Not since the era of the Palm Pilot have touchscreen devices been so popular, and one of the most popular is by far the iPhone. Its touch-sensitive screen means that you’re able to interact with the game you’re playing a lot more directly,a nd this changes the way inw hich games need to be designed, as if you can’t offer a justification for putting the game on a touch-screen device, it’s a waste of a gamer’s money.
Whether you’re playing a game of party poker or Halo: Reach, you’ll know that tight controls are important, and a lot of touch-screen games have started using on-screen joysticks, which are surprisingly easy to use and work really well within a touchscreen environment. However, it does limit how much you can have on screen, and this visual real-estate is your main asset, so it’s important to consider the advantages and disadvantages of constantly on-screen controls and thumbs and fingers blocking areas of the GUI or the action itself.
The best thing about games that are more tactile is that they have the capability to demonstrate more realistic controls. Turning a wheel requires you to actually turn the wheel, or your phone, and whack a mole is something that can be accomplished far more easily. The reason Angry Birds is so successful is that it has the ability to introduce its mechanics and control scheme to new users easily – everyone understands how a slingshot works, and this is a lot easier than handing someone a controller with around twenty buttons on it.
When using new tech in games design, developers really do have a responsibility to do the tech justice – not taking advantage of one or, preferably, all of its features is a way of not only holding back the medium, but also discouraging users from purchasing new tech they perceive as wasted because it’s never in use. Although motion control is still a love-it-or-hate-it topic, it’s important to think about how we can further games design as a whole. iPhone gamers, rejoice in the knowledge that you’re experiencing one of the current front-line platforms pushing the evolution of handheld games to light-speed.
