Getting Started with SpriteKit

Jorge Jordan

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781785887338
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Operating Systems
• Index: Computer Science

Develop fun and exciting games and create amazing animations for your existing apps with SpriteKit, Apple's 2D game development framework

About This Book

• Learn the key concepts of game development in iOS
• Take advantage of SpriteKit to create your own games and improve your apps
• Follow the step-by-step chapters to create a complete product ready to submit to the App Store

Who This Book Is For

Getting Started with SpriteKit is for beginner-level iOS developers who want to add an extra edge to their apps and create amazing games using SpriteKit. It doesn't matter whether you have experience in iOS development or not as this book will show you the swift tricks you can use to create games.

What You Will Learn

• Create and configure a SpriteKit project from scratch
• Load and manage the basic elements of games such as sprites, labels, and geometrical primitives
• Handle touch events, detect collisions, and play sound audio files
• Create complex elements, animate sprites, and run the parallax effect
• Complete your games with key components such as a main menu, transitions between scenes, a tutorial, and the ability to load and save data
• Increase the efficiency of your device using the accelerometer or by adding shaders, lights, and shadows
• Gain complementary techniques such as creating or finding audio resources, applying SpriteKit to apps, or using third-party tools

In Detail

SpriteKit is Apple's game engine to develop native iOS games. Strongly boosted by the Apple Inc., Cupertino, it has increased in popularity since its first release. This book shows you the solutions provided by SpriteKit to help you create any 2D game you can imagine and apply them to create animations that will highlight your existing apps.

This book will give you the knowledge you need to apply SpriteKit to your existing apps or create your own games from scratch.

Throughout the book, you will develop a complete game. The beautiful designs implemented in the game in this book will easily lead you to learn the basis of 2D game development, including creating and moving sprites, and adding them to a game scene. You will also discover how to apply advanced techniques such as collision detection, action execution, playing music, or running animations to give a more professional aspect to the game. You will finish your first game by learning how to add a main menu and a tutorial, as well as saving and loading data from and to the player's device.

Finally, you will find out how to apply some mobile games techniques such as accelerometer use or touch detection.

Style and approach

Written in an informal way with plenty of illustrative screenshots, this easy-to-follow and practical guide will help you get the most from SpriteKit. The main part of the book provides step-by-step instructions to develop of a complete product, while the last chapters give you some complementary techniques than can be used in mobile 2D game development.

Getting Started with SpriteKit

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Table of Contents

Getting Started with SpriteKit

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

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

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. The First Step toward SpriteKit

Game engines

Creating a new SpriteKit project

Running the project for first time

How the default project looks like

The SKNode class

The SKNode class properties

The position property

The frame property

The zPosition property

The hidden property

An alpha property

The children node

name

userInteractionEnabled

Using SKNode to organize a scene

SKScene

The game loop

The SKScene properties

scaleMode

anchorPoint

size

backgroundColor

Your first game – InsideTheHat

Our first SKSpriteNode class

Adding a background

Working with screen resolutions

Summary

2. What Makes a Game a Game?

Handling touch events

Handling actions

Building a wall

Running through the doors

1-star challenge: an easier way to reset position

Solution

Creating loops

Installing doors into the wall

Collision management

Understanding collisions

Handling collisions

1-star challenge: check collisions accurately

Solution

Creating labels

Aligning labels

Playing some music

AVFoundation

2-star challenge: reproducing sound effects

Solution

Summary

3. Taking Games One Step Further

Extending the SKNode class

Creating a new class

Handling the behavior of custom classes

2-star challenge: colliding puppets

Solution

The parallax effect

The update method and delta times

Creating animations in SpriteKit

2-star challenge: animate collisions

Solution

Geometrical primitives

Summary

4. From Basic to Professional Games

Ending the game

3-star challenge: restarting a game

Solution

Creating a main menu

Transitions and scenes

The SKTransition class

Creating a tutorial

Updating the tutorial steps

Loading and saving data

The NSUserDefaults class

2-star challenge: completing the tutorial

Solution

The property list files

Summary

5. Utilizing the Hardware and Graphics Processor

Using the accelerometer

The CMMotionManager class

Compensating for the position of the device

Adding shaders to our game

Turning on the lights

Creating lights with the editor

Programmatically creating lights

2-star challenge: moving lights

Solution

Summary

6. Auxiliary Techniques

Creating particle systems

Creating an emitter with the editor

Creating the emitter programmatically

Combining SpriteKit and UIKit

Including UIKit in a game

Including SpriteKit in an app

Using third-party tools

Creating audio resources

Voice memos

Audacity

GarageBand

Font makers

How to find audio files

How to find images

Summary

Index

Getting Started with SpriteKit

Copyright © 2016 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: January 2016

Production reference: 1200116

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-733-8

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Jorge Jordán

Reviewer

Andrew Kenady

Commissioning Editor

Amarabha Banerjee

Acquisition Editor

Prachi Bisht

Content Development Editor

Arshiya Ayaz Umer

Technical Editor

Vishal Mewada

Copy Editor

Vedangi Narvekar

Project Coordinator

Shipra Chawhan

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Priya Sane

Graphics

Kirk D'Penha

Production Coordinator

Shantanu N. Zagade

Cover Work

Shantanu N. Zagade

About the Author

Jorge Jordán is an iOS indie developer who's passionate about how things work since his childhood. This is the reason why he graduated in computer science and became a Java developer. After buying his first iPhone, he became deeply interested in its technology and spent his spare time learning how to develop apps for Apple's smartphones.

Over time, he founded www.insaneplatypusgames.com, where he tries to make his dreams and games come true. He is also a member of the tutorial team at www.raywenderlich.com.

Also, he has worked on a book titled Cocos2d Game Development Blueprints, Packt Publishing.

In his free time, he loves to play video games, play bass guitar, and watch TV series.

You can follow him on Twitter; his Twitter handle is @jjordanarenas.

I would like to thank my family, especially my mom and brother, for always believing in me. Thanks to them, I am the person that I am. I would also like to thank the people who have encouraged me unconditionally, especially Angélica, for being so patient and for her support while I was writing this book.

Thanks to José Antonio Espino (<[email protected]>) for creating all the art for this book and designing these amazing characters and content.

Also, thanks to all my friends: the canupis (especially to you, Eugenio, wherever you are), Javi Sáez, Kike, Pedro, Fanny, Guille, and Carmelo for all the laughs and the good times that we spend together.

I finally want to thank all the people from Packt Publishing for their efforts to make this book real.

About the Reviewer

Andrew Kenady is a game engineer from Kentucky. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Western Kentucky University and has worked professionally in the games industry since his graduation in 2013. His published titles span multiple genres and platforms and include Battlepillars and Draw a Stickman: EPIC 2. He is currently working for NC2 Media, a Tennessee-based tech company, on new and promising confidential products for the mobile games sector.

In addition to working on this publication, Andrew has worked in...

Table of contents

• Getting Started with SpriteKit