iPhone Game Development - Chris Craft [57]
Almost every application in this book and every application you will create or use could be enhanced and improved by the wise usage of UIImageView animation. Make a point of learning and mastering this technique so you can use it in the next iPhone application you create.
FIGURE 4.18
The final Bonfire application running in the Simulator
Analyzing Business Aspects
Novelty applications tend to be smaller and easier applications than most game, business, or even utility applications. Many developers cut their teeth by making a simple novelty application their first application. It can be a great way to ramp up your knowledge of iPhone SDK programming.
Ideally, when you create a new iPhone novelty application, it should be a truly new iPhone application. If your application is really one of a kind and people enjoy the experience of it, it will do much better than if your application is just another face in the crowd. Try to forge new ground and provide people with new experiences whenever possible.
Be sure to add variety to your novelty application whenever you can. Sometimes this can be as simple as creating different skins for your application. For example, for the iDrum you could create a Jamaican drum setting with appropriate matching sound effects. These types of small, easy changes can take an application from mediocre to great.
People love to be surprised, and so they love novelty applications that have surprises in them. Imagine how users would react to finding out that there is an update for the iFlame that allows them to blow out the flame using the microphone. It's a new experience that helps bring their new digital world back into the real world they are familiar with.
Summary
In this chapter you reviewed and created a list of potential iPhone novelty applications that you should now be prepared to begin writing. You reviewed the iFlame application and what you would have to do to re-create this application. You learned to try to always favor original ideas or add a new twist to an existing application idea. You also discovered that it is beneficial to add new features and clever effects to apps. You learned all about seamless video loops and how to create them on your own. You worked with the MPMoviePlayerController to create a movie player of your own to play video in your iFlame application, and you learned about the various video player scaling and control modes.
Next, you reviewed the iDrum application and began re-creating it on your own. You made sure to include a Default.png to avoid showing your users a blank screen on application startup. You learned a lot about how to play audio files on the iPhone using the iPhone SDK's sound engine. And you discovered how to convert various audio file types to the CAF format, which is the native audio format of the iPhone. While re-creating the iDrum application, you learned more about the iPhone's sound engine and the Interface Builder. You got to add both graphic resources and audio resources to your iFlame app and the iDrum project. Then you used these resources to add visuals and audios to your application.
You then learned all the details of creating your own animations using the UIImageView's animation capabilities in the Bonfire app. You learned how to create your own animation image sequences and how to add these UIImages to the animationImages property of the UIImageView. Finally, you discovered how to use and set the various options on the UIImageView so the animation would run according to your wishes.
Part III: Shall We Play a Game?
Chapter 5
Producing Action Games
Chapter 6
Building Community with Facebook
Chapter 7
Connecting Players in Real Time
Chapter 8
Taking Turns with Other Players
Chapter 5: Producing Action Games
In This Chapter
Reviewing famous examples
Understanding game design: Excitement and achievement
Programming: AmuckRacer
The road ahead
What's next?
Analyzing business aspects
You should now