Reddit reviews Learning Cocos2D: A Hands-On Guide to Building iOS Games with Cocos2D, Box2D, and Chipmunk
We found 3 Reddit comments about Learning Cocos2D: A Hands-On Guide to Building iOS Games with Cocos2D, Box2D, and Chipmunk. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Objective-C is a superset of C and so has a C base, although the syntax is different (mostly).
There are a few frameworks in Apple's library which are written in C but you may not need those.
I would recommend you use a game engine to write your game - particularly Cocos-2d, as it makes development quicker and easier.
As a previous poster has mentioned, Ray's website is very good at learning IOS programming and it also has good sections on Cocos-2d.
As for books, I can recommend: (I'm in the UK so I'll use amazon uk links).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Cocos2D-Hands--Building-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321735625/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367517122&sr=8-1&keywords=cocos2d (Ray's own book)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-cocos2d-Game-Development-iOS/dp/143024416X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367517122&sr=8-2&keywords=cocos2d
Objective-c
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Programming-Objective-C-Automatic-Reference-Developers/dp/0321811909/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367517200&sr=1-5&keywords=ios+programming
Plus there are LOADS of good tutorials online.
I had done just a little bit of Python (like, a few weeks of tinkering) before I got started with Objective C. I read some of Kochan's book Programming with Objective C whilst also reading some of Learning Cocos2D, but ultimately I just started playing, getting stuck and hitting the interwebs to get unstuck (reading lots, not spamming forums). I'm about 8 months in and I think I'm about 3 months from releasing my first game.
With my limited experience my advice would be to pick a simple project that you're genuinely interested in, chop it up into little problems / tasks, and work through them. If you're totally stuck, you probably need to cut that task up into smaller pieces. Work hard, read a lot, take a break occasionally, write a blog or diary so you can track your own progress, and have fun!
Starting iOS development is one of the best things I've ever done, although I'm not sure the missus would agree!
By the way, a new book on Cocos2d was just released. My copy arrives today. Remind me, and I'll post observations after I've had a chance to work with it.
Third-party documentation is a win in cocos2d's column, but I hate to let that be the deciding factor, because it often boils down to "I'm using this because everybody else is using it."