Looking For Input - Reach for Touch

[runewake2]

Hey everyone,

I'm Runewake2 the developer of games like Minefield and I'm looking for some input on a game I intend to bring to Windows Phone and Windows 8 in the next few months and I completely intended that title to be a pun.

First off, what is Reach? Reach is a game about a sentient goo ball (I call him Billy Blob, but he doesn't like it) and was developed for Game Jolt's #glitchjam over the past seven days. In it, Billy Blob has to use his two gooey appendages to flap around the level in a series of physics based puzzles. You can download the game right now for your PC over at Game Jolt. If you don't like clicking links, here is a video of myself playing through all ten of the current levels.

Now, while the game is rather buggy due mostly to the time limits of a game jam I have grown quite fond of the style it is in and intend to patch it up and bring it and more levels to both Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Almost 100% of the game already runs flawlessly on my test devices with only some minor lag on my 620. Unfortunately I don't think I can bring the specs down to support low end devices like the original Surface RT (it only gets about 2 FPS currently). The real issue here though is the input.

The current controls require a three button mouse to be completely effective or a keyboard and two button mouse. The issue here is that phones don't have mice. What I'm looking for is some suggestions on what some of the community might want for a touch system in a game like this.

The current idea I have is to create a sort of sphere around the arm and let you tap and drag (sort of angry birds-esque) to fire the arm. However, as I don't game much with touch I'm wondering if the community might have some ideas that I hadn't considered. If you do have an idea, I'd love to hear it.

I'm hoping to have this game on your Windows Phone by the end of the summer. I have to optimize some code, develop over 90 more levels, come up with a story, do more art and hire an audio guy (The current track is planned to be temporary). If you have any suggestions or feedback on a touch based input system that you think would work or just want to voice concerns about something I definitely shouldn't do please post below so I know about them before I write something else that everyone hates.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Thanks for supporting our platform by working on new games. Good luck with your games.

 

[runewake2]

I've been developing for Windows Phone/Windows 8 since my Zune HD died. Wouldn't target any other platform first. Glad you appreciate the work I do! Oh, and I do more than just games, Just not announcing anything else immediately. Give me a month or so.

If you have any input on how I can do touch controls for Reach. I'd love to hear it. Nothing ruins a game like bad controls and as a developer I'm in a uniquely bad position to design them as most things that make sense to me don't to most other people. As developers we can get to engaged with our own apps and just accept things the way we make them without feeling a need to change relatively obvious issues.

 

[ven07]

One of the best ways to get input would be to release the game as a beta to users that have signed up
This will get things moving along much faster.. However not everybody that signs up will actually give you feedback,
but 3 out of 5 will.. So give that a shot and also give the participants clear instructions on what kind of feedback you're looking for

 

[runewake2]

I will definitely have a beta sooner rather than later. The thing is this. At the moment my controls are this: The first tap is the your left arm, then while holding down the first finger your second tap is the right arm. A third tap is the middle mouse button and no control buttons exist. Obviously that's not ideal as it's just Unities default. Before I can release a beta I need to be sure that people can give actual feedback. That's why I linked the current PC build. The idea was for people to be able to see how it should feel and have suggestions on how I could make that work on touch devices. Developing the touch controller to the point I am thinking will take quite some time to even get it to a playable state again and so I want to make sure I'm going down a path that people will appreciate and will help improve the game instead of just being another thing that happens.

I could offer a few options of layouts I'm considering. If I do not receive enough feedback from this general request I'll do some local, in person testing of a few systems with some paper diagrams and see what people like from that. After that I'll prepare and release a beta for more widespread feedback.

Thank you for your suggestion, I don't want to make it sound like I'm ignoring it, but a preparing a beta takes time and in this case it'd be time spent on the very feature I am trying not to spend time doing wrong. That's the difficulty I am currently facing.

 

[ven07]

Haha I understand. Goodluck