Cocos2D: How to Setup a No-frills Physics Engine for an Endless Runner

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Note: I am rather new to programming, even more-so game programming, so I apologize if my question is rather broad but it's hard to find a tutorial for this topic.

Description of Project

A simple endless side-scrolling runner similar to Canabalt where the player may tap on the screen to make the character jump. The only movement allowed to the character sprite is along the y axis.

What I Have...

  • A scrolling parallax background.

What I Want...

  • A character sprite that has a bounding box
  • A ground sprite that has a bounding box
  • A way to tell when either is touching/intersecting
  • A means to keep them from continuing to intersect

What I've Tried...

  • Ray Wenderlich's Tutorial (semi-outdated, also is tile-based which I didn't like very much and seemed quite prone to buggy-ness)

There are really two parts to my question:

  • For a beginner to physics, is it recommended to just stick with an API like Chipmunk or Box2D?
    if first question == FALSE
  • What is the best way to go about building my own physics engine given the above information?

Thank you in advance for any tips/advice you may share. :)

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iosobjective-ccocos2d-iphonephysics
You don't need a physics engine here, as long as all you need to check are bounding box (rectangle) intersections. - LearnCocos2D
What I'm wanting to do is apply force constantly to the sprite and check for intersections and if there are any, correct them by moving the sprite back into position just outside the ground's bounding box (the recipe for a very basic physics engine). I just don't know how to do that with Cocos2D exactly. - crenfrow

1 Answers

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Might I suggest using Chipmunk. Like you, I too wanted to build a game with a minimalist but efficient collision detection and force manipulation system. After loads of frustration and days wasted trying to implement some basic physics, I gave up and decided to learn an engine. Chipmunk, though intimidating at first glance, is actually very simple to learn. I have been able to use it in projects for just simple, efficient collision detection, as well as full-fledged physics-simulations.

There are a couple different versions of chipmunk (chipmunk pro, studio, etc.) that are arguably even easier to use than the original. I managed to get bye with the basic chipmunk after reading through a few code examples provided within chipmunk. Additionally, SpaceManager is a wrapper for chipmunk in obj-c that allows you to ignore all the c-based functions. It provides a lot of convenient methods for building spaces, adding bodies and sprites, and manipulating objects. It can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/chipmunk-spacemanager/

Unless you are very, very well versed in many areas of physics, don't try implementing your own engine.