Sparrow iOS Game Framework Beginner’s Guide

Table of Contents

Sparrow iOS Game Framework Beginner's Guide

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Time for action – heading

What just happened?

Pop quiz – heading

Have a go hero – heading

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started with Sparrow

Understanding the basics of Sparrow

System requirements

Setting up the Apple developer account

Downloading Xcode

Downloading Sparrow

Cloning the Git repository

Contents of the Sparrow package

The samples folder

The sparrow folder

Markdown files in the root folder

License

Setting up Sparrow

Option 1 – source tree reference

Time for action – adding Sparrow as a source tree reference

What just happened?

Time for action – using the barebone project as a template

What just happened?

Option 2 – CocoaPods

Time for action – installing command-line tools

What just happened?

Time for action – installing CocoaPods

What just happened?

Time for action – using the barebone project as a template

What just happened?

Running the template on the actual device

Time for action – running the template on the actual device

What just happened?

Getting Sparrow documentation files

Time for action – adding the Sparrow API documentation to Xcode

What just happened?

The idea for the game

Setting goals and expectations

Examining our gameplay elements

Code conventions

Pop quiz

Summary

2. Displaying Our First Objects

Understanding display objects

Explaining display object containers

Setting the background color

Time for action – changing the background color

What just happened?

What is a stage?

Creating our cardboard puppet doll

Time for action – creating a cardboard puppet doll

What just happened?

Have a go hero – improving the cardboard puppet doll

Explaining macros

The Angles macro

The Colors macro

The utility functions

Constants in Sparrow

Math

Color

Manipulating display objects

Time for action – manipulating display objects

What just happened?

Pop quiz

Summary

3. Managing Assets and Scenes

Working with assets

Managing our assets

Time for action – creating a base class

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Creating a texture manager

Time for action – managing our textures

What just happened?

Creating a sound manager

Time for action – implementing a sound manager

What just happened?

Creating a file manager

Time for action – managing remaining file types

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Basic error handling

Time for action – getting started with basic error handling

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Putting it all together

Time for action – creating an asset container class

What just happened?

Time for action – displaying an image

What just happened?

Have a go hero

What are scenes?

Time for action – implementing a scene class

What just happened?

Creating a scene director

Time for action – managing our scenes with a scene director

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Pop quiz

Summary

4. The Basics of Our Game

Taking care of cross-device compatibility

Understanding the texture size limit

How to deal with different screen sizes

Scaling the viewport

Black borders

Showing non-interactive screen space

Rearranging screen elements

Choosing the best option

Differences between various devices

Utilizing the iOS SDK

Retina and iPad support in Sparrow

App icons and splash images

The bottom line

Starting with the development of our game

Creating our scene manager setup

Time for action – creating our scene manager setup

What just happened?

Adding images to the battlefield scene

Time for action – adding images to the battlefield scene

What just happened?

Arranging images in the pirate cove scene

Time for action – arranging images in the pirate cove scene

What just happened?

Pop quiz

Summary

5. Beautifying Our Game

Working with tweens

Time for action – moving the pirate ship

What just happened?

Understanding transitions

Explaining jugglers

Updating the movement and canceling tweens

Time for action – updating the movement

What just happened?

Working with sprite sheets

Learning about texture formats

Using TexturePacker to create sprite sheets

Loading our first texture atlas

Time for action – loading our first texture atlas

What just happened?

Pop quiz

Summary

6. Adding Game Logic

Extending the asset manager

Time for action – adding texture atlases to the asset manager

What just happened?

Structuring our ships

Time for action – creating a ship class

What just happened?

Extending the ship class

Time for action – adding more functionality to the ship class

What just happened?

Shooting cannonballs

Time for action – allowing the ship to shoot cannonballs

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Collision detection

Time for action – letting cannonballs collide with ships

What just happened?

Loading gameplay-relevant data

Time for action – avoiding hardcoded values

What just happened?

Pop quiz

Summary

7. User Interface

Displaying the hit points of each ship

Time for action – placing a health bar on top of each ship

What just happened?

Adding buttons to the screen

Pausing and resuming the game

Displaying the pause and resume buttons on the screen

Time for action – putting buttons on the screen

What just happened?

Implementing the logic to pause and resume the game

Time for action – allowing the player to pause and resume

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Aborting the current game

Time for action – conceding the game

What just happened?

Adding dialogs to the screen

Time for action – creating a dialog class

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Adding custom events to the dialogs

Time for action – adding our own buttons to our dialog

What just happened?

