cocos2d for iPhone

A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine

1. 

   Juntaou
   Member

   So I hit the discouraging block yesterday afternoon when I realized that my game was not fat finger friendly... (My buddy who has less than skinny fingers tested the game for me) Enough to the point that the game was nearly unplayable for him because his fingers kept hitting multiple tiles at the same time. Looks like I am to making more graphics. :(

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   Codemattic
   Moderator

   I have freakishly tiny baby hands, so its not a problem for me. But Im shocked at how many people are putting their tiny MenuItems right on top of each other (Im looking at you MurderDev/Cave Dweller) - it seems like trouble for some people.

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   Dan
   Member

   I hit the same issue after a week or two of developing on the simulator without really testing much on the device. Then I realized I couldnt play my own game without getting annoyed that I couldnt grab the objects I needed, or see them when I drag them around.

   So in my 'palette' I now leave enough space so you can grab the right thing, and added code to offset the sprite location and put a marker object underneath the finger touch (a hand icon pointing to the object I'm moving). Not as clean as I'd want it to be, but cant see a much better solution.

   -Dan

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   fpc
   Member

   IIRC, in one of the Stanford iPhone classes a developer mentioned he never makes things (people will have to interact with) smaller than 64px.

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   Codemattic
   Moderator

   dwyszyns has a good point - I think many developers use the simulator and mouse most of the time and fail to judge how much space they really need to leave for fingertips.

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   woebtz
   Member

   Ack. I feel for you! We caught this bug early on from playing other puzzle games.

   We settled for 48px for our smallest touch regions (6 columns across portrait) and it's just playable. I may push that out to 50-52 px down the road.

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   Juntaou
   Member

   So sorry for redigging the post back up, I just wanted to post I ended up going with 52x52. Kinda sad because I had to get rid of some of the more clever puzzles I had designed :P , but it doesn't really matter how clever it is if half the users can't play it! Also @woebtz I tried 48x48 and still found it a bit small for my fat fingered friend. However he also isn't an IPhone or touch user so maybe that plays into why he had such a hard time touching the tiles?

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   jd
   Member

   People get frustrated very very quickly. I think you made the right decision to go with bigger buttons. Good luck.

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. 

   EmmaLynn
   Member

   Yeah I think I'm going to have to redesign my game for the same reason. Shouldn't be to big a problem for me because I made most of my graphics using a vector base image editor.

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. 

    Matt Rix
    Member

    My game has 7x7 columns so the tiles are 45*45. Kinda small, but I'm hoping people will be able to manage. I really need 7x7 because it's a puzzle game and that's kinda crucial to how it works. If worst comes to worst I'll have to work out some sort of zooming/panning stuff, but I'd rather not(obviously). Either that or redesign all the puzzles from the ground up for 5x5 or something, but that severely limits the game play. Because it's a true puzzle game, time doesn't matter at all, so at least people won't get frustrated in that regard.

    Posted 2 years ago #
11. 

    Matt Rix
    Member

    Also, take a look at the Apple Human Interface Guidelines(http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/DesigningNativeApp/DesigningNativeApp.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH4-SW1)

    Apple suggests that the minimum target area should be 45x45, so I think I should be good. Keep in mind that Apple's built in Calendar app is a 7x5 grid. If you wanna know what 45x45 feels like, just try that out.

    Posted 2 years ago #

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