Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
SpriteBuilder integrates nicely with Cocos2D. Releases for both projects are now on the
same schedule to ensure both tools work together in harmony. Gone are the days of in-
compatible file versions and unwitting changes to Cocos2D that break editor compatibil-
ity.
SpriteBuilder can also be used to create OS X apps. As I'm writing this, the developers
are working on adding OS X support. So I'm confident that by the time you are reading
this, you will be able to start OS X projects with SpriteBuilder. Most of what you'll learn
in this topic can be applied to OS X apps as well, some exceptions notwithstanding.
Tip
In case SpriteBuilder doesn't yet support creating OS X apps by the time
you read this, you can find a tutorial on how to enable OS X support here:
ht-
Why Use SpriteBuilder?
SpriteBuilder's major benefit is seeing what you're doing when you're doing it
(WYSIWYG). If you've been doing any game or graphical programming without a design
tool, you'll know the typical development cycle: Change a few lines of code or perhaps
just a value, build the code, deploy the app onto the Device or Simulator, launch your app,
navigate to where you made the change in your app, look at the change, and behold—it's
not quite right. Start over. Rinse, and repeat. Tedious, tiresome, time-consuming, and
error-prone.
With SpriteBuilder, you can do a lot of things visually and see exactly how they'll look in
your app. You can even switch between simulated device resolutions to test your change
for all supported resolutions with a mouse click. Even more astonishing is the way you
create timeline animations, and the fact that you can preview them live in SpriteBuilder.
You see exactly how the layer moves into view and scales up to fill the screen over time.
Or how your menu buttons roll in one by one in quick succession before coming to rest at
their designated positions.
Moreover, SpriteBuilder manages the app's resource file versions, scaling them automat-
ically for different device resolutions as needed. This frees you from performing many te-
dious, error-prone chores when developing for multiple screen resolutions and aspect ra-
tios. It also means you don't have to use one or several external tools, each performing
only a small aspect of the development cycle.
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