Rating:

-(void)updateBox

{

CGSize bsize = box.size;

bsize.width = width;

bsize.height = height;

box.size = bsize;

}

5 lines of code. This is to much to leave out. This is just one of the many errors. They left out this entire line. How would somebody know?

Random “#” sign on page 100 too. A radom “7″ hanging out on page 106

Rating:

CHAPTERS

Here’s a list of chapters, since I didn’t 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 iPhone 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

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

I’m currently on chapter 6 and can say that this book’s 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, don’t worry, it is!” and just basically tell us to accept the code and don’t 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 effort 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 don’t find this too objectionable. The Mark and LaMarche beginning iPhone SDK book (first edition) was plagued with errors, too.

PROS

1. It’s 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.

2. Seems to have a lot of information on sounds, which I hadn’t seen in other books or blogs regarding game development.

3. It’s 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 website 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. It’s 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 Apple’s documentation and excellent blogs, like Matt Gallagher’s excellent Cocoa with Love and forums like Apple’s developer forums, the iPhone/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).