Problems with too many buttons on touch screen

What I had intended

When I first started development on Smash Clash, I originally only wanted two buttons and a joystick. The two buttons would be to "jump" and "attack". Since then, we have split the attack action into two buttons "a" and "b".

Intended controls scheme

Current controls scheme

While 3 buttons has complicated the controls on mobile devices, the problem is now becoming even my challenging, as I begin to add in a shield. This would make for a total of four touch screen buttons.

The problem...

Too many buttons + not precise screen = user frustration. If there are four virtual buttons on your phone, chances are, you probably aren't going to always hit the ones you were aiming for. This gives you the feeling that the GAME made you lose, not that YOU made you lose. This is an essential part of game development. Make sure each failure is attributed to the player, not the game. This makes the player feel like they need to play better, not that they need a new game.

Solutions

  • Remove shield entirely
  • Remove one of the attack buttons and case certain attacks to be performed in the air and certain attacks to be performed on the ground
  • Remove the jump button and swipe upward to jump
  • Remove the jump button and tap up on joystick to jump
  • Make all four buttons and just deal with it
I'm working on finding a creative way to solve this problem. If anyone has an idea email me please at impactgamesstudio [at] gmail.com (replace [a] with @ of course).


SMASH CLASH

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