This book is written by Pablo Ruiz, a very active member of the Cocos2D iPhone community forums, he even helped me through my Cocos2d iPhone development.This book is written for people beginning iPhone development using Cocos2D, but it assumes that the readers already have a background in programming. So if you never programmed before in your life, this book may be a bit of an information overload.
This book starts from the beginning, from downloading to installing Cocos2D and getting example projects to work. It also explains the basic structure of a Cocos2D game.
This book will actually teach you to do three different types of games, a puzzle game (think Bejewelled), a shooter game (think Espagaluda, but using the accelerometer as controls), and a physics game, he calls Totem Balance (which reminds me of a Unity3D game called TumbleDrop).
But, if you are looking for a book with codes that you can just copy and paste to make your first game, this may not be it. This book was written before the new version of Cocos2D was released (0.99.5), so if you are downloaded the latest version of Cocos2D, and copy pasted the codes from the book, there are some that may not work out as planned. After each code bit, there is this What just Happened section wherein the author explains what happens with the code. So if you read through the explanations, you get the theory of how things work. Besides, if you really get stuck, you can simply drop by the forums, and the author, along with all the other helpful forum people is more than willing to help you.
Aside from the example games, the book also covers a lot of topics. He even covers a lot of little details that I did not think a beginner needs to know about, but helpful nonetheless. Like, pixel formats, when I first started Cocos2D, I did not really care much about the pixel formats that each of my sprites are using, but of course, when I started looking for ways to optimize my project, that’s when I find that information very useful. So I guess, if I had known about that early on, I would have had those problems with optimization. So kudos to the author for including those details.
Overall, I think this book is a very comprehensive guide to anyone, who has a bit of background in programming, and wants to start making games using Cocos2D.
Michelle Chen 