I think some people misunderstand the swipe interface... tutorial probably doesn't do the best job of explaining it. It's not swipe-per-step... it's your (now) standard plant the finger, swipe the direction you want to move, hold to keep moving that way... mechanic. If you swipe further the time speeds up... handy for crossing large maps. And you can still change course etc. while moving, just treat it like a floating 8-way d-pad.
my character doesnt follow my finger around the screen after the initial swipe, if thats what you're saying.
No, it doesn't follow your finger - it follows the direction your finger moved. If you touch and drag to the right (anywhere on the screen), your guy will move to the right. And the further you drag, the faster he'll move. And as Madgarden said, it's like a d-pad. By floating, he means you can touch anywhere to start the movement (as opposed to some games that have the d-pad fixed in one spot). Madgarden, one thing you might want to consider for SoF2 is a semi-transparent dpad image that appears beneath your thumb wherever you touch. That might clue people in more about how it works, and it's pretty common in many games.
Yeah for sure. Also what I've also had pretty good success with in prototypes is an arrow coming from the character itself, showing your input direction as a feedback mechanism. I used this in a platformer prototype, with 8-way controls even, and it works great.
I'm so confused, what's up w this game? From what I gather it's actually good? I just don't know what I'm looking at.
I have no idea what you're even asking... Or what you're looking at... It's a roguelike which is essentially a dungeon crawling game with perma death (meaning you only get one life to play) There's lots of enemies and each type has it's own unique traits, I.e. dire wolves try to call for the rest of their pack before attacking you. If you happen to have the overpowering stench of a lizardman on you the sensitive nose on the dire wolves will have them running for the hills til the smell clears. You'll also find artifacts and spells that can do all kinds of helpful things. The game does NOT tell you what any of these things are, it's up to you to figure it out for yourself. So each game you have to be careful of what you pick up, what you use, and what you fight because you only have one chance to get your prize and return to the surface.
i just dont understand why you'd want to reinvent the movement interface like this. its incredibly clunky. with a dpad i can control a character with way less hand flailing. why the hell would anyone want to swipe their finger across the screen every time they want to change direction?? if you want a way to speed up movement, then use a gesture for "run" mode... but gesturing for every damn movement is ridiculous. hell, even a system in which the character just follows your finger on the screen would be infinitely more intuitive and usable than this mess.
I play almost every iOS game with index fingers, thumbs will make anything clunkier. The control scheme works just fine for me this way.
I think the controls work very well for this style game. Much better than a dpad. You need to be careful with your movements since you only have one life. Simple just drag your finger in the direction you want your character to go. The further you drag your finger from where you first touched your finger to the glass the faster the character will move. Also remember since it is retro style the character can only move in the 8 directions. Make sure you run the tutorial before jumping straight in.
Thanks Rovorcen, You said it well. I've also found that if you do more subtle movements like leaving your finger more-or-lees in the same spot and subtly nudging it in the direction you want to go, or as you say, further if you want to go faster then it works pretty well. When I see first-time players try it I notice they often try repeated drags out away from the middle of the screen trying to get the character to move that way. Do you think the 'nudging' approach I am suggesting is a viable method as well from your experience? Jeff McCord
neonbible sure... just load up Nethack. Will possibly add some retro graphics options down the road..
So from what I gather the idea is to delve down the dungeon, find the sword, then reach the surface before time runs out. Where is the sword? How many levels down is it? Is there a range, like sometimes it's on lvl 16, sometimes 20? If so what's the range? How will I know Iv gone too far or not far enough? So many questions.
In the iOS version, it's always on the 20th floor. The old C64 version placed it randomly between 15 and 20.
Ok, about the controls i got to say that i dont like it either! Whenever i play, i have a hard time trying to make the character go the right way and i try to move it diagonally...lost count how many times i steped into a trap that i knew it was there cause the character all of a suden change directions! I always thought that a virtual analog stick would do just fine. Like Chaos Rings analog stick. It pops in wherever you touch on the screen, so it's not fixed to one position. Once i asked about this in this very topic, and the answer i got is that it is less immersive, and that is a good excuse. Still...a option in the Settings menu would please Greeks and Trojans!
Agreed, everyone should have options to suit their style. I'll be making lots of changes for the better if/when I get back on the project.
