I'm new to game development, so I hope this isn't too dumb a question. I'm making an iPad game using Cocos2D and am trying to figure out how to make a good pathfinding algorithm. Is there a good way to make a pathfinding algorithm that doesn't require everything to be placed on a tile grid? All the guides I've found so far seem to requite the game to be a tile game.

I would really appreciate any help or links to good articles/guides.

Thanks in advance!

A* isn't tile-based, though it's often used in grid-based scenarios.

A* is node-based. The nodes don't need to be evenly spaced or on a grid, though they work fine on grids also.

See also: Navigation meshes ("nav meshes").

A* can be complicated for beginners. But it's the most widely accepted algorithm, and after you get the Breadth First Search complete the rest should be a piece of cake ;)

A* isn't tile-based, though it's often used in grid-based scenarios.
A* is node-based. The nodes don't need to be evenly spaced or on a grid, though they work fine on grids also.

Amit Patel has a good introduction to Grids and Graphs that might help getting to grips with this. :)

(He also provides an excellent Introduction to A* and a more detailed set of "A* Pages".)

Hope that helps! :)