Touch Controls in RPGs

[coyotecraft]

I've played a handful of rpgs on my android tablet. I thought touch controls would just take some getting used to, but I haven't. It's best if the game has an on screen D-pad. Honestly, everything from moving around on a map and navigating menus was designed with a D-pad in mind.
Unless your screen is small enough that your thumb can reach everything, point and tapping with a finger requires a lot more movement that just isn't as natural as holding a direction key down and letting go.
Same with using a mouse; Hotkeys exist for a reason.

Lets talk about character movement. One aspect of map design is to obscure the path to keep the player guessing.
Can I go up? No, but it looks like the path goes around this wall.
But with automatic pathfinding at the touch of a button, why design like that?
Walk, run, ice sliding mechanics don't work with a touch-and-go system either.

A game like Unlimited Saga would work well with a touch system.

You just select the next area or investigate points of interest within the current space, but there's no reason to move the character around freely.

 

[Xilef]

I'm not even sure mouse-controlled RPGs have even been cracked yet. There's so many interface problems that console RPGs have on other platforms (because they've evolved with consoles).

For touch, it's an even worse scenario. I believe the game should be design around the platform, so if you're tapping to walk to locations or moving an on-screen joystick then that's a failure in design. On a mobile phone, I think exploration should be passively controlled and story delivered as an ongoing service, but I probably think that because that's the type of RPG I'm making right now.

For tablets devices and larger screens in general I think you can get away with touch to navigate points of interest, like the example you've posted. I can imagine tactical RPGs working on tablet too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is; traditional Final Fantasy style RPGs on a touch interface are - to me - a bad idea. There's smarter ways to do movement, Pokemon Go is an excellent example in my opinion. For exploring the world, the player doesn't even need to touch the screen, they just walk around (and stare at the screen - something I think they got wrong).

I'm not saying every mobile RPG should use GPS or go for tilt controls (gross), but respecting the device and how it interacts with the player's day to day behaviour is what should be done.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

I agree with Xilef. Traditional JRPGs on a smart phone are not a good idea. I feel like games designed for touch screen should focus less on the exploration and more on the action.

 

[coyotecraft]

I suppose that's why they're just a battle system with collectible characters.

 

[Ellie]

I struggle to play any touch control game on my phone. RPGs, at least. The worst though was the Final Fantasy games - I and II - they put me off buying any others on the device. It just did. not. work. They should have shrunk the screen to 4:3 and had the outside have some basic NES controls - just a d-pad and a couple of buttons.

 

[Sated]

For normal JRPGs, it's best to have an on-screen d-pad. Dragon Quest on Android did this relatively well. It's definitely something that developers need to think about, because touch-screen controls won't work very well for a standard JRPG.

Meanwhile, one of the games I'm working on would work brilliantly on mobile phones but I'm using RPGMaker 2003. RIP.

 

[Ellie]

Now that it's been legally released in English it would be entirely possible to make a player in RPG Maker MV that loads your 2k3 files, and use that to do touch control.

 

[Sated]

I can do what!?

I dunno, sounds hard. I should probably actually finish making the game first. Hahahahahahahahadevelopmenthell

 

[Ellie]

Finish the game first, and then I'm sure someone can do the doolally bits.