Drawing text on the screen

Displaying our first text field

Time for action – adding a text field to the dialog

What just happened?

Explaining system fonts

Explaining bitmap fonts

Creating our very own bitmap font

Time for action – using bmGlyph to create a bitmap font

What just happened?

Displaying a text field with bitmap fonts

Time for action – using our bitmap font for a text field

What just happened?

Pop quiz

Summary

8. Artificial Intelligence and Game Progression

Artificial intelligence in theory

Explaining fuzzy logic

Explaining state machines

Letting the enemy ship move and attack

Moving the ship

Time for action – getting the enemy ship to move around

What just happened?

Attacking other ships

Time for action – the enemy should attack the player

What just happened?

Adding fuzzy values to the AI

Time for action – spicing up the AI with fuzzy values

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Adding progression to our game

Adding a World class

Time for action – adding a World class

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Updating the scene and dialog classes

Time for action – updating the scene and dialog classes

What just happened?

Adding game mechanics to the pirate cove

Time for action – making the pirate cove playable

What just happened?

Adding progression to the game

Have a go hero –turning our game into a real game

Adding win and lose conditions

Time for action – being able to win or lose

What just happened?

Pop quiz

Summary

9. Adding Audio to Our Game

Finding music and sound

Generating sound effects

Learning about audio formats

Music and sound effects for our game

Adding audio playback

Starting the audio engine

Time for action – getting audio files to play

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Playing music in our scenes

Time for action – playing music in our scenes

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Adding a sound effect

Time for action – sound effects in the pirate cove

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Pop quiz

Summary

10. Polishing Our Game

Adding additional scenes

The game over scene

Creating the game over scene

Time for action – showing the game over scene

What just happened?

Connecting the game over scene

Time for action – having the game over scene show up

What just happened?

Adding a main menu

Time for action – integrating the main menu into our game

What just happened?

Have a go hero

Adding an intro scene

Time for action – creating an intro for our game

What just happened?

Implementing tutorial mechanics

Time for action – adding a tutorial to our intro scene

What just happened?

Loading and saving the current state

Time for action – loading and saving the last played game

What just happened?

Pop quiz

Summary

11. Integrating Third-party Services

Getting word out to potential testers

Registering at Ubertesters

Integrating Ubertesters

Time for action – integrating Ubertesters

What just happened?

Creating a build for beta testers

Time for action – creating a build for beta testers

What just happened?

Deploying an application

Time for action – deploying an application

What just happened?

Explaining Game Center

Integrating Game Center authentication

Time for action – integrating Game Center authentication

What just happened?

Have a go hero

An overview of analytics services

Flurry analytics

Flox

Pop quiz

Summary

A. Pop Quiz Answers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Sparrow

Pop quiz

Chapter 2, Displaying Our First Objects

Pop quiz

Chapter 3, Managing Assets and Scenes

Pop quiz

Chapter 4, The Basics of Our Game

Pop quiz

Chapter 5, Beautifying Our Game

Pop quiz

Chapter 6, Adding Game Logic

Pop quiz

Chapter 7, User Interface

Pop quiz

Chapter 8, Artificial Intelligence and Game Progression

Pop quiz

Chapter 9, Adding Audio to Our Game

Pop quiz

Chapter 10, Polishing Our Game

Pop quiz

Chapter 11, Integrating Third-party Services

Pop quiz

Afterword

Index

Sparrow iOS Game Framework Beginner's Guide

Sparrow iOS Game Framework Beginner's Guide

Copyright © 2014 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: June 2014

Production reference: 1180614

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78216-150-9

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Cover image by Sujay Gawand (<sujaygawand@gmail.com>)

Credits

Author

Johannes Stein

Reviewers

James Borden

Alex Harrison

Karuna Krishnasamy

Daniel Sperl

Sladjan Trajkovic

Commissioning Editor

Usha Iyer

Acquisition Editor

Nikhil Karkal

Content Development Editor

Sharvari Tawde

Technical Editors

Pratik More

Ritika Singh

Copy Editors

Sayanee Mukherjee

Deepa Nambiar

Project Coordinator

Binny K. Babu

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

Maria Gould

Paul Hindle

Indexers

Rekha Nair

Priya Subramani

Graphics

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Nilesh Bambardekar

Cover Work

Nilesh Bambardekar

About the Author

Johannes Stein has been interested in software and game development for most part of his life. He has used a variety of technologies, programming languages, and platforms. In the last few years, he has worked as a freelancer using web and mobile technologies for a number of different companies and start-ups, working on several iOS apps and games. Among the technologies he used were Sparrow, cocos2D, and UIKit. He has co-authored the book Irrlicht 1.7 Realtime 3D Engine Beginner's Guide that was published in 2011 by Packt Publishing. He can be followed on Twitter: @Stoney_FD.

