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Geek Culture / Control Mechanism Suggestions

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Fallout
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Posted: 12th Apr 2011 18:02 Edited at: 12th Apr 2011 18:08
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Hi guys. I'm working on an Android game at the moment. It's a remake of my old game Big Fat Ice Football, renamed Fat Ball. Nice and politically correct. The movement of the player is essentially 'race car', i.e. a forwards key, and two rotate left and right keys. That's how it played on the PC. There is no backwards key, since over-shooting runs and having to spin around was part of the games charm and made it challenging.

For Android, I am going to implement a 'follow your finger' style control mechanism, where the player touches the screen and the guy tries to run towards it, but I also want a d-pad style control because I am going to implement 2-player on the same handset (i.e. two d-pads with multi-touch detection). The thing is, I just don't like it very much. I haven't implemented the controls yet, but it doesn't look intuitive.

So my question is, has anyone got any ideas for a good control mechanism to help me implement two player on the same touch screen phone?

Screenshot from a hi-res WVGA phone screen, showing one control pad. The other would be in the bottom right.


Edit: The other issue to consider is avoiding covering the screen as much as possible.

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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 12th Apr 2011 18:22
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I would put your d-pad at on the short side of the screen behind the goal. Then, in 2-player mode, you can just have another d-pad behind the other goal. That would give players the most "room" and keep thier hands from blocking each others view.

Ron

a.k.a WOLF!
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Fallout
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Posted: 12th Apr 2011 19:30 Edited at: 12th Apr 2011 19:30
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Not a bad idea Ron. I have a scrolling mechanism anyway. Since the image above shows a wide screen, I'll have to scroll for non wide screens otherwise the goals would be off screen. I could then scroll beyond the goal, so that the d-pad ends up behind the goal when the ball actually goes in. The only issue with that is, the more the screen scrolls, the more time a character can spend off screen, making it hard for the player to control and requiring other GUI elements to tell the player where they are. Hmmm. Touch screens are often their own worst enemy.

Pictured is a better dpad. I dont think I need 5 buttons. I think this triangle works best and being between forward and a direction would result in both being pressed. I'll probably keep it here, but scroll the pitch more so that the ball can never appear behind a pad.



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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 12th Apr 2011 20:18
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If you keep it there (bottom left), I would suggest putting player 2's controls on the opposite side of the screen (top right). That way, both people can play without standing shoulder to shoulder.

I also like the 3 button controls much better than the five. It looks much less complicated.

Looks like fun!

Ron

a.k.a WOLF!
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Fallout
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Posted: 12th Apr 2011 21:25
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Actually, I can see the merit in that. What I may do then is allow the player to customize where the control pads go and perhaps their size as well. I think these kind of unestablished interfaces can annoy some peeps as they prefer what they know, so the more customization the better. Thanks for you suggestions chap.

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 05:45
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make a toch sensative circle in one of the corners where your toch determines the direction of the dude. make another toch button that tells him to move (in whatever direction he is pointed at) maybe if you want you could even spice it up a but, and instead of just make a "move forward" button, you can make it like a bar and the higher on that bar you slide your finger, the faster he goes, move the finger down,- he slows down. I hope this helps

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Van B
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 13:12 Edited at: 13th Apr 2011 13:16
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Why add a D-pad though?

I see D-pads and little joysticks on touch screen all the time, and they are all a pain to use.

Why not have it register the first touch location, then use any continued touch locations to decide the movement direction. So you would press anywhere on the screen, then move your finger to move the player, have him face in the direction that your finger moved. It would work like a d-pad or slider, but without the same limitations.

Thing is, as soon as you put your finger on the virtual d-pad, it's gone, you can't see it, you have to work out where on this d-pad your finger is. So why not let the player touch anywhere and drag to move, then they can use any part of the screen, change part when the player get's close etc etc. Personally, I avoid app's with fake joysticks, sliders and d-pads - I just don't get on with them at all.

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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 13:22
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VanB,
That would work great for single player games, but in 2-player mode, there would be no way to tell which touch is from which player (not to mention the chrashing of hands). If it was only one player, then that would definitely be the way to do it. Multiplayer (on the same screen) is a different can of worms.

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Interplanetary Funk
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 13:50 Edited at: 13th Apr 2011 13:59
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-blank-

@Mods
Delete this post please

Get on my level
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Interplanetary Funk
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 13:50
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give each player a circle which they move with their fingers, then direct the player to the circle instead of where someone pressed.

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Van B
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 14:03
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Or give them half the screen each for the gesture type controls. Although, not every Android device supports multi-touch, so without that you couldn't have 2-players anyway. I'd consider only supporting 2-player mode if the device has multi-touch.

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Fallout
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 17:19
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I see what you guys are saying. I think this will be a case of having to suck it and see. While I would rather adopt a more intuitive interface, the two player issue on the same phone means that I need to prevent people from hiding the screen or crashing hands. I need to limit where they put their hand so it's away from the action. While I will use more intuitive gesturing for single player, I can't see anything more viable than the dpad for 2 player.

I'll keep thinking!

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PrimalBeans
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Posted: 18th Apr 2011 04:17
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its hard to imagine two ppl sharing a device like that and playing a multi player game. Im not sure what you would do...

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Fallout
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Posted: 19th Apr 2011 22:59
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Quote: "its hard to imagine two ppl sharing a device like that and playing a multi player game. Im not sure what you would do..."


It is indeed, and having thought about it for a while, I've decided to drop the idea. Instead, I'm going to implement a BlueTooth multi-player. That way it'll avoid having a complex interface and also may improve sales, since two copies will be needed for two player. It'll also allow me to implement 4 player, which was possible on the PC version but wouldn't have been possible on one phone. 4 fat fingers on one phone =

Here's a dev vid showing the touch based system I'm using. It's tricky, but fun!



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