Posted October 24, 2023 by Aaron
This version concludes my push on input and control schemes for the time being. The overall goal was to arrive at a place where the game feels comfortable to play with a mouse, with a single hand on mobile, and has a clear path to usable gamepad controls when the time comes.
The main barriers to this were ideas about positional mechanics like placing and catching the ball by requiring players to click/tap on the ball. This, along with the flick-style input were some of the original ideas that sparked the original prototype, but they didn’t stand up to real gameplay testing. In previous configurations, most players were still confused about the controls and where and when to touch well into their playtest. I also wasn’t able to play the game standing up on a subway reliably. So that’s that.
The focus for the upcoming versions will now be prototypes for abilities and game modes. Mmm tasty.