In "Build iOS Games with Sprite Kit: Unleash Your Imagination in Two Dimensions" from Pragmatic Bookshelf (US$34 for the paper version, $20 for the ebook version), you'll learn to build two games using Sprite Kit and learn real-world, workshop-tested insights about game design, including cognitive complexity, paper prototyping, and levels of fun.

You'll learn how to implement sophisticated game features such as obstacles and weapons, power-ups and variable difficulty, physics, sound, special effects, and both single- and two-finger control. The goal: to teach you how to build your own iOS games.


You'll start out by building a single-finger infinite runner game, where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible and rack up points. You'll explore the Sprite Kit template, actions, and particle editor and watch your game take shape with an armed player ship, asteroids and enemy ships, explosions, power-ups, and variable difficulty. Then you'll stitch the game together with cutscenes, menus, and scoring.



Next, you'll build a classic pinball game with all the fun and physics of the real thing. You'll discover the
Sprite Kit physics engine and enhance your game with gravity, friction, ricochets, and spin physics, as well as sound effects, bonus scoring, and special effects. Plus, this game features two-finger control.



"Build iOS Games with Sprite Kit: Unleash Your Imagination in Two Dimensions" is written by Jonathan Penn and Josh Smith. Penn is one half of Rubber City Wizards, a software development and mentoring team. He has written his own games in Sprite Kit and also uses the framework as a prototyping and demonstration tool due to its incredible flexibility.

Smith is the other half of Rubber City Wizards. He has worked in the gaming industry using various game engines, including Cocos2D, the game engine that Apple targets directly with Sprite Kit. Go to http://tinyurl.com/k6rqf93 for more info on "Build iOS Games with Sprite Kit: Unleash Your Imagination in Two Dimensions."