So it seems most of my games end up being Roguelikes for Mobile. well a new game came out called
. This has got me thinking about Mobile platformers again. It has an interesting control scheme but didn't work for me. It seems most people go straight for the virtual controls on the screen and I just don't think that ever works. I have to say one of the one that works the best in my opinion has been the Rayman Jungle run series. so as I have figured out so far. I think the screen can have two "buttons". basically the left side of the screen and also the right side of the screen. some of the concepts I came up with are:
Frog game
- touching the left side of the screen makes you jump left, and right makes you jump right. game is all about jumping. holding right would have the player doing a series of jumps continually. Also I could do variable jumping, so the player could make small hops or large jumps.
Auto running
- this seems to work the best for most places. by having the player auto run I could pair the game down into one or two controls. going with a two button idea the player has up to 4 different things they could do. A/B on ground. A/B in Air. this is more along the lines of what the Rayman games have done on iOS.
Gas
- this would be one button would propel the character forward and the other button would cause the player to jump. I tried this as a control scheme but never really felt right and I always felt my hand just constantly held down to run and never stop.
I want the game to focus on one or two mechanics and then build all gameplay around that. I know i want jumping to be a main part, but most of the problems I have though of are solved by jumping. I was also thinking that perhaps the other button could be "Run" so the player would always move at a certain speed, but by holding the left side the player could sprint, this would add several new mechanics as well as allow the player to have greater controls over their jumps. Similar to original mario and how holding B would let you run faster to clear large gaps. some of the inspiration I have taken from are here
The Language of Mario