An excellent site with loads of tutorials by Tim Roadley

Found this site by Tim Roadley with lots of tutorials and other very helpful information. He even has a game templates containing level selection similar to my Multiple Level Template, and I quite like his way of saving data to XML file for data persistence, might add that to my code soon.Highly recommend...

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Another issue with Appirater [with workaround]

Tried Appirater with my other game "Mespfi", which is a pure Cocoa game. Strangely as shown below, all the values stored in Localized.strings wouldn't load properly, only the key name been displayed instead.First thought was Xcode 4.5 issue or not setup Localization properly after migrated to XCode 4.5, or the Localized.strings file problem. Tried lots of debug logging but still couldn't work out why. Then slowly back-out all the changes one by one, and found that when I disabled Appirater completely...

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Localisation in XCode 4.5 drives me crazy [Fixed]

Don't know why, after upgraded to XCode 4.5, testing localisation becomes a nightmare...First I was stuck due to can't find the plus/minus buttons, finally found that it's been relocated after XCode 4.4, as I was on Xcode 4.3.3 before the upgrade, so wasn't aware about this.Then found that if I change the language in simulator to Spanish, when it runs it's still in English. Deleted app from simulator, clean and re-run again, it works, then tried again, back to English again. Similar problem happens with the other languages too... I start wondering is adding multiple language support...

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Issue with Appirater [With workaround]

I was adding Appirater to my game, however found a problem.It works perfectly with iPad, as shown below:However, when it's in iPhone, probably due to it's running in Landscape mode, there wasn't sufficient space to fit in both the title plus the message, therefore the message got cut-off...I tried shorten the message, but then it would be very confusing. After some research, I found this post by Himanshu Sharma about how to change the font size, which is the most simplest solution...

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Problem with TPG??

Tried to logon to my blog from home ADSL2 network, strangely Safari shows a blank screen and hung for a long time. Tried FireFox and this is what I got:"Server not found" error for the top half, then a huge blue strip, then part of my last post at the bottom. What the??!!Tried on my iPhone, and it loads up straight away!? Very strange.I unplugged the network cable, use my iPhone's personal hotspot and everything works!Must be problem with my ISP TPG and found all sites related to "xxx.blogspot.com"...

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iPhone 3GS ARMv7 issue with XCode 4.5 fixed!

A not-so-happy startAt first I was a bit depressed today, as both my apps failed to compile in Xcode 4.5, plus from yesterday's bad experience - Xcode 4.5 won't generate the ARMv6 code to run on my old 3GS, then found old Xcode 4.3.3 disappeared, only have much older 4.2 left, looks like I might need to keep 2 versions of code !!??What a mess...Quickly worked out an action plan - I am going to uninstall Xcode 4.5, install Xcode 4.3 (or 4.4), then install Xcode 4.5 on a different folder...

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First day with XCode 4.5

Upgraded my iPhone 3GS to iOS 6 and quite happy to see the "Personal Hotspot sharing through USB not working" issue fixed.However, after I downloaded Xcode 4.5 and tried to compile my 2 games, both failed... Still working on resolving the issues at the moment.First it automatically asked to add this new launch image called "Default-568h@2x.png" - which is a really strange name. And it's an empty, black 640 x 1136 image.Then there's lots of warnings about Cocos2D 1.0 library - as it still compiles,...

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GMail issue with iPhone built-in Mail app fixed

Spent some time testing different GMail settings, even installed this App called "Google Authenticator" to scan a QR Code (which is quite cool) - but this doesn't help at all. In the end it's this thing called "Application Specific Password" that fixed the problem.Ok, if you provided your mobile number to GMail, you will have this security function called "2-step verification" enabled. Let me know if you got better idea, but so far the only way I can get GMail working with the iPhone built-in Mail app is by "Application Specific Password".Any way, one annoying issue resolved... Move on to the...

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Just have to wait a few more days...

iOS 6 and XCode 4.5 would be available soon. Only thing that troubles me is how to change my app to cater for another new resolution (1136 x 640) for the new iPhone 5. Did some research and all I could see is this new file called "Default-568h@2x.png" in mentioned in a few pages.There's even some sites (eg. this one) which posted a few screens about the new XCode 4.5 with "iPhone (Retina 4-inch)" simulator. Gee, I thought you are not suppose to do that??!!Don't have the time to play with the GM build, so would have to wait for it's official release then... Hope it  won't be that difficult.......

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Seriously GoDaddy, you call that an apology email?

Received an email with the subject line saying "Please accept our apology and your enclosed offer" from GoDaddy and before reading it I thought they will be waiving some fee for 12 months or something like that to compensate all the trouble they have caused. Instead, as shown below, they ridiculously asking for more business, only offer 30% discount? and it's only available for the next 7 days??!! You got to be kidding me...

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Never save sensitive information to NSUserDefaults

Just read something important from this "Basic Security in iOS 5" article on Ray Wenderlich's site that:never save sensitive information to NSUserDefaults – these values are stored in PLAIN TEXT (i.e. just like this blog post) for all to see (and is also saved inside of your application bundle). Be mindful of what you put in there.Which is quite interesting as I never know it's stored in plain text and also saved inside application bund...

