Optimal controls for mobile devices?

[Tsukihime]

There are some key differences when it comes to control layouts on different input devices.


For example, with a keyboard, you have direction buttons. Same with gamepads. You also have a lot of other buttons to work with.


However, with mouse or touch, your options become limited. You no longer have something explicit for movement. There is no "press left to move left".


But you do have additional things called gestures (tap, double-tap, swipe in all sorts of directions, etc).


On mobile devices, you might have even more capabilities such as accelerometers (tilt your device, move it around, etc), and even the ability to blow air into your phone? I don't know what's going on here but I see people doing that sometimes.


Some browser games I've played had it so that if you wanted to move, you would "click" where you want to go, and it would either just go in that general direction or do some pathfinding.


This is fine if you're playing on 30 inch monitor with a fine-precision mouse, or on a tablet, but not when you're on a 5 inch display with potentially stubby fingers.


What are some good ways to implement basic controls such as movement, confirmation, selection, cancelling, and so on?

 

[Hudell]

Some browser games I've played had it so that if you wanted to move, you would "click" where you want to go, and it would either just go in that general direction or do some pathfinding.

To me that is the only acceptable way to play: Click / Touch on the action you want. 

I never even try to play any game with virtual buttons.

And having multiple different actions (swipe, double tap) may get too complicated, but it may work for some things, like a battle system.

 

[Athryl]

As much as I hate giving up the screen real estate for mobile I usually prefer the virtual direction pad in combination with touchable buttons/menus on the opposite side.  I just find it awkward to touch-to-move and navigate menus because I keep having to change my grasp on the device, whereas with the virtual joystick/buttons I can just hold it like a controller.  I've also found gestures to be unreliable at the worst moments, "No I swiped not tapped!!!" sort of things. Mind, I still don't love the virtual button control scheme by any means but have not found better for rpg type games with lots of walking and interacting.  Other game types lend themselves better to touch & gestures though.

 

[Susan]

I have, and am, using a mobile device for playing games.

Regarding operating systems:

- Windows 8/8.1 are having problems with responsiveness because the OS was still designed to accept keyboard and mouse input despite being remade for touchscreen.

- Android and iOS devices were designed for touchscreen first and foremost. Keyboard and gamepad support is secondary.

Regarding mobile devices:

- One good thing about mobile devices is that the games are usually designed with touchscreen in mind.

- It usually takes a really bad developer to make a game that isn't responsive or suitable for touchscreen.

That said, I have seen all sorts of controls for games for mobile devices. All of those methods mentioned in the original post have been implemented in many ways.

Browser games were originally made for keyboard and/or mouse interface, so they tend not be very responsive when used on touchscreen.

Some JRPGs on mobile actually do give you the option of using a virtual gamepad.

The problem with this is that the gamepad blocks part of the game's visuals (Although a lot now allow you to configure the opacity).

A few allow you to swipe from the side of the screen inwards to bring up the menu.

It is kind of hard to decide on any one good method of implementing basic controls, since they are many, depending on the game and/or genre.

The execution varies according to how well it was programmed.

 

[xizorandy]

Recently I bought the port of Final Fantasy 6 for Android. Originally designed for a gamepad type controller, they have made a few changes for touchscreens. For movement control, you touch the screen, a directional pad comes up and you move your finger in the direction you want to travel.

I've played another game like this on the Android, Gem Miner 2, where on the screen is a 'compass' and you touch the centre and and move it in the direction you want to travel.

In FF6, it appears where ever you touch which can get annoying.

In Gem Miner 2, it is a static position

sample video of FF6: 




sample video of gem miner 2: 




For FF6, when in battle you tap the name of the person, then the command, then the target.

one character (so far, i haven't finished it yet) has a set of 'moves' where on the gamepad you would press Up, Down, Left, Punch etc.. to implement that when you select the Blitz command you then have to tap the arrows in order, screenshot of this here: http://images.pocketgamer.co.uk/FCKEditorFiles//Android_FFVI_05.jpg

 

[Shaz]

My preference would be tap on a "tile" to move onto it or to interact with it. If you're worried about stubby fingers and real estate, then I'd go with tap anywhere above, below, right or left of the player and take one step in that direction - which would be like using buttons, one press/tap per step, but not as fine-tuned (or ugly) as having to tap on specific arrow buttons to move in that direction. You'd still have to be more exact with tapping right on objects to interact with them (unless you tap above, and it does a "is there anything on the tile above you? If so interact with it, if not, take a step up" kind of logic)