Phone Controls for Desktop Game

Game Play & Game Design
#1

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a game for the last couple of months and it’s turning out great! It’s a platformer where the player can move around and hit or shoot enemies. I’m polishing it up and getting ready to test it on android and iOS, but I’m not quite sure how I should implement the controls. On keyboard and mouse, the player moves and jumps using WAD (W-Jump, A,D move sideways), F for a punch and mouse + Left click to aim and shoot.

I’ve been considering removing the aim to shoot feature and only allow horizontal shooting, but my maps have slopes and the enemies can fly.

I’ve also considered an auto-targeting mechanism but that seems like it would take the fun away from the game.

Any suggestions would really be appreciated :slight_smile:

#2

Fail. You cannot design a desktop game and expect it to work on mobile. Well, you can make it “work”, but will be shit, and no-one will want to play it beyond kicking the tyres.

Solution: make a completely new game for mobile.

Cas :slight_smile:

ps. I’m not being facetious… experience tells me also that I may even be right in this case too.

#3

Have you ever played Call of Duty on mobile? If not maybe try that out for some ideas. I’d say watch a video, but if you haven’t played it you don’t know how bad the controls are.

Anyway it can be done, but like princec said, you are probably better off making a game exclusively for mobile than doing a conversion.

If you really want to do it make sure you play a lot of games with different control schemes before you start. There are a lot of different ways to implement the controls in conversion-to-mobile games, but I don’t think anyone has nailed it.

#4

@thedanisaur

Offtopic : Ehhh, did I say that quote in your bio on here? lol

#5

@Gibbo3771 why yes, yes you did.

#6

Sorry that sounds a bit negative :frowning: It’s just the unfortunate truth.

You might also discover that the sorts of situations people find themselves in with mobile devices when playing games also don’t really lend themselves well to traditional immersive style games at all too. People want to play games on mobile devices to distract themselves from short periods of boredom. They don’t want particularly vexing challenges, certainly not ones that require them to concentrate hard, nor anything that requires even the remotest bit of learning controls.

Cas :slight_smile:

#7

What he is nicely trying to say, the majority of people that play games on their mobile phone are most likely on a short break from work, in bed when the missus won’t put out or taking a huge shit on the toilet. They are also usually the lowest common denominator, they don’t want to be challenged but they want to “feel” challenged. These people are usually at their happiest when they feel fulfilled, most of the time they go about with an undeserved sense of accomplishment anyway.

Make a game that rewards the player regardless of how trivial it is, make it shiny with lots of effects, controls should be bare minimum and easy to use and over all; the game should be easy enough to complete but hard enough to fail the first few tries.

Good luck with that.

#8

If I were you I would at least try to port it over before you listen to others and ditch your whole game.
Auto-aim sounds good, maybe you will be able to come up with some good ideas that makes the controls at least semi-decent.
With that being said, yes, the next time you’re making a game and there’s even a slight chance that you’ll want to port it to mobile keep the controls (and the target audience) in mind. :slight_smile:

#9

Didn’t say ditch the game! Just keep it on the desktop. Think of a different game for mobile.

(or of course, make whatever you like for mobile, just don’t expect anyone else to play it ;))

Cas :slight_smile:

#10

cas is right, HOWEVER, its not written in stone

games that are mouse only can work fine on the phone.
Example: Bejeweled, Plants vs Zombies… you know that sort of thing

If you only need a mouse to play on the desktop it can work

#11

It’s a bit more subtle than that… look at how the mouse is used. Basically … like a single finger.

Cas :slight_smile: