Debugging & Best Practices - Learn SpriteBuilder for iOS Game Development - page 484

If you assign the variable by its name—for instance, by using getChildByName: , you
should verify the following:
Check that the name of the node is the same as the name of the node in
SpriteBuilder.
Check that there is no other node with the exact same name.
Check that the name of the node in the Timeline and its Name property are
two different things. Only the Name property counts; the node's name in the
Timeline is purely informational and not used by Cocos2D.
Test whether [self.scene
getChildByName:@"theNameOfTheNode" recursively:YES]
finds the node. If it doesn't, the node in question simply isn't in the current
scene. Note that self.scene is nil during a node's init and
didLoadFromCCB methods, so be sure to perform that test in onEnter
or at a later time.
Check that the name of a CCB root node will not be used if it is referenced
in another CCB file via a Sub File ( CCBFile ) node. In that case, the name
needs to be set on the Sub File node, not the CCB's root node that the Sub
File node references.
Animation Playback Issues
If an animation played programmatically through the self.animationManager
won't play, check the following items:
The name of the animation in code matches the name of the animation in
SpriteBuilder. Note that the case must match, too.
Each CCB has its own animation manager instance. If
self.animationManager is used by the root node's custom class of
the CCB that contains the Timeline, you are using the correct instance.
Otherwise, double-check that you are using self.animationManager
in a node's custom class that is a child node of the CCB containing the
Timeline and isn't a CCBFile (Sub File) reference.