2 replies to this topic

[paulidis]

Hello all! I've developing a next-genish iOS rhythm game for the past 3 years all on my own! Almost ready to launch
First I just want to say that game design is a strict discipline on its own - Crutial part in making a successful game!

One of the things Im striving for in this game is for a minimalistic GUI during gameplay. I want to have as little to no GUI elements as possible.

Virtually all touch screen held-hand games offer a pause icon during gameplay. I take ideas from every game I play. One game - Escape From Monkey Island (I think) for iPhone is played in landscape mode. To pause gameplay, the user tilts the iphone so that it is oriented in portrait.

I think this is a clever idea. I run my ideas by my colleague. For this one he suggested not to do that - primarily because people like to play games in bed lying on their side. another argument was that its annoying for the user to have to switch orientation to pause or perform other actions.

Currently, I'm using the accelerometer to change camera position slightly in the 3d environment.

What are your thoughts? Can you please help me out in deciding what to do? thanks.

paul.

[alphadog]

I agree with your dev.

Another common pause idea is, depending on the game, remove your fingers from the touchpad causes "insta-pause". Makes sense for intense games like a 2D scroller or some such, but not for a more leisurely or causal game.

[geon]

Using the tilt of the device for pausing is to hide functionality. It is very un-obvious how to pause if you don't already know about it, and very confusing why the game suddenly paused if you trigger it by accident.