iPhone Games Projects

265 Pages·2009·5.41 MB·English

by  P J Cabrera

iPhone Games
Projects
DAVE MARK, SERIES EDITOR
PJ CABRERA
JOACHIM BONDO
AARON FOTHERGILL
BRIAN GREENSTONE
OLIVIER HENNESSY
MIKE KASPRZAK
MIKE LEE
RICHARD ZITO
MATTHEW AITKEN
CLAYTON KANE
iPhone Games Projects
Copyright © 2009 by PJ Cabrera, Joachim Bondo, Aaron Fothergill, Brian Greenstone, Olivier Hennessy,
Mike Kasprzak, Mike Lee, Richard Zito, Matthew Aitken, Clayton Kane
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the
prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN-13 (paperback): 978-1-4302-1968-2
ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-1969-9
Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a
trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with
no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Lead Editor: Clay Andres
Developmental Editor: Douglas Pundick
Lead Author and Technical Reviewer: PJ Cabrera
Editorial Board: Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Tony Campbell, Gary Cornell,
Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Duncan Parkes, Jeffrey Pepper,
Frank Pohlmann, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh
Project Manager | Production Director: Grace Wong
Copy Editors: Kim Wimpsett, Marilyn Smith
Associate Production Director: Kari Brooks-Copony
Production Editor: Laura Esterman
Compositor | Interior Designer: Diana Van Winkle
Proofreader: Nancy Bell
Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services
Cover Designer: Kurt Krames
Manufacturing Director: Tom Debolski
Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York,
NY 10013. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax [phone], e-mail [email protected], or visit http://www.
springeronline.com.
For information on translations, please contact Apress directly at 2855 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 600, Berkeley, CA
94705. Phone [phone], fax [phone], e-mail [email protected], or visit http://www.apress.com.
Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook
versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales–eBook
Licensing web page at http://www.apress.com/info/bulksales.
The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has
been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or
entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information
contained in this work.
The source code for this book is available to readers at http://www.apress.com. You will need to answer
questions pertaining to this book in order to successfully download the code.
To my parents, Pedro and Cecilia: LQM
—PJ Cabrera
To my brother Adam, who does 50% of the work and gets 0.01% of the mentions ; )
—Aaron Fothergill
To my teammates, past and present, who have made me the engineer I am
—Mike Lee
Contents at a Glance
Foreword ..................................................................... xiii
About the Lead Author and Technical Reviewer .................................xv
Acknowledgments ...........................................................xvii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
JOACHIM BONDO
CHAPTER 1 Simplify the User Interface for Complex Games:
Chess, the Deep Green Way .................................. 3
PJ CABRERA
CHAPTER 2 Responsive Social Gaming with RESTful Web Services ........21
AARON FOTHERGILL
CHAPTER 3 Rapid Game Development Using (Mostly) Standard C ........61
BRIAN GREENSTONE
CHAPTER 4 Brian Greenstone’s Jedi Master List for Game Optimization ...101
OLIVIER HENNESSY AND CLAYTON KANE
CHAPTER 5 Starting with a Game Design Document:
A Methodology for Success ................................131
MICHAEL KASPRZAK
CHAPTER 6 Multiplatform Game Development:
iPhone Games for Linux and Windows ......................155
MIKE LEE
CHAPTER 7 Code Optimization with Mike Lee,
the “World’s Toughest Programmer” ........................191
RICHARD ZITO AND MATTHEW AITKEN
CHAPTER 8 Networked Games: Choosing the Right Option ...............215
INDEX ...................................................................... 251
v
Contents
Foreword ..................................................................... xiii
About the Lead Author and Technical Reviewer .................................xv
Acknowledgments ...........................................................xvii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
JOACHIM BONDO
CHAPTER 1 Simplify the User Interface for Complex Games:
Chess, the Deep Green Way ......................3
Once Upon a Time . . . ..........................................4
Why Should We Care About Simplicity? .........................7
How Simplicity Was Achieved ..................................7
Distilling the Essence ......................................8
Pushing the Pixels .........................................9
Letting the User Focus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Drilling Down ............................................12
Less Is More ..............................................13
Empowering the User ....................................15
Making the User Smile ...................................16
