Comments about O'Reilly Media OpenGL iPhone Games with Cocos2D:

Having watched a few of Todd Moore's iPhone development videos on O'Reilly's site, I was excited to see that there was a video about Cocos2D game development for the iPhone, a subject that's pretty dear to me. In this video, Todd describes the process of developing a small game, 'Nuclear Fallout' (think Activision's Kaboom, but where you have to avoid the falling objects instead of catching them) using the super-cool Cocos2D for iPhone library. In this 5-part video, Todd very succinctly describes the process of creating the game from beginning to end.

Nuclear Fallout is a good choice for a relatively brief game creation video. At 118 minutes total, the viewer is taken through the process of making the entire game, starting with creating the basic game from the Cocos2D template, covering just about every aspect of creating a basic game, like screen progression logic, player movement, graphics, collisions, and sounds. There is even a brief discussion of accelerometer use for player motion. The information presented is pretty valuable. While I found it somewhat basic for my tastes, this video is intended as an introduction on the subject; I'm hoping to see additional videos created on the subject that cover more advanced aspects of Cocos2D. Moore is a charismatic host who explains things really well, and he's also quite knowledgeable. Even though in general I was familiar with the subject to start with, I ended up learning several XCode shortcuts and ways of approaching problems that I hadn't thought of previously. His interaction with co-host Courtney Nash is pleasant as well, and the conversational approach this video takes is more effective than I had expected.

This is an interesting, informative video series that would be great for a beginner to Cocos2D game development or to iOS game programming in general. Hosts Todd Moore and Courtney Nash are pleasant and charismatic, Moore is very knowledgeable, with a deliberate style that is to the point and never confusing. I highly recommend this video to anyone who has some iOS experience and is looking for a primer on Cocos2D.