I would like to thank everyone who helped me in making this book a reality, specifically everyone involved at Packt for being patient with me and giving me constant and helpful feedback. My thanks go out to all the technical reviewers as well who gave me great pointers and improved the book on multiple levels. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends who tried to motivate me, offering help whenever possible and getting me through a few small rough patches.

About the Reviewers

James Borden is an expat mobile application developer at Sotsu, Inc. in Tokyo, Japan. He has been programming professionally in a variety of languages for over 5 years now, and programming has been his hobby since he was 10 years old. He specializes in multiplatform mobile deployment, but he has experience in developing games for single platforms as well. His first mobile game was developed using the Sparrow engine. He was also featured in the book Mobile Game Engines: Interviews with Mobile Game Engine Developers, Jason Brownlee, LuLu Press, where he talks more about his experience with Sparrow. His talent is not limited to mobile development though. In his final year of college, he helped develop a 3D prototype game, utilizing a brain-computer interface as one of the game's inputs. He hopes to excel in and enjoy his profession, no matter how it changes.

Alex Harrison is a mobile game programmer, originally from the UK. He first learned to code with Flash and ActionScript before migrating to mobile with Sparrow and eventually Starling. He is currently working on a multiplatform project in C++ and JavaScript using cocos2DX, and he develops casual mobile browser games in his spare time. Alex lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with his wife, two kids, two dogs, two rabbits, three cats, several chickens, a horse, and a pony.

Karuna Krishnasamy is an avid gamer and a recent graduate in Computer Gaming and Animation Technology from Anglia Ruskin University. With 5 years of experience in designing and building games for the PC and iOS devices, he enjoys the process of putting a game together as much as he enjoys playing the finished product. When he isn't scoring kills in Battlefield 4 or trying to think of the next big game idea, you can find him on the paintball field, which in his words, is the best form of exercise. You can check out some of his work at http://karunaskj.com/.

I would like to thank Johannes Stein for writing an awesome, well-written, and comprehensive beginner's guide for Sparrow. It's definitely one of my favorite frameworks, and if I had this book when I started getting into Sparrow, it definitely would have speeded up my development. I would also like to thank my family for supporting my desire to study game design and for being there to support me through many sleepless nights getting my first iOS games out in the market. Finally, I want to thank my first boss, Deepak Setty, for being an awesome mentor and role model, showing me the ins and outs of the corporate world; he is someone whom I have the utmost respect for.

Daniel Sperl is a long-time game developer and has created numerous casual games in ActionScript, C#, and Objective-C. Unsatisfied with the existing 2D frameworks of the time, he created the Sparrow Framework for iOS, mimicking the tried and tested Flash API in Objective-C. Ironically, Adobe was looking for exactly such a framework for Flash when they introduced Stage3D in 2011, and so the Starling Framework was born. In 2012, he co-founded the company Gamua to be able to work full-time on his frameworks.

When he is not developing Sparrow or giving support in the forum, Daniel loves to play the latest Zelda or Super Mario game with his wife or ride his bike along the countryside of Austria. He loves birds, just like his cat.

Sladjan Trajkovic is a software engineer with a passion for game development. He has a Master's degree in Computer Science and has been working in the software industry since 2007, where he began his career as a .NET consultant.

Nowadays, he works exclusively with the iOS platform and has been involved in several big-name applications. He has also released two games, Alien Defense Zone and Super Kicks, on the App Store as an independent developer. Currently, he is working on several new projects, both games and regular applications.

Follow him on twitter at https://twitter.com/SladanTrajkovic.

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Preface

Game development is probably one of the hardest and most rewarding challenges in software development. If we are to start completely from scratch, it will take a very long time to see any results.

With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and subsequent devices in the following years, developing applications for mobile devices took off, and more than 1,000,000 apps can now be downloaded from the App Store.

Luckily, Sparrow, an open source game framework for iOS, provides us with a number of predefined classes and methods that will help in our game development process.

Instead of showing how to develop a part of a game example-by-example during the course of the book, we will learn each stage of game development. With each chapter, our game will mature from being just an idea to a complete entity, while extending our knowledge of Sparrow.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Sparrow, shows us how to set up Xcode, Sparrow, and our game template that