I'd like an opportunity to create a thread where we discuss innovative control mechanics based soley around multitouch. Disregarding onscreen buttons (and for now, accelerometer control), some of the best games I've played revolve around gestures and clever use of multiple inputs. So what are good examples? Touchgrind was one of the first - sure, the game is flawed on the iPhone's small screen, but beef up the screen size and it becomes something so much more. The two fingers resembling your feet work so well. Leading on from that we have Sway which is more suited to the iPhone's capability. It's something that would be hard to replicate on a console with the same fluidity of motion - grabbing onto each surface feels incredibly natural. Next up, Shapium. It's definitely unique, because it uses up to five fingers at once - to trap and manipulate each Shapium to your every whim. Again, very hard to replicate on any other platform. Similarly, Bed Bugs delivers because of it's approach of using different gestures simultaneously - pinches, swipes, taps, double taps - and up to five at once. Again, it feels like it was always meant to be on iPhone and not another device. Flight Control is again well suited to the iPhone because the input feels direct - yes, it's not multitouch, but imagine that on a large screen, with many people gathering around and playing. It's an exciting time for the touch technology, and who knows, we might see more mainstream devices that have great, unique gaming opportunities. Are there any games that you can add to this list? ed: Just realised this has gone in the wrong section, sorry!!
[app]Eliss[/app] - Split or join entities, with as many fingers as you can manage. [app]Zen Bound[/app] - Manipulate an object in three dimensions.
What about Galcon? Original designed to capture 32(!) inputs before Phil found out the hardware only allows a max of 5. You can attack multiple planets with easy. You can also attack planets other planets, shift units between planets you control, and reroute flying squadrons all at the same time! --- Fingeric is also another good one. You have to tap, swipe, and hold fingers in a specific order. it's kind of hard to explain the premise but the game is free so you can try it out for yourself
Buggled - Basically finger twister. Ball Fill - Fill the screen with a certain percentage of balls. Hold your finger down to create them. Little white bouncing balls can destroy them as their being made. Kinda difficult to explain, but it's free, so definitely check it out.
Eliss - People keep mentioning that, must give it a shot. Zen Bound - Definitely, although it also uses accelerometer for rope direction too. Galcon - Forgot to mention - that would be cool with 32 inputs. You'd have to have a team of people against another team. Buggled - Looks great. Another one I haven't tried out yet!
Eliss & Sway are the only ones I can really think of where the multitouch is core. Possibly Rasta Monkey.
DrawRace [app]DrawRace[/app] is a top-view car racing game, in which the player must draw the path of the car, in order to get the best line through each corner. In addition, the car's acceleration is controlled by how fast line is drawn.
that's why illusion labs is my favorite. Instead of trying to force the platform to do things it shouldn't be doing, they embrace it and create original concepts.
