You Plus C++ Plus Cocos2d-x - Cocos2d-x by Example Beginner's Guide - page 45

The C++ and Cocos2d-x style
In this option, you would instantiate the previous Player object as follows:
auto player = new Player();
player->initWithSpriteFrameName("player.png");
this->addChild(player);
player->autorelease();
Player could do without a static method in this case and the player pointer will not ac-
cess the same memory in future as it's set to be autoreleased (so it would not stick around
for long). In this case, however, the memory would not leak. It would still be retained by a
Cocos2d-x list (the addChild command takes care of that). You can still access that
memory by going over the children list added to this .
If you needed the pointer to be a member property you could use retain() instead of
autorelease() :
m_player = new Player();
m_player->initWithSpriteFrameName("player.png");
this->addChild(m_player);
m_player->retain();
Then sometime later, you would have to release it; otherwise, it will leak:
m_player->release();
Hardcore C++ developers may choose to forget all about the autorelease pool and
simply use new and delete :
Player * player = new Player();
player->initWithSpriteFrameName("player.png");
this->addChild(player);
delete player;//This will crash!
This will not work. You have to use autorelease , retain , or leave the previous code
without the delete command and hope there won't be any leak.