From February to April, I was working evenings and weekends fulfilling a dream I’ve had for many decades: writing a book about a subject I really care about: game development. On June 22 2009, Apress is publishing a book I collaborated on as lead author and tech reviewer : iPhone Games Projects.
There are chapters by :
- Olivier Hennessy & Clayton Kane, of Posimotion, developers of Bikini Hunt and Apache Lander
- Joachim Bondo, of Cocoa Stuff; developer of Deep Green, a beautiful chess game for iPhone
- Richard Zito & Matthew Aitken, of Swipe Interactive, developers of QuickDraw and Pole2Pole
- Aaron Fothergill, of Strange Flavour, developer of Flick Sport Fishing, one of the top 20 best selling apps on the App Store
- Brian Greenstone, of Pangea Software, developer of Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally, two of the top 5 best selling apps on the App Store
- Mike Kasprzak, of Sykhronics Entertainment; his game Smiles was one of the finalists for Best Mobile Game on the IGF Mobile 2009 competition
- Mike Lee, co-founder of Tapulous, now at Apple, lead developer of Tap Tap Revenge, the most downloaded game on the history of the App Store
- And a bonus free chapter by Jamie Gotch, of Subatomic Studios, developers of Fieldrunners, winner of Best Mobile Game on the IGF Mobile 2009 competition
As tech reviewer for the book, I checked everyone’s writing for technical accuracy. That was really a great experience. I learned a lot and had fun running everyone’s sample code and checking their tips and tricks for myself.
I also wrote one chapter for the book, on how to implement RESTful web services for high score leaderboards and achievements on iPhone. There’s code in the chapter for a simple Rails web service, and native code for the iPhone as well. It’s a rather deep look at the subject.
I also collaborated with Jamie Gotch on a bonus free chapter. In the chapter we discussed getting started with programming for iPhone, a few tips and tricks, and the A* path finding algorithm. I also developed a Puyo clone and explained the most important parts of the code.
Full source code for the Puyo game will be provided. There is also source code for 3 other sample apps. All the sample code will be made available the same day as the book release at the book’s support page and at apress.com
This was a very neat experience for me. I’ve wanted to have my name on a computer book, and I’ve enjoyed programming games in my spare time, since before I was a teenager (more than 30 years ago, yo! Where has time gone?)
The iPhone gives me, and everyone with the interest, a chance to develop games for others, in a very cool platform with lots of traction. This book, coupled with Beginning iPhone Development, can give you the tools to reach for the stars with your own creations! Enjoy!
Dude:
This is awesome! And to think I knew you when you were a lowly TWAC
Congratulations!
-k-
Oh, and I thought I was still subscribed to your blawg. I guess when I switched over to Google Reader, something happened, and PJ Trix didn’t make the switchover. And with your blogging volume, I didn’t realize anything was wrong 😉
Fixed.
-k-
PJ:
Awesome! I have my name *in* some computer books, right there alongside “property of”
Congratulations!
-k-
I thought my comments were being eaten; I see they are still in moderation purgatory. Like a real TWAC, I keep going back to where I’ve commented, to see my name and likeness on the comments page.
-k-
There’s something wrong with my WP install, I didn’t get notified of your comments. My bad! I’ll make a point of checking the admin page more often until I figure out what’s wrong with comment moderation.