Summary .....................................................17
PJ CABRERA
CHAPTER 2 Responsive Social Gaming
with RESTful Web Services ..................... 21
Social Networking Games and the iPhone .....................22
Creating the Prototype High-Score Web Service ................24
Creating the High-Scores Rails App .......................24
Using RESTful XML Web Services ..........................27
Displaying High Scores on the iPhone .........................29
Creating the User Interface ...............................30
Connecting to Web Services ..............................36
Parsing XML .............................................42
Displaying the High Scores in the Table View ..............46
vii
viii CONTENTS
Submitting High Scores to the Web Service ....................49
Submitting User Achievements ................................52
Introducing ObjectiveResource ................................53
Using ObjectiveResource .................................53
Submitting High Scores with ObjectiveResource ..........57
Summary .....................................................57
AARON FOTHERGILL
CHAPTER 3 Rapid Game Development Using (Mostly)
Standard C .................................... 61
Getting Started ...............................................64
Creating the Project ...........................................66
Addressing the Save Game Problem ...........................74
How to Save .............................................74
How to Save the Easy Way ................................75
Space Hike: The App ..........................................81
The Render Loop and Basic Organization .................81
Game Logic Overview ....................................83
Drawing and Handling the Game .........................84
Enhancing the Game .....................................97
Summary .....................................................98
BRIAN GREENSTONE
CHAPTER 4 Brian Greenstone’s Jedi Master List
for Game Optimization ....................... 101
Memory Matters ............................................ 102
Parlez-vous C? .............................................. 103
Straight C Is Best ....................................... 103
Cocoa vs. Core Foundation ............................. 105
Compiler Optimizations ..................................... 105
The Thumb Instruction Set ............................. 106
Compiler Optimization Level ........................... 108
Optimizing Function Calls .............................. 108
Audio Optimizations ........................................ 109
Streaming Music Playback .............................. 109
Sound Effects with OpenAL ............................ 111
OpenGL Optimizations ...................................... 112
Construct an Efficient OpenGL Draw Context. . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Avoid State Changes ................................... 114
CONTENTS ix
Reducing Texture Sizes ................................. 116
Using Compressed Textures ............................ 117
Geometry Data Reduction .............................. 118
Limit the Quantity of Draw Calls ........................ 120
Performance Tools .......................................... 121
Using Instruments ..................................... 121
Using Shark ............................................ 123
Summary ................................................... 127
OLIVIER HENNESSY
AND CLAYTON KANE
CHAPTER 5 Starting with a Game Design Document:
A Methodology for Success ................... 131
The Game Vision ............................................ 132
The Game Design Document ................................ 133
Title ................................................... 133
Game Summary ........................................ 133
Game Detail ........................................... 134
Game Setting .......................................... 134
Game System/Engine .................................. 134
Game Play: Controls and User Interface ................. 136
Level Map ............................................. 137
Aesthetic Design ....................................... 138
Title and Information Screens .......................... 139
Sound Effects .......................................... 139
From Vision to Reality ....................................... 140
Tips for Creating Realistic Artificial Intelligence .......... 140
Challenges of Designing for the iPhone ................. 141
Game Development Tips .................................... 144
Solitaire Top 3 .......................................... 144
Backgammon .......................................... 145
Pool ................................................... 146
Kaleidoscope .......................................... 147
Shake N’ Break ......................................... 148
Bikini Hunt ............................................. 149
YoYo ................................................... 150
Apache Lander ......................................... 151
Summary ................................................... 152
x CONTENTS
MICHAEL KASPRZAK
CHAPTER 6 Multiplatform Game Development:
