Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
adapted in correspondence with the new reality, or more precisely, should be inven-
ted from scratch.
Surely, there is an obvious solution:
onscreen controls
. These are virtual arrow keys
and jump and fire buttons placed at the bottom part of the screen. This works fine,
but is not elegant enough. Thus, the active zones should be invisible and should cre-
atively utilize a player's taps. The following figure shows direct and indirect controls
in the game:
The control may have both direct and indirect impact on the character movement.
In the first case, a player uses the point-and-tap principle, marking the screen posi-
tion where the character should reach later. This is very similar to the point-and-click
method, which is used in adventure games on desktop computer systems. Besides
taps, multitouch gestures can be used; this is effective for a dynamic platform game
in which the protagonist is always running and the player needs to react. Such a sys-
tem can be found in the
Temple Run
game series.
When the indirect manipulation method is used, the player tries to lure the character
to a specific part of the screen. This is tricky because the character can be distracted
by something. So, the character does not fully obey the player, warranting additional
lures. The controls itself are a puzzle, and in case the concept is supported by the
corresponding level design, the gameplay can be very intriguing.
In
3robopainter
, it is better to use contextual point-and-tap mechanics: by tapping an
empty space on the screen, players choose a destination, but by touching a specific
object (a color block or an enemy), they force the character to release a shot from
the paint gun. As an option, the distance between the character and tapped region
may define the speed of movement. Players are more comfortable with contextual
controls. The game is smart enough to understand the type of action that should be
performed after the tap; players usually react to such behavior with a thought like,
"Oh, my character is brainy!" There is no need for several specific buttons or ges-
tures for each type of operations. Usually, a gameplay with controls that rely on con-
