My plan is to make a top down shooter on mobile using Unity 2D. This is the first game that I am making after doing some online tutorials. I am giving myself 1 month to finish the project. As a little incentive to get it finished in time I will try and enter it in the game jam. https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-community-jam

Today I have spent my time getting Unity working with my mobile and getting a touch joystick working.

I believe the important thing on a mobile is that it is playable in portrait and with only one finger as this is the most natural way to hold a mobile device. The problem arises in that you have to move and aim with the same controller.

The first joystick doesn't have the feel that I would like for the game. If you move the joystick to the left and hold your finger the character will keep moving to the left. I would like character to stop moving when you stop moving your finger. I will have to investigate further.

This is the behaviour that I am looking for. 

So I've got the controls how I like them and added some basic game functionality.

Basically you can play with one finger and you have a lot of control to dodge bullets. Shooting is hard as you have to get the direction right. I am thinking that it might be an interesting idea to shoot at a different angle depending on where you are standing. I might prototype that idea.

Well I thought that I was happy with the controls but as soon as I added a virtual camera things started going wrong. At first the player ran towards the end of the level. I soon realised that the answer was to subtract the position of the camera from the touch positions but then I had the problem that you had to kind of scroll upwards with your finger all the time....

I finally added a trigger to move slowly forward if your finger is above a certain distance thus avoiding the scrolling with your finger. I'm still not 100% happy but I'll move on with other features and try to revisit this.

Looking cool and you've got this. Getting the camera to feel right is always a struggle that takes time to overcome. 

I'm now fairly happy with the controls. I've refactored some of the code to make it easier to add enemies and I've added different coloured enemies with different abilities. I've also got more than one level working. My next steps are to make some power ups. I believe one will be the possibility to change to a forward only shooting gun. 

I've now got a "switch" mechanic working where if you take the power up you switch between swivel gun and forward facing. I think it will make an interesting mechanic because the forward facing is easier to control but I could place some enemies to the side or behind to force you to switch to be able to kill them.

I've also decided to go for a cute type theme as it is a mobile game and should be accessible to all. These are the characters I've drawn on inkscape. The yellow one will be the player and the others will be the enemies. 

Let me know what you think and I'd love for some more ideas.

Now I've got 3 levels working and I would like to let people try out the game to get feedback on the controls, difficulty etc. It's available on iOS or Android for testing. If anyone is interested add please put your name down here. 

shorturl.at/eitI6 

Which type of split shots do you prefer? Number 1, 2 or 3?