Introduction - Learn SpriteBuilder for iOS Game Development - page 16

apps. Maybe those users are perfectly happy with the device as is, or maybe they know
that new apps are unlikely to run on their device.
But it's even more important to ensure your published app keeps running on the lowest
supported device and iOS version as long as possible to keep your existing customers
happy. That alone speaks against trying to support iOS versions as far back as theoretic-
ally possible, and this is particularly true for games that are more demanding on device re-
sources than most other types of apps.
Consider that the performance span between an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 3GS is tremend-
ous. In the GeekBench benchmark, the iPhone 6 (Plus) is more than 10 times faster than
the iPhone 3GS. Compared to the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 6 (Plus) is still over 7 times faster
in the same benchmark. You'll find an up-to-date performance comparison of all iOS
devices here: http://browser.primatelabs.com/ios-benchmarks .
Based on this benchmark, it's not hard to predict that developers of graphically intense
games will stop offering their games or reduce quality on iPhone 4S and earlier, iPad
(third generation) and earlier, and the original iPad mini (non-Retina). Too far ahead are
the iPhone 5 generation and newer devices in terms of performance.
Table of Contents
Following is a list of chapters in this topic with short summaries.
Chapter 1 —Introduction
You are currently reading this chapter.
Chapter 2 —Laying the Groundwork
An introduction to SpriteBuilder and its user interface. The most commonly needed tasks
are explained here. Also, the chapter contains a quick introduction to programming with
Cocos2D. You end up with a project that allows you to transition between scenes by the
press of a button.
Chapter 3 —Controlling and Scrolling