Home > iPhone controls, revisited…

iPhone controls, revisited…

April 16,2009 8:41 am 2 comments

Last night, I played the latest build on my phone and it hit me…we’re actually really close to finishing.  Most of the elements are in, well, pretty much everything is in, the rules are working, the controls scheme plays nicely and the menu systems are working.  All the design is done…now we’re just polishing and tightening.

For those who have seen the rough prototype (you know who you are) the controls now make it just as fun to play as the PC prototype.  The controls scheme, which we were fighting with earlier, now is fun and easy to move the character around and fire.  We’ve implemented a few helps throughout the boards to really make the beginning player (or even the veteran Archonian) enjoy picking up the game and playing.

Our goal for this game is to make it as simple as possible to pick up and play AND HAVE FUN.  We know that a good percentage of the people who will first buy this game on the iPhone will be unfamiliar with it or the controls…and let’s face it, the virtual Dpad has its limitations, which is what I’ve been trying to get around…but to no avail.  It is the most widely recognized and accepted means of controlling characters in a game such as this on the iPHone.  Some have done it well, others haven’t.  We’ve made controlling easy and almost second nature (as much as we can.)  I think that control is the most important issue when making games for the iPhone.  It doesn’t matter how cool it looks, or what features it has, if you can’t control the character’s movements easily, people will lose interest and the game will fail (it’s supposed to be fun, not frustrating.)

With that said, I think we got it.  Now it’s just polishing…getting the artwork looking great and all the little stuff.