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Introduction
As the iOS platform begins to become more popular, developers are looking for ways to add
additional polish and functionality to their software. Game Center and Game Kit provide an easy
path for adding advanced functionality to your software with only a fraction of the work in the
past.
Prerequisites
This book assumes that you have the basic skills and understanding required to create an iOS
app. The book also assumes that you have the background necessary to work with Xcode 4.2.
There will be no primer on how to define methods and variables, install and launch Xcode, or
create and work with new classes. There are many excellent books on those topics. When you feel
that you are ready to begin working with some of the more advanced Cocoa technologies such as
Game Center and Game Kit, we assume that you have the basics mastered to a degree that allows
you to move through this book without consulting other texts for help.
In addition to the basic requirements, Game Center also heavily leverages blocks, which are a
fairly new programming concept to Objective-C. If you haven’t yet worked with blocks, we
recommend that you read Apple’s guide to them, which you can find by searching for blocks at
http://developer.apple.com. You should also feel comfortable working with all the features that
were introduced with the Objective-C 2.0 release.
How This Book Is Organized
As you begin working through this book, you will notice that is it broken down into standalone
chapters. Every effort has been made so that each chapter can be read independently of the
others. If you have no experience with Game Center or Game Kit yet, it is highly recommended
that you read the first two chapters before skipping around, as they will provide you with the
basic information on how to get Game Center and Game Kit up and running in your development
environment.
Each chapter follows along with a simple sample iOS game that is introduced in Chapter 1.
Following along with the book from start to finish will walk you through the process of creating a
fully functional Game Center and Game Kit–leveraged iOS game. In addition, each chapter will
build onto a Game Center Manager class that is designed to be reusable across all of your
projects.
If you already have a background in Game Center and Game Kit and are looking for help on a
specific technology, each chapter is designed to walk you through its covered technology, as well
as provide samples on how to apply the technology to your software.
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