Getting there.
Frankly, this code base is just awful to work with. Drawing in the input function, magic numbers everywhere – who wrote this crap?!
Oh, right.
On the upside, I have now made sure that all tiles in the game are either public domain or ones I’ve created myself, so I’m not worried about infringing anyone else’s copyright.
I think the way I’m going to do the interface is that you’ll play it GameBoy style, with a virtual D-pad under your left thumb (and I’ve recently discovered that virtual D-pads actually work really well on the iPhone) and the four icons for Fight, Look, Pick Up, and Talk under your right thumb, with your stats in the middle. Above that will be the area for the game strings (I’ll switch to a smaller font so I can get more text in there) and above that, of course, will be the map view. Since I don’t actually have an iPhone, can anyone out there who does tell me if this sounds viable?
Are you planning to have landscape or portrait layout? If you have land scape it might be easier on people’s hands. You could have directional pad and stats on left and messages and actions on the right. You might even switch to full when on map view.
Virtual D-Pads can work. You can do this but having a button for each direction with an alpha value of 0. You will need to be sure that the button is the top view or else your map may end up catching the touch instead of the button.
I have been working on an iPhone RPG for a long time now and I am still not as far along as you. Good Job on the work so far.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
1) The simulator uses the full processing power of the computer so you can only get a good feel for the performance of the app by running on an actual device.
2) An iPhone and an iPod Touch may perform similarly, but thera are a lot more processes in the background of the iPhone. Make sure you test with an actual working phone before releasing. My first app ran great on the touch and crashed miserably on the the phone. My reviews have never recovered.
3) The simulator is not 100% accurate. There are some items that work on the device (like sound and video formats) that will not work on the simulator. I have an app that provides sound effects and none of the sounds play on the simulator, but all work on the device.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to playing on my device!
landscape will be the only way to keep all those on the screen without making it crowded.
I personally would rather have more screen space, so it would be cool if you could make the map the whole screen. Then make the dpad overlay on the map, and the stats able to pop in and out (toggled when pressing a button on the right). Then the text would look like a chat on the left, where they fade away over time and as you get more. Then finally the 4 other buttons on the side somewhere. Something like this.
http://i39.tinypic.com/j6s7pj.jpg
I can lend you an itouch for a few days, when you reach the stage where ya need it.
When I get an iphone, yours will be the first game I purchase (well, if it is out which is entirely possible since I don’t plan on getting an iphone soon in which case it might be the nth game in a series of game purchases but definitely purchased).