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Learn Lua for iOS Game Development Paperback – December 17, 2012

by Jayant Varma (Author)

4 customer reviews

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So you have a great game idea for iPhone or iPad, but Objective-C just seems a bit daunting. What are your alternatives? The App Store is very picky about languages, but there is hope: Lua is a versatile, lightweight, fast, and easy to learn language that you can use to build your iOS games and get them accepted into the App Store.

Learn Lua for iOS Game Development walks you through the Lua basics, then shows you how to create games using the top Lua frameworks like Corona SDK, Gideros, Moai, and even how to create games on the iPad (not just for the iPad) with Codea.

You aren't tied to Xcode and Objective-C -- you can create all sorts of amazing games with Lua. But if you already have an existing iOS game, you'll also learn how to integrate Lua to extend the game. If you're an aspiring or current iOS developer, you need to know Lua, and Learn Lua for iOS Game Development will give you just what you need to do that.

Learn Lua for iOS Game Development

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jayant Varma is the founder of OZ Apps (www.oz-apps.com), a consulting and development company providing IT solutions with specialization in mobile technology. He is an experienced developer with more than 20 years of industry experience spread across several countries. He is the author of a number of books on iOS development, including Learn Lua for iOS Game Development (Apress, 2012), Xcode 6 Essentials (Packt, 2015), and More iPhone Development with Objective-C (Apress, 2015). He has also been a university lecturer in Australia where he currently resides. He loves traveling and finds Europe to be his favorite destination.

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Product details

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Apress; 1st ed. edition (December 15, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1430246626
ISBN-13: 978-1430246626
Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,629,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #689 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Apple Programming
- #801 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Compilers
- #2138 in Books > Computers & Technology > Mobile Phones, Tablets & E-Readers > Programming & App Development

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A good place to start. Useful but not mind blowing.

ByAmazon Customeron January 4, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Learn Lua for iOS Game Development has its merits. It's easy to read. You will get started very quickly. It stays tightly focused on game development, with game-specific examples. It will help you choose a game development framework. It will even start you on a basic game you can adapt to any of the frameworks. If you have a game idea and you are impatient, this book is for you.

This comes at a cost, however. This book is informative, but not insightful. It "fills you in", but it doesn't teach you much. The author has saved you time and frustration by doing lots of research for you. This is not bad, or uncommon for software books. As long as the purchaser is aware of this, they should be satisfied with the book.

Furthermore, I strongly recommend following this book with the excellent "Programming in Lua" by Roberto Ierusalimschy. If you want more than a monkey's grasp of Lua, get Programming in Lua.

Another important point is value for money. I bought the Kindle version of Learn Lua for iOS Game Development for about $17. That's significantly cheaper than the $30 paperback. Not a bad book for $17, but not worth $30. The code in the Kindle version appeared properly on my iPad, barring line breaks inserted by the Kindle reader.

Some caveats:
* Much of the book is dedicated to introducing different frameworks. So if you've already chosen a framework, you will skip a lot.
* A number of pages just list functions with short descriptions.
* Chapter 4: Math with Lua was unpleasant. Listing the math functions was pointless. Many examples were just plain odd and didn't really warrant the title "math". Finally, the Snakes & Ladders game example was painful, even if it demonstrated a good point.

In conclusion, this book will deliver practical details to the impatient game developer. It will save you the pain of defragging all the information from the internet. However, don't expect penetrating insights or a path to mastery. Learn Lua for iOS Game Development is only a small stepping stone. There will be much, much more to learn. Developing a good iOS game won't be easy.

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Too much to the bare metal.

ByVelo Buffon April 5, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I concentrated on the Gideros section. While his examples are simple, I think they're too simple for games you're eventually going to make. For example, it's simple math to see if there is a collision in 2 sprites by checking if their positions are overlapping. Great. But what happens when you want to make them bounce or otherwise do other things? Just use Box2D.

In his defense, this book is the older of the 2 on Amazon that deal with Gideros so maybe the newer libraries/frameworks weren't around or as popular when he originally wrote this book.

His chapter on plugins and applications is excellent. I definitely learned something there.

I could have done without the chapters simply stating the Lua API, however there were some gems interspersed in it. Also, it would have been infinitely better to show resultant output in his small snippets of code to reinforce to the reader a small concept or utility.

Overall I think if you're a developer of any of the aforementioned frameworks/environments (except Corona because there are tons of book on it) then this book deserves a read.

As a positive, Jayant is prolific in the Gideros forums and he really knows his stuff.

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this was a long list of commands and syntax without much effort to teach readers how to program in Lua

ByAmazon Customeron May 19, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I could have gotten the information contained in this book online, and for free.

The author simply lists, chapter after chapter, the commands and syntax applicable to Lua.

There is no conscious effort to educate the reader in the art of programming using Lua.

If there was a way of getting my money back, I would ask for it.

0Comment 6 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

The best learning Lua for iOS game development

ByAndrewon April 29, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

We are a small game/app development studio based in London and this book helped us a lot in learning all the tips and tricks of Corona SDK [...]

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

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Learn Lua for iOS Game Development Paperback – December 17, 2012

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