Apple Makes New On-Screen Game Controller Available to Developers on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15

On screen game controllers have never worked and will never work. It’s very difficult to keep your eyes on the gameplay and controls at the same time. You need physical buttons.

I find the best on screen controllers are the ones designed from the ground up for touch screen instead on those trying to replicate standard game controls.

On screen game controllers have never worked and will never work. It’s very difficult to keep your eyes on the gameplay and controls at the same time. You need physical buttons.

While I tend to agree with you, this could help with that. If multiple games share the same on screen controls then it will be easier to memorize button location and placement. Similar to how I can type on the 12.9” iPad’s software keyboard without looking just like I do on a real one (albeit more slowly) because the key placement is the same.

Obviously a heavy gamer should buy a real controller just as a coder or writer should buy a real keyboard. But as light/infrequent gamers are unlikely to invest in one, it’s worth optimizing the on screen interface.

On screen game controllers have never worked and will never work. It’s very difficult to keep your eyes on the gameplay and controls at the same time. You need physical buttons.

I don’t know, Caster (http://www.elecorn.com/caster3d/) largely nailed the core aspects of it in 2009 by just using the position of your thumb from the first point it hits the screen. It is entirely possible to use the orientation of your character or vehicle as a visual cue for where you need to go to next. Controlling a camera using the same method is no different to using a mouse.

Meteor Blitz (https://toucharcade.com/2009/09/16/meteor-blitz-dual-stick-space-shooting-goodness/) also showed how you can use orientation and visual cues to make up for a lack of buttons. Geometry Wars 3 on iOS was and still is a fantastic port.

Where touchscreen controls do fall down is when devs tried to port over console titles to a phone and have to shoehorn touchscreen controls into games not designed for them. This does not work.

There are exceptions, for example games with a largely static camera like FFVII but this pales in comparison to proper ports like FFIX which have been redesigned with the host platform in mind. See also titles like Horizon Chase and Oceanhorn 1.

Personally I prefer games that centre the virtual left stick on the place where I place my thumb. It takes a bit of adjustment to not keep your thumb on the screen but I find it’s the best way of avoiding the situation you get in many iOS games where your character doesn’t move as expected because you didn’t put your thumb in the right place.

Hope this means finally FIFA and racing games with classic joypad controls not the swiping stroking flicking stuff.