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Applications are expected to have a root view controller at the end of application launch

Was testing the example game that comes with Nextpeer, and found this line in the log:2012-09-11 23:24:19.571 ExampleGame[9101:15b03] cocos2d: Frame interval: 12012-09-11 23:24:19.573 ExampleGame[9101:15b03] Using Nextpeer version (1.2.10). https://api.nextpeer.com/v2/sdk2012-09-11 23:24:19.857 ExampleGame[9101:15b03] Applications are expected to have a root view controller at the end of application launch2012-09-11 23:24:19.857 ExampleGame[9101:15b03] cocos2d: surface size: 320x4802012-09-11 23:24:22.441 ExampleGame[9101:15b03] cocos2d: Frame interval: 152012-09-11 23:24:29.960 ExampleGame[9101:15b03]...

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OpenGL error 0x0506 in -[EAGLView swapBuffers]

While integrating buzzdoes to my "Where is it Smart Kid edition" game, I found that if I trigger buzzdoes using the popup (when the app first loaded, not the button on the main menu), it will hung when I exit buzzdoes and return to game. Can see tones of error as below:2012-09-12 23:53:24.717 Where is it[21084:707] failed to call context2012-09-12 23:53:24.723 Where is it[21084:707] cocos2d: surface size: 480x3202012-09-12 23:53:24.726 Where is it[21084:707] Failed to make complete framebuffer object 8cddOpenGL error 0x0506 in -[EAGLView swapBuffers]OpenGL error 0x0506 in -[EAGLView swapBuffers]OpenGL...

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No Apple allowed?

Everyone must  be anxiously waiting for the new iPhone announcement like me. Was thinking of staying up for the news, but a quick Google shows 10 am Wednesday in San Francisco will be around 3 am Thursday Sydney time - still have to go to work tomorrow, so probably have to wait until tomorrow morning then....:-(Ok, what's this "No Apple allowed?" thing I mentioned in the title, you might ask. Well, it's just that I recall seeing this sign a few weeks back:If you compare it to the old Apple...

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Adding buzzdoes to my app

I tried adding buzzdoes to my Where is it - Smart Kids Edition today, it was quite easy and straight forward. To be honest, I actually spent more time on fixing the icon then the actual integration work...First, you create an account and logon to their developer site, then click the "Add new iOS application" icon. You then have to download the SDK, and follow the instruction to setup your app.The screen below shows the Apps screen, the 3 floating buttons were quite fancy. Please...

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Problem after added mobile to my GMail account

Can't remember when it started, when accessed from browser, Gmail keep popping up this extra screen asking me to add my mobile number for security reason after logged on. And even if you tried to skip it, it then shows you another annoying confirmation. What the %#$%^$&%^^$#$#.......Until recently, I finally gave in and added my mobile. Seems ok at the beginning, just that if I logged in to a different machine, it will send me an SMS with verification code and I have to entered the received...

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Creating Git repository for existing XCode projects

This problem has been puzzling me for a while...Scenario 1:You started a simple project just for a quick/simple test.XCode gives you option to "Create local git repository for this project", and for some reason you didn't/forgot to tick it...After you spent some time on it, your simple proof-of-concept project seems to worth a lot more now and you want to add it to the source control. Ooops, how do you do that again??!! You tried every possible options under "File -> Source Control" menu but...

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Cocos2d Multi-level Template (including Cocos2d sliding menu grid)

At the beginning....At first I was working on a proof of concept game, which is multi-levelled and I started thinking about how to create an "Angry Bird" style multi-level sliding grid. To avoid reinventing the wheel, I found this page from Apptinker blog which adds extra labelling for each level icons on top of Brandon Reynold's excellent piece of work (video shown below).Some extras on top ....However, after some testings, I found a few things that can be further improved:(1)...

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Three Powerful 3D Software from DAZ 3D - free!

Got this info about DAZ 3D from friend, have a quick look and as shown below quite surprised to find that they are offering 3 of their Powerful 3D software for free (only 2 shown in screen dump below as image too long) - that's DAZ Studio Pro 4.5, Bryce Pro 7 and Hexagon 2.5, WOW! I heard about the name Bryce ages ago, but to be honest never really paid much attention about it as I wasn't into 3D until started learning Unity recently.Had a quick look at some of the demo videos and...

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Any one tried "buzzdoes"?

Thanks to a reader's comment, otherwise I never heard of the name buzzdoes before. Had a quick look at the site and found the concept quite interesting - when users clicked on the icon in your app, it lists out all the contacts and encourage your users to tap on it to recommend your app to friends. Pretty cool!Wonder if any one tried this and what's the experience like (for integrating to your game/app)?Actually, one of the main thing that caught my attention was noticing the famous game "Tiny Wing" listed in there. I thought there were some reports (e.g. this one) saying the game...

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