Design Principle of ios Dual-joystick shooting game

Today I will introduce you to an article on iOS game development. This article was originally written by Graham McAllister, director of the User Experience studio Vertical Slice, this section details the precautions for developers when creating such games for iOS touch screen mobile devices.

What is a dual-joystick shooting game?

Figure: Move Mode Controlled by VJR on the left, and fire task executed by VJR on the right

A dual-joystick shooting game is a game that requires two control modes: finger control, one of which controls the movement of the game role, and the other is used to execute the shooting task.

This type of game generally looks down directly from the camera perspective, or down from a slightly skewed perspective. They are basically 2D games with no forward (or Z axis) action.

Control Mode Layout

The action control joystick is usually distributed on the left. However, some games also support adjusting the settings when considering the needs of left-handed players. This layout is the same as the dual-joystick shooting game on the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.

It is the control setting method for iPhone games Minigore.

Figure: minigore

Different Game settings are different

Although there are only two control systems on the touch screen, not all dual-joystick shooting games have the same running effect. The nuances in the game design may greatly affect the user experience.

Terminology

There are no standard terms to define this touch control method, so we try to use descriptive languages to describe related operations.

The four components described below share a common function, namely the virtual joystick zone (game State note: the virtual joystick region, hereinafter referred to as VJR ).

As long as your finger is in touch with this area, even if you have entered a control action, if your finger is in touch with the screen outside this area, it is not a control operation.

Figure: The red core represents the touch point of the finger on the screen, and the peripheral circle represents the limited control area of VJR.

Four Components

Before developing an iOS Dual-joystick shooting game, there are four main control systems to choose from:

1. static or dynamic control mode

2. Always visible VJR

3. Active Control Modes outside VJR

4. Control Method near the screen edge

These four components can be combined to form different control settings. Before introducing their various MashUps, We need to describe the characteristics of these four components separately.

First of all, this article mainly uses the action control system as an example to describe, but the operation of the shooting control system is also the same. Each component is a comprehensive design of the action and shooting options, which are described below.

Component 1: dynamic or static control mode

Static Control: the touch screen control system is set in the fixed corner of the iOS device, as shown in ), then we will explain how the third component "active control mode outside VJR" extends the availability of the static control mode.

Figure: static control: VJR is only displayed at fixed position on the screen