I have been playing a few mobile RPG games lately, and I began to wonder what other people like to see in their mobile RPG games.  So I put together a couple topics which I found interesting, and was hoping people would take the time to put in their opinions about them.

Control schemes for mobile devices.

1. Taps and Swipes:

Game mechanics, such as movement, attacks, etc are all handled through tapping and swiping the screen.

2. DPad + Buttons:

Movement and actions are performed using a DPad icon in the lower left corner, and 2-4 buttons on the lower right corner.

The second thing I found interesting is for overall gameplay.

1. Turn Based:

The user is able to move around the level freely, until combat begins, at which time combat would go into a turn based mode.  The enemies have a turn to move and attack, then the player had a turn to move and attack.  Initiative is random.

2. Real Time Action:

The user is able to move freely around the level, combat is real time.  Basically, the player enters a room and starts hacking and slashing.

Personally, as an old school gamer, I like the DPad + Buttons, but since it is on a portable device, I think taps and swipes are cool too.  I like the strategy involved in turn based combat, but also like the pure hack and slash action of real time combat.

What do you all think?  What are your opinions and why?  This is just for fun, no right or wrong answers :D

My favorite design is an adaptation of the Asian styled MMORPG UI with tap to move and tap to attack.  Swipe is then used to change camera angles.  Pretty much perfect in this regard is Pocket Legends.

My pet peeve of mobile gaming is the virtual joystick.  For the life of me, all I do is run in circles.

I've played quite a few mobile RPGs on my 10" tablet and out of all of them I'd have to say as far as controls are concerned I prefer the D-Pad and buttons approach the best. I also like real time combat more but thats true for other gaming platforms as well. I was never a fan of the Final Fantasy series for this reason. Turn based just takes you out of the world for the combat in my opinion and trashes immersion in the process.

The only types that I like the "tap to move/attack" type of controls are the ARPGs as it seems to be a better fit. These types of games are "Click to move/attack" on the PC so it's not hard to pick it up on a mobile device. Any game that has a first person or 3rd person view I much prefer the D-Pad and buttons setup. What's great about some mobile games is you can reconfigure the controls to what works for you best. They are not confined to a hardware control device so your can move the buttons around, change the size and put things where they are comfortable for you personally.

There are already some really good RPG games out there like Earth and Legend, Heroes Call, Galaxy on Fire 2, A Bards Tale, Hero of Sparta and Soulcraft. They will only get better as time goes by.

Bren

I find mobile control schemes to be universally bad for any type of game where I'm accustomed to playing with a game controller or keyboard & mouse combination. If the platform allows for using a game controller, that is by far my preferred method of interaction.

Everything else just depends on the game. Turn based or real time works for me.

dpad + buttons all the way

tap and swipe is frustrating sometimes

I would pass on mobile RPGs just due to the fact I dont believe a computer based RPG should be so vastly limited, so, even if say a mobile TES comes out, I wouldnt fund it out of protest. Just spend my money on mobile action or puzzle games since they are more fitting the limitations on mobile games.

Least we have most game making companies stop making full blown PC games and drop them in favor of just mobile games...and dont think it cant happen. Mobile devices far outnumber computers already so that market can be seen as large making PC games seem less profitable.

Well, I don't know if this counts or not but... 

I've been playing my MMO's on my tablet and phone while I'm out of town or something. I play a couple of different ways. 

On my phone I like to clip on a dual analog controller and then use Kainy to setup a few hot keys I need for map, inventory, etc. Most of the rest of the abilities I simply touch on screen to activate. The clip on controller I have has some hardware buttons as well so I map those to attacks and jump as well as activate for doors and such. 

On my tablet some times I'll use my phone as a controller with kainy filling up the screen with buttons and using the dual analog clip on controller (30+ buttons between clip on controller and overlay buttons) and set it to gamepad mode which makes it so the graphics don't stream to my phone, then use my tablet as my screen. 

Sometimes I'll use Kainy on my tablet and set the virtual analog sticks and keys up so they don't block my view but are still accessible if I don't need to many keys. 

It all depends but again like I said I don't know if this counts because I don't actually play Mobile games on my tablet and phone, I actually play my PC games on it with Kainy. 

Originally posted by jtcgs

...snip

Least we have most game making companies stop making full blown PC games and drop them in favor of just mobile games...and dont think it cant happen. Mobile devices far outnumber computers already so that market can be seen as large making PC games seem less profitable.

Don't get confused by all those device sales. Between 4 of the people at work we have 10 smartphones. People in business can carry multiple devices. It's not truly that these devices have more market share in usage - you can't create that number without results behind general website usage. There are lots of people using multiple devices. You have to think about the market too. Website usage of mobile is less than 20% average. Some sites as low as 2% still. Something like Facebook, they exceed the average on mobile users and outnumber their desktop users. That is their hallmark, status updates and quick comments which are the friend of a mobile network instead of a desktop. If you just read about Facebook stats and thought that the rest of the websites of the world worked the same, it wouldn't be true. The sales of these devices are artificially higher because they are purchased more often than computers because they have a shorter lifespan or support structure and are often associated with style and wealth. In the same way people buy new clothes when their old ones from last year fit, this public device needs to be as new as possible when others can see it unlike the old dusty computer sitting in the house behind nice, clean doors. Ask me why my mother needs another set of jewelry every year when she has jewelry boxes overflowing - she just wants more - they are public displays of her "making it". Then there are kids communicating with parents on phones and if they can get a group plan, they could be swayed to move up to the smartphone versions. This all comes and stems from cellphones. Once they grew as immediate communication, the web just followed.

That will always make the sales seem higher but remember that when some come in, some go out versus the computers that people make last many, many years. I even have a pentium 1 computer that will go online just fine and I used way back in 2004. You can even donate old computers to poorer countries. A desktop computer is not something to just throw away. Some people buy older ones just to take out the precious metals.

Compare that to the speed of the mobile releases.

iPhone was released in versions for these years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Do you know anyone buying a computer yearly or standing in line to get them. Nah, that's only the mobile fanatics especially those wooed by their brand of choice. It's gadget acquiring for the sake of it. It's portable enough to show off - like jewelry. Oh and do they, just visit a Starbucks and watch them staring at their tiny screens. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that pickpocketing has increased with the amount of people bent down looking at their phones instead of the world lol

http://www.onlinemarketing-trends.com/2011/06/mobile-internet-vs-desktop-internet.html#.UQzUcdd5ZBk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers

I prefer taps and swipes since i dont like covering my entire screen with my thumbs. If i had a tablet i would probably enjoy touch controls more.

Undead Slayer is the perfect game for me only requireing 1 finger and being full of fun action. =) And its free for both ios and android!