcode is and how we will be using it. This will introduce you to the development environment and the space they will be working on.

Chapter 2, Programming and Objective-C, is a soft introduction to programming languages in general, or a programming language primer if you prefer. When we are done with this chapter, you will have a general understanding of how most programming languages are structured and how this works in games. We will take you through the basics of object-oriented programming and a description of how Objective-C uses classes. We will wrap up the chapter with an explanation of how the model-view-controller design pattern applies to iOS programming.

Chapter 3, iPhone Game Development Basics – The Matching Game, explains the CoreGraphics, Foundation, and UIKit frameworks. We will build a simple user interface using Xcode's interface builder in a single view application. Then, we will use this to create a simple memory game using some basic game logic, UIButtons, and other standard library components.

Chapter 4, Drawing Pictures – Space Invaders, teaches you to program a Space Invaders game using images, views, and the view controller. You will learn how to display a background image for your game and program your alien to drop bombs. You will use these to try and destroy your player using CoreAnimation. You will also create timers in your game using NSTimer methods.

Chapter 5, The Game Engine – Space Invaders Part 2, will expand the Space Invaders game by examining NSObjects and basic object-oriented programming structures to create enemies. You will learn the basics of artificial intelligence, collision detection, and storing information about your invader in objects, properties, and arrays. You will also learn the basics of how to debug your code.

Chapter 6, The Audio Engine – The Simon Memory Game, will create a simple audio-based memory game. In this chapter, you will learn about all of the different audio formats and data formats that can be used for iOS audio. We will explain the AVAudioFoundation frameworks in order for you to add sounds and music to your app. You will learn how to use different types of audio, which can be played back inside your game for both background music and as audio effects.

Chapter 7, User Interactivity – Mini Golf, teaches different ways of programming touch controllers for your app using touch events. We will show you how to program your graphics to move using buttons, gestures, and multitouch interactivity.

Chapter 8, The Galaxy Game, talks about resource management and some basics on planning for what is being used, what is planned to be used, and how these resources are stored. We will use this and everything you have learned previously in order to create your final game similar to Galaga.

Chapter 9, Releasing Your Game, speaks about what needs to be done once you have completed your game; it's not yet finished. You will still need to get your app into the App Store. Preparing your game for the App Store can be a very confusing process; however, we will try and make it a bit easier for you. In this chapter, we are going to introduce you to iTunes Connect, provisioning profiles, and development profiles. We will show you how to set up your code and prepare it for release in the Apple Store and how to avoid some issues that all developers run into at one point or another.

Chapter 10, Conclusion, gives an overview of what we covered in the book and covers in brief other technologies that Apple has to offer.

In order to get the most out of this book, there are a few essentials you will need:

If you are a beginner or an enthusiast who dreams about creating games, or if you have already worked in this domain but need some additional inspiration and knowledge, this book is for you. No programming experience is expected.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Your debugger will go to the first line in the loadingScreen method."

A block of code is set as follows:

-(void)intersectCheck{
  BOOL isConnecting = CGRectIntersectsRect(self.enemies.enemiesBullet.
        bombRect, self.playerOne.playerRect);
  if(isConnecting == true){
    [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:2
        target:self
        selector:@selector(endScreen)
        userInfo:nil
        repeats:NO];
    [self changeState:RELOADING];
  }
}

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Navigate to View | Debug Area | Show Debug Area."

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To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.

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Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.