How I did it: First, I signed up for Apple's developer program and downloaded Apple's developer tools. This part is free. I then spent a few weeks playing around with xCode (the program you use to write all the code), and generally getting familiar with the development environment.

I'd only ever written a bit of C code back in college, although I write php every day for work. For the iPhone, you have to use Objective-C, which is like C, but with some differences. (It's true, you don't NEED to use Objective-C, but unless you know what you're doing, you should plan on it.)

Apple also provides a program called Interface Builder (IB) to make the user interface for your iphone app, but I decided pretty early that I didn't like it, and tried to make as much of the interface in the code as possible. It turned out that I didn't need IB at all in the end.

I found some free chess icons online, and adapted them to my needs using the open source Gimp program, and imported them into my project.

I spent a lot of nights and weekends working one step at a time toward my goal. The game was shaping up nicely, and I had some nice eurika moments when I could finally play it.

At this point, I started putting it on all my friend's phones, everyone I worked with who would let me. They became my beta testers, and told me about any problems they had with the game.

Eventually, I submitted the game to Apple, and a week later they approved it and put it up on the App store. You can find it in iTunes by searching for ActionChess, or my name, Martin Grider.

Lessons & tips: If you've never done any programming before, you should probably take
some classes or read some books before you start this, but I found that
Apple's example programs and API documentation in xCode were pretty ood,
and enough to stumble around and get me started.

Also, it helps if you know what kind of game you're going to make when you go into it. Write all your game ideas down in a notebook or something, and refer to it as you're going. Don't be afraid to change stuff as you go, but likewise try to keep your end-goal in mind at all times.

Resources: Definitely if you're stuck, don't be afraid to look for help! I found
the folks on IRC in the #iphonedev channel to be really nice and
helpful. There are some forums and message boards around that are the
same, although generally that was too long a turn-around time to be much help to me.

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Apr 20, 2009, 03:46PM PDT | 0 comments | 1 cheer