Hi all, first of all i am not seeking technical help. Just general guidance, suggestions.
I have a space 2d game, love what i have achieved however it is aimed at mobile devices and well…
Mouse’s have left and right buttons which is PERFECT for moving and shooting.
Android has on touch. Well shit.
Currently using a virtual joystick to move the ship but just feels… clunky? un-Intuitive. Touch shoots the guns which is great but movement is not so great.
Any suggestions to allow touch on screen to move in that direction and NOT fire the guns? Double tap? is that practical?
Doesn’t seem it.
Thoughts? Inspiration? Sad as it sounds, i am a pc gamer and really don’t use mobiles for games, perhaps i am the problem and am outdated as a gamer?
Hey Belrick,
I would suggest downloading and looking at how some of the top 2D shooters have implemented their controls on mobile.
Most use the method of using your finger to drag your ship around, with auto-fire.
And then having buttons at the bottom, or double tapping to fire a secondary.
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I understand this feeling. I ended up forcing myself to play mobile games to get the feeling and input feedback I needed to work on controls for – something I’m working on for mobile.
As tough as it is - I’d suggest strongly giving in and forcing yourself to play mobile games on a daily basis for a good couple weeks, that are similar to what you are creating. It’s so beneficial as a developer - and you will gain the knowledge of how the input feels to you. Maybe you’ll make a breakthrough which draws PC gamers to give your game a shot because it has controls - built specifically for PC gamers!
Good luck -
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Shooty Skies made good use of not touching the screen as a control. Worth considering.
A lot of people hate tilt controls, but I think it works fairly well as long as the gameplay isn’t too hectic. This is an example (disclosure: I did some programming for this).
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What if you made the gameplay like Galaga, where you only really move left and right and the ships effectively come to you
You swipe left and right to strafe, swipe up to shoot.
Alternate idea: tilt the phone to strafe, tap to shoot.
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Really appreciate the time you all took to offer suggestions.
I have stopped developing to take a break spending it playing other similar mobile games for education and inspiration.
Cheers guys, you all rock.
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