Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
how to replay an interesting moment. For such games it is good to have some form
of manual saving as a niche feature. There are no hot keys on mobile devices, so
saving should be activated via the menu. Saves should be graphically presented as
slots with some small screenshots. The game should be made a little rigorous by
limiting the overall number of such slots. If the number is big or unlimited, a player
can create a mess; there will be dozens of saves he would never clean up.
Alternatively, a game can automatically create special saves on locations that are
considered beautiful or important. So a player can use a special menu (it may be
titled as Memories) to give access to those saves. For example, such options can
appear after a successful completion of the main story line.
The Continue button
Anelementofthegame'scomfortisassociatedwiththe
Continue
button.Theplayer
has started the game for the second time and he wants to continue his journey; the
destination should be only one tap long. He would be annoyed if the game asked him
to perform some selection procedures such as choosing the type of mode he played
before and picking out the appropriate saves of the game. Therefore, the game must
give prominence to the
Continue
button. Hence, it is the first button on the list of the
main menu.
Visibility of the control elements
Each interactive element the game has must be expressed well. First of all, the but-
tons should look and operate like buttons; the player's eye should be able to distin-
guish them out from the background and other elements easily. It is a mistake when
a person taps a still image thinking that it is a button. The game elements should
express their nature too. Each game trigger must say, "You can push me".
Direct control
In most cases, you should develop a control system, where the direct manipulation
of game elements is used, because it looks more natural for touchscreens. Try not
to create control buttons to move the character, but let the player tap the screen and
mark the destination the character will walk to. Various increment and decrement
