

iOS/Mac Platformer Starter Kit - hackfrag
http://www.binpress.com/app/commander-cool-ios-platformer-starter-kit/654
This starter kit includes the complete source code of "Commander Cool" for iPhone / iPad / Mac build with cocos2d &#38; box2d, with extensive documentation.
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kevingadd
Main character is a recolor of a character sprite from the commercial arcade
game Metal Slug. Pretty shady.

EDIT: For a precise example, compare the sprite of the character shooting (
[http://www.binpress.com/projects/654/commander-cool-
platform...](http://www.binpress.com/projects/654/commander-cool-platformer-
source-code-package-2966.png) ) with the same from here:

<http://spriters-resource.com/arcade/ms/sheet/11225>

EDIT 2: Here are the two sprites in question overlaid on each other in
Difference mode. Note the black pixels (identical).
<https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1643240/sprite_difference.png>

EDIT 3: Someone from Binpress responded promptly to my email. Props to them!

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Hoff
Synopsis: How to make money selling iOS source code (sans various assets
files) and related environment files to other iOS game developers.

Interesting idea. It would be interesting to hear whether this succeeds; if
there's enough interest to make a go of this.

Without having looked at the source code (it could be clean code or it could
be spaghetti), this kit looks to be a reasonable resource or companion for
learning more about iOS game programming than is in some of the available
books.

Another and different approach some folks are taking for creating games
involves a package such as Unity; using a more generic game-creation engine,
rather than home-grown or purchased code.

And if you're "simply" looking for examples of games and game programming,
there are also a variety of free FPS packages, some of which work on Linux and
OS X. Here's one list, and yes, there are other non-FPS games around, too:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_First_Person_Shooters>

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alttab
Things that are awesome about this:

1) Great source for learning how to make a platformer on a popular ... well,
platform.

2) Gets programmers into making games quick and easy with full control over
source code. Great for tinkering.

3) Comes with functional game and assets, despite the fact that some of the
art is clearly lifted from other popular games and could conflict with
licensing and copyright of those games, especially since the content is being
sold.

4) Comes with associated tool-chain. I've built my own home grown iOS game
framework and animation tool set myself so I know the benefits of it and the
learning exercise.

Things that are not awesome about this:

1) Why not open source it? If the goal is get people into iOS gaming, Github
is a better option. If the goal is to make money, more complete and flexible
game engines such as Unity provide a better experience.

2) Anyone who leverages this codebase is doomed to become a droplet in what
will be a flood of generic iOS platformers using the same codebase and
potentially a lot of the same assets (similar things occured with RPGMaker
games). The games will have a similar feel and mechanic to them with make them
inter-changable and thus disposable.

3) I question how much this actually benefits the code-consumer. If they
aren't willing to do this the hard way by learning their own way, my guess is
they aren't motivated enough to modify the source code to do anything the
framework doesn't already provide. The purchaser is much more likely to look
around the code base, and then try to replace the assets and leverage the
level-designer to make their own game than actually go out of their way to do
something unique. If that is the case this is a poor choice as other
frameworks like Unity are way more flexible.

4) I'm not particularly impressed with the code sample or the abstractions
provided. I've written over 20 games in my lifetime and can tell at a glance
that this code is written to do 1 thing, and anything outside the initial
feature set will result in brittle and unmaintainable code, or requiring a
complete refactoring which nulls the purpose of the purchase in the first
place.

5) The licensing and price of the download, while not bad for working source
for a game for a popular platform, probably doesn't deliver on its value for
the reasons stated above.

Overall I think its great that we share source code for popular games so we
can learn from it. Id does this all the time by open sourcing their most
popular game and engine code, like Doom, Quake, etc. The key here is the
motivation is to help the industry create better games, and they give away
everything for free.

I suggest open sourcing the code, and possibly selling the tool-chain and
level editor. The author could push more $40 level editor units than they
could delivering on the promise of a "starter kit" that will more than likely
guarantee the consumer's game looks and behaves like every other game on the
app store.

I commend the effort of the author, but considering the ability to deliver on
its promise and the price point I would suggest any interested parties look
elsewhere.

~~~
davedx
Agree with all of this, in particular the recommendation to spend your time
learning Unity instead of a limited use source tree.

