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FPS Control Concepts

Discussion in 'Android' started by naf456, Sep 17, 2011.

  1. naf456

    naf456

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2011
    Posts:
    44
    As we all know, Touch screen devices are very awkward to play games on. Most of the time we have to rely on using virtual thumb sticks where we have no Idea what position the thumb stick is in and whether we are actually touching it or not.

    Another thing that is irritating is that all General Purpose Mobile devices have one hardware configuration which is down to a single touch screen. This means there are no triggers or secondary controls that allow you thumbs to do one thing, and you fingers to do the other.

    As you can see, Android and iOS devices are very good at being crap Game Console's. it's are job to make them not very good (are things getting confusing? :/).

    I know that the main reason gameplay is sawn in half is because of the control scheme.
    We have to make a better way of doing things-are gameplay depends on it!

    My latest Project is Halo CORE (for obvious reason's I can't release it).
    I was thinking about these concept control schemes:

    One way was simply an "Auto Fire" mode. Where by, the cross hairs are placed over an enemy, the weapon auto fire's. this however isn't really all that flexible and limits the items the player can fire at.

    I have also though about using accelerometers for turning the player- the right thumb for action buttons and the left thumb for movement. I find that the game is less deployable this way, and more fidgety. I like to play games just before going bed or maybe I just want a rest- I won't beable to play my game this way.

    Another thought was to beable to "Sweep" the weapon. have a thumb stick on the bottom corner of the screen which the player can 'pop' out and sweep the weapon.

    Or simmular to the sweep method- Have a double decker thumb stick. the bottom half sweeps the weapon while the top half turns the player.

    if you have any other idea's it would be great to hear them.
     
  2. TheAssassin

    TheAssassin

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2011
    Posts:
    51
    I'm not sure what you are talking about with the sweep control, are you saying that there would be another thumbstick that when used it would fire while moving? If so it sounds intriguing, possibly a bit confusing and might not flow very well but would make an interesting demo.

    I'm currently using an archos 43 so I appreciate not having multitouch and it only has power/volume hardware buttons so controls are a big issue. I realize that most people that are gamers will probably have multitouch devices but I always like to make things run on as much as I can.

    If you are going for non-multitouch devices you almost always have to use the accelerometer for something, probably moving although I was messing around with flight controls that used it for aiming.
    Other than the swipe thing you mentioned I can't think of any good way to do full fps controls but you could take the doom approach using the accelerometer to turn and go forward/back but it is very limited.
    You could possibly make it lock onto targets so that when lock on you would move around them using the accelerometer and press the fire button on the touch screen.

    The other thing that would be good to do for all devices is make sure that you are supporting the controllers that are out there like zeemote. unfortunatly they are few and far between. I would love to see a better bluetooth controller that works on android. Too bad that the ps3 controller requires root :(
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2011
  3. naf456

    naf456

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2011
    Posts:
    44
    Exactly what I mean...turn the firebutton into a thumbstick. I'm am going to have it setup so the the whole of the left side of the screen you can use to move and the right side of the screen to turn. then have the thumbstick to turn and fire. this way I have more screen real estate for button's.
     
  4. TheAssassin

    TheAssassin

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2011
    Posts:
    51
    So you are still talking about multitouch screen then? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to move and turn at the same time. I guess I might have misunderstood when you said "single touch screen". Now I see that you meant a single screen as opposed to two screens.
     
  5. mighty lizard

    mighty lizard

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2011
    Posts:
    1