How to debug on a real Apple Watch

Today my Apple Watch was delivered :-)

I immediately tried to deploy my prototypes to the Apple Watch, to see how the behave on real hardware. The simulator gives only a first impression. 

Here are my learnings: Basically you need to perform two steps:

• Add the UDID of your apple watch to the developer portal
• Update your provisioning profile to support the watch

Luckily XCode can manage the whole process for you.

SWIFT 1.2

I've updated all my SWIFT tutorials to SWIFT 1.2 and XCode 6.3. You can find them here.

New Blog Domain

I've moved my blog to a new domain: developerplayground.net

Unfortunately it looks like Google has lost it's interest in Blogspot. There have been no major updates in the last two years.

It also looks like that it is nearly impossible to get AdSense running with a Blogspot domain.

I have moved my blog to a new domain. I'll continue posting links and copies of my articles also here for a while. 

How to add Social Media Integration to your iOS App

Welcome to my new SWIFT tutorial. Today I'll show you how to implement social media integration for Facebook and Twitter. Additionally I'll explain Email integration and how to embed a direct  AppStore link to provide a convenient way for players to rate an app.

My latest game in the AppStore contains a sample:

The four buttons at the bottom of the screen trigger the social actions:

How to implement a space shooter with SpriteKit and SWIFT is in the AppStore

The sample game developed in my SpriteKit Tutorial is in the AppStore:

SourceCode: here

A more sophisticate game also based on the tutorial:

Tutorial Overview:

• Part 1: Initial project setup, sprite creation and movement using SKAction and SKConstraint

• Part 2: Adding enemies, bullets and shooting with SKAction and SKConstraint

• Part 3: Adding a HUD with SKLabelNode and SKSpriteNode

• Part 4: Adding basic game logic and collision detection

• Part 5: Adding particles and sound 

• Part 6: GameCenter integration

• Part 7: iAd integration

• Part 8: In-App Purchases

How to implement a space shooter with SpriteKit and SWIFT - Part 7: iAd integration

Adding iAd integration

Welcome to part 7 of my swift programming tutorial. In the previous parts we've created sprites, added movement, enemies with a follow behaviour, bullets & shooting, a HUD, collision detection, sound & particle effects and a global leaderboard using Game Center. Today I'll show how to integrate the Apple Advertising Framework iAD:

• Enable iAd in iTunesConnect
• Add a Banner Ad (at the bottom of the screen)
• Add a Fullscreen Ad (after game over)

How to implement a space shooter with SpriteKit and SWIFT - Part 6: Game Center integration

Adding Game Center integration

Welcome to part 6 of my swift programming tutorial. In the previous parts we've created sprites, added movement, created enemies which follow our sprite, added bullets, a HUD, collision detection, sound and particle effects. Today I'll show how to integrate Game Center to add a global leaderboard.

The most complex part is doing configuration stuff in iTunes Connect. 3 from 4 steps of this tutorial are related to that. You need a paid Apple Developer Account to execute the next steps:

• Upload our App to iTunes Connect  
• Create a Leaderboard in iTunes Connect 
• Create a Sandbox Test User in iTunes Connect
• Coding