Recently, I've been wondering why Enix doesn't want to port or make a Kingdom Hearts game for the iPhone. I thought maybe it was because they didn't see much money in it. Maybe they are just too busy making them for the DS and PSP. Maybe they just don't think the iPod Touch/iPhone is legit enough. But then it dawned on me that they weren't thinking of an "iKH" because of the controls hassle. Although this might not be the case, I spent some time wondering how a game of this magnitude in controls would work. Here's my idea. Please read my entire post before making assumptions and comments. Another one with horizontal controls flip. Yeah, it's pretty much a picture of my hands holding an iPod Touch with a copy/paste picture of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days done in paint shop with buttons taken from Hero of Sparta, but bear with me here, this is only a concept. As you can see, I put the walk/run analog stick to the right, so the command menu would be more accessible. I also did this to avoid getting in the way of the game's natural interface, but maybe Enix could switch the HP bars with the walking analogue so it would be at the bottom of the screen, if they ever did an "iKH". As you can see, to the left is jump, the button to use the selected command from the commands menu, like attack, magic, or items, and the special button for special abilities. Now, don't jump to conclusions and say the special button is in the way of the game play. In Kingdom Hearts on the consoles, the triangle appears on the screen when you're allowed to do a special on your enemy. That's what I would like this button to do. Like the combo button in Hero of Sparta: to only appear when you can use it and remain invisible when you can't use it. Thus, why I put that Star on it. I'm sorry for the ugly looking pause button at the top of the screen. As I said before, it's just a concept. Another issue is the commands menu. It would seem like a bad idea, since the command options are a tad small and hard to touch, but I have an idea. instead of tapping the desired option with your thumb, you would hold your thumb down on the list and rub your thumb up and down to scroll. And there could be a little icon (representing the item or command) popping out to the side of the red bar your thumb is currently on to let you know what you're selecting. And last of all, the camera angle can be moved by swiping on the screen, but in this case, I hope that Enix would make that very sensitive and fast, so that one rub across the screen would make a 360* rotation of the environment. So that's my idea for the control scheme. Please send feedback or suggestions/criticism. If I knew how to contact Square, I'd use this as part of a pitch on why they should make an "iKH", whether it would be original on the iPhone or just a port.
they would have to move the HUD around completely, a joystick on top would not work for comfort reasons. Thats all I could say about that.
Well, I only put it on top because I didn't want it to get in the way of the HP meters, but I know what you mean. But if they were committed, Enix could switch them, the HP meters and the analogue stick. After all, they put them there in the first place. I guess I could remake it to switch them myself. Edit: There we go. What do you think now?
I'd say don't hesitate. This is pretty much my favorite device. It's really fun to touch and tilt. BTW, does anyone know where I can contact Square Enix so I can give this pitch?
CaseyLay's post: 666. LOL, anyways, I have never played Kingdom Hearts myself (acually i did... but just for a few minutes), and well I can't say anything about the control scheme, it would be fun to have Kingdom Hearts for the iPhone or iPod
Personally I'd prefer the whole thing flipped horizontally. I see your reasoning behind this layout, but I've spent roughly 19 years using my left hand to control movement in games and the change would really disrupt the feel for me.
TBQH...I'd rather not have a virtual analog stick and always onscreen buttons. With a multitouch screen and an accelerometer, it just isn't really all that necessary for most games. For something like KH, there are several methods that can be used. How about having the left hand side of the screen control things via tap on direction to move, or better yet swipe to move. Then the right hand side split in half, with the bottom half used for attack and the top half used for jump. Command could be brought up by tapping on a little section on the bottom center of the screen. Or put three primary segments/sections on screen, invisible (with an option to increase opacity so gamers who want to see it at all times can). The left hand segment would be swipe controls, the middle to bring up and choose commands, the left hand side again split into top and bottom halves (top for jump, bottom for "action"). Using this method, Squeenix can even experiment by having the center section, controlling "command", instead of being a menu driven system be a swipe patterns driven system ala what THQ attempted with Star Wars Unleashed and what Konami did better with in the Castlevania games on DS (for which "spells" were cast by drawing specific patterns on the touch screen). They could also opt to use the control system that was implemented in Blue Skies and Payback. The screen would have virtual "hotboxes" as "buttons" which could be invisible or visible depending on opacity chosen. On the left hand side there could be an up and down for forward and backward movement respectively. Turning would be handled via the accelerometer. The right hand side would have "jump" and "action". Command could be menu driven via either calling up a real time menu by tapping the center of the screen (or bottom of the center), or even by having the command menu onscreen on the bottom of the screen at all times and allowing the user to scroll the various options via swiping, and selecting via tapping the selection. What I'm getting at is that devs need not be tied to the idea of a virtual analog stick and virtual buttons cluttering up the screen at all times. They can think outside the box and come up with great methods of control that use the uniqueness of the devices to the greatest extent.
*has an idea* *works on it in photoshop* *submits it* *waits for comments* *reads one positive comment and feels good about it* *reads one negative comment and edits it* *waits for comments* *reads another positive comment and feels good about it* *reads another negative comment and edits it again* *waits for comments* *reads ANOTHER positive comment and feels good about it* *reads ANOTHER negative comment and edits it AGAIN* *waits for comments* *reads yet another positive comment and feels good about it again* *reads this comment and punches a tree* I just posted all that to show you my feeling of slight frustration, but I did ask for feedback, positive AND negative, so I should have seen it coming. And about the option for turning up the opacity of the hotboxes. Who would do that??? I thought your idea was to make the interface less cluttered by buttons, not covered by them. And your method does not give the ability to use specials. I could make the buttons almost completely invisible if that's what you want.
