Creating applications for iPhone and iPad can be difficult and time consuming but Cocos2D is the secret weapon for iOS developers because it does all the low-level coding for you. This book entitled Cocos2D: A Hands-On Guide to Building iOS Games with Cocos2D, Box2D, and Chipmunk by Rod Strougo and Ray Wenderlich has an example-based, step-by-step approach to learning iOS application development with Cocos2D and Xcode. The authors explain the code for creating an iOS game and show you how to implement that code at each step throughout the project. When completed, you have a working game for the iPhone^R and iPad^R and the knowledge to reuse the code for other projects.

Starting with the basics, the authors help you download and install the open source Cocos2D framework and introduce you to the built-in templates for creating iOS games. Right away, you begin to build the sample iOS game called Space Viking which is available for free from the Apple^R App Store. The source code, video tutorials and support forum can be found on the supporting website cocos2dbook.com and the publisher's website.

As you work through the book, you will build your own copy of the Space Viking game beginning with coding for the native touch input for iOS apps and moving your game's characters as sprites around the game scene. Once you have this accomplished, you are ready to add more features to your game with the built-in Cocos2D actions for animation, transitions, collision detection and scheduling.

The Space Viking game has several scenes or levels and that's what you learn to do next. You add more levels to your game along with the menus, scene controls, audio and scoring. Now, you are ready to add some physics using the Cocos2D Box2D engine. You learn how to code gravity, collisions and add joints to restrict movement for special effects such as the popular rag doll effect. You also get some hands-on experience with the Chipmunk physics engine. Finally, you learn how to add some smoke, fire, rain and snow with the Cocos2D particle system, connect to Apple's Game Center and fine tune the game's performance.

I suggest that the reader have some previous experience with Cocos2D and Xcode. Some of the code and examples in the book are not based on the current releases. The reader may find this a stumbling block.

Rod Strougo has over ten years experience making games and is the founder and lead developer for Prop Group.

Ray Wenderlich is an iPhone developer and the founder of Razeware LLC. He enjoys teaching and has many free tutorials on his website raywenderlich.com.

*Pearson Education provided a copy of this book to me for review purposes.