[kayoone]

pretty neat! I am not an iOS developer but if i understand correctly this uses the new Sprite Kit stuff included in iOS8 for 2d rendering right ? Is this a threat to existing 2d/game engines ? Not sure where SpriteKit integrates into the existing stack for making a game.

[babuskov]

Looks like a good way for Apple to lock the developers to their platform. In past glory days people used to make games for iOS first and consider porting to Android much later. These days developers think cross-platform from the start, esp. since it's much easier to test waters and iterate on Android. I guess that SpriteKit is an attempt to stop this trend. Smart move by Apple IMHO, but perhaps a little bit too late.

[chillingeffect]

I see your polite, critical, level-headed opinion has been down voted into gray dust, despite my meager support. I entreat those who pass by here to drink in my own following opinion: I think you're operating from the democratic ideal that "all people will opine equally about all topics at all times."

The departure from this ideal, I've discovered, is that there is a "Practical Crowd" who will swoop through when questions of practicality, such as cross-platform compatibility come up. Their opinions will be nearly absolute and they will be all but intolerant of the "weak" who claim that merely targeting Windows, Linux and OSX is "enough." They will justify with numerous cherry-picked examples from history, starkly, if not carefully, considered arguments toward the future, and with evidence of grit on their fingers from the present, in which the particular ideal is espoused. At that time, they will down vote anyone deviant enough to cheer for Swift.

Yet, currently my friend, the Apple Crowd has the floor. Any practical concerns are scheduled after the celebration. Think of this when you read the next cross-platform thread and see the Apple fans trying to get a point in edgewise amongst The Practical. There is very little global reality, mainly local basins of morality.

[austinz]

SpriteKit was released last year with iOS 7. It's a pretty much self-contained 2D game engine like Cocos2D, including stuff like physics simulation. iOS 8 is going to ship with SceneKit, which is similar but for simple 3D games.

[yowmamasita]

How extensive is the physics engine implementation?

[austinz]

Wikipedia claims that SpriteKit uses the Box2D engine internally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box2D

[coldcode]

In iOS7 it is Box2d, but not all of it was implemented. There is likely a lot more now in iOS8. There is also a 3d version which I assume uses Box3d.