iPhone Games for Linux and Windows ......... 155
The Development of Smiles: A Collection of Puzzle Games ... 156
What Are Cross-Platform and Portability? .................... 160
Why Write Portable Code? .............................. 160
Why Not Write Portable Code? .......................... 161
Portability from the Ground Up. ............................. 162
The Classic Game Loop ................................. 162
A Practical Game Loop ................................. 163
Frames and Refresh Rates .............................. 165
Work and Draw Frame Code ............................ 165
Cooperating with an Event-Driven Operating System ........ 167
Preparing to Track Touches ............................. 167
Tracking Touches ....................................... 167
Simulating Touch and Release Events in a Game Loop ... 170
Frame Skipping ............................................. 172
Creating a Unix System Time Library .................... 173
Using the UnixTime Library for Frame Skipping ......... 177
Tilt and Touch Physics Sample ............................... 179
The Game Code for the Physics Simulation Sample ...... 180
Further Portability Considerations ...................... 186
Summary ................................................... 188
MIKE LEE
CHAPTER 7 Code Optimization with Mike Lee,
the “World’s Toughest Programmer” ........... 191
Iteration 1: Particle Effects ................................... 192
The Big Picture .............................................. 194
Iteration 2: Smoke and Mirrors .............................. 195
Premature Optimization .................................... 197
Build Efficiency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Code Efficiency ........................................ 199
Algorithmic Efficiency .................................. 201
Iteration 3: Shark Attack Time ............................... 202
Level-Headed Performance ................................. 204
Iteration 4: Increasingly Clever Optimizations ................ 206
Application-Specific Optimization ........................... 207
Summary ................................................... 211
CONTENTS xi
RICHARD ZITO
AND MATTHEW AITKEN
CHAPTER 8 Networked Games: Choosing the Right Option ... 215
Multiplayer Networking Options ............................ 217
Communication Is Key ................................. 218
Say “Bonjour” to Local Network Gaming ................. 224
Drawing to Screen ..................................... 235
Tic-Tac-Toe, an Example ..................................... 237
Summary ................................................... 249
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
Foreword
iPhone games are hot, hot, hot! As I write this, there are more than 40,000 apps on the App
Store, of which nearly 9,000 are in the Games category, the largest category by far. The next
largest category is Entertainment, at just over 5,000 apps. There are nearly 40% more games
on the App Store than any other kind of app.
Games is not only the biggest category on the App Store, but it is also the best-selling cat-
egory. During the promotion of its one billionth download, Apple provided a list of all-time
most popular apps. Of the top-20 all-time paid apps, more than 14 were games. Many of
these apps were on the top-10 paid apps list at one time or another during the nine months
the App Store had been in business. Many are still on the top-100 list. These sold thousands
of copies a day in their time, with daily revenue between a few thousand to tens of thou-
sands of dollars.
With such great numbers, it is understandable why the interest in developing iPhone games
is so high. It is probably the reason you are reading this foreword. You couldn’t have picked
up this book at a better time. If you want to get in on the fun and potential profit of making
iPhone games, the time to get started is now, and this book is your ticket there!
This book contains lots of information from master independent iPhone game developers—
information that is hard to find anywhere else. Some of the authors of this book are respon-
sible for all-time popular games:
(cid:0) (cid:78)(cid:0)Brian Greenstone developed Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally.
(cid:0) (cid:78)(cid:0)Aaron Fothergill developed Flick Fishing.
(cid:0) (cid:78)(cid:0)Mike Lee developed the original Tap Tap Revolution, the most downloaded game in
App Store history.
This book also features a chapter by award-winning game developer Mike Kasprzak, finalist
for Best Mobile Game in the Game Developers Conference’s Independent Games Festival
Mobile 2009. Other authors, including Richard Zito, Joachim Bondo, and Olivier Hennessy,
have received glowing reviews and accolades for their games.
The content in this book is phenomenal. The authors provide a variety of points of view and
different approaches to iPhone development, showing you how iPhone games are made with
various technologies. You will gain knowledge of how to optimize your game using iPhone
SDK tools such as Instruments and Shark, as well as optimization tricks that the masters have
xiii