Which technologies/concepts do you suggest I learn before creating an iPhone game?

Question

Sorry if this is a broad question, but other than Objective-C, Cocoa, and OpenGL ES, what technologies or concepts would you suggest I read up on before writing a game for the iPhone? I'm a beginning game developer and need all the help I can get :)

Answer 1

You should read some articles on GameDev. Obviously, learning some of the fundamental concepts in computer graphics would be very helpful. But really, once you get to where you can write Objective-C and understand the APIs, go ahead and get started. You will learn a lot in the process; of course, keep learning and reading about these things I mentioned, but start coding. Find some books on game programming, particularly AI and so forth. Go ahead and get your feet wet programming though. Of course, be sure you learn your language thoroughly.

Answer 2

MATHS - I would advise this topic

Some example areas of interest for applications in Game Development

Calculus, Geometry,The Cartesian Co-ordinate System, Vectors, Matrices, Transformations etc...

Answer 3

A solid understanding of what makes a good gaming UI especially on the iPhone would be key, especially with the options it provides, be it accelerometers, or onscreen touch inputs.

I'd be sure to try out existing games and see what works, what doesn't, and what gets good feedback. You may also want to look at Flash and DS based games to see what works on other small screens/devices.

Answer 4

Sorry, my answer is not computing related.

A game tells a story, a great game tells a great story. So I would suggest to learn principles of storytelling.

Not going as scholar as Aristotle's Poetics, I recommend more modern Story by Robert McKee. It focuses on movie making, but I am pretty sure that many of the concepts he develops can be applied to game making.

Answer 5

Quite frankly, I have found that I never know what I need to know until I actually get my hands dirty. That's why I suggested here that someone looking to jump into designing a 3-D iPhone game start with some simpler, targeted projects. These targeted projects can teach you core concepts as you put them to practical use. OpenGL seemed like this impossible-to-understand black box until I made myself perform some simple tasks with it. In a few weeks, I had an application based on it.

In college, I would spend weeks trying to understand the theory behind an aspect of thermodynamics, but then I would see one practical application for it and the whole thing would fall into place. Since then, I've focused on finding specific applications for concepts before spending too much time with the pure theory behind them.