Hi, I'm currently in the development of an 3D game with some kind of a ISO bird view. The main char can be moved in the environment - but I'm not sure how to implement the character movement. I checked several other games and most of them simulate some kind of virtual joystick in the left, bottom corner of the screen. Initially I planned to do the movement with the accelerometer, so a pitch to left = character moves left, pitch to the right = character moves right and so on. In fact thats the way my game is working now. But after revisiting a lot of gameplay movies from similiar games I'm not sure anymore that this is the way to go. What do you think - is it more comfortable to hold the phone like a handheld console using some kind of virtual joystick or is the accelerometer a good alternative? Axel
It totally depends on the game, but if you are controlling a character and have to control with any precision, a virtual joystick is the way to go.
There are some games that have both control schemes and I personally think it's better for different types of players (versatility is always great of course). I personally play on ipod touch because I'm tired of playing with buttons/keyboard and mouse, so I like the accelerometer; though I can understand some people are just wired (muscle memory) for buttons and such (like I have to play competitive FPS with keyboard and mouse, I can't play with joystick and I think it's lame ). So...it'd be nice to have both if you have the development time frame (or willingness). If you're making a top down like Alien Shooter (PC) game I'd prefer accelerometer IMO. Plus for those types of games you can always use the screen space to see what's coming. Just my 2 cents.
