Game mechanics used for touch screen devices

There are four possible inputs that can be done with a fingertip on a touch pad - it can either be tapped, swiped, held, or dragged across. I will have a look at the mechanics of some of the most successful mobile games of today, and see how they correspond with these four input possibilities, to later help me decide on the prototypes I'll be making:

Tapping:

Tippy Tap

In Tippy Tap the aim is to keep tapping the incoming black squares, without letting them go off screen and making sure no white tile is touched in progress. The tiles scroll down continuously, increasing the speed as the game goes on. I really like this game actually, I pulled off a pretty impressive (at least for my friends) score of 292.

oO

In oO, players control the white dot which continuously travels around the outline of a circle it is currently touching. Tapping, controls whether the white dot is inside or outside of the outline. Dot transition from one circle to another is possible, but only at the point where they are touching, so tapping in the right moment is really important. The aim is to finish the level without touching any appearing spikes.

Flappy Bird

Players have to tap the screen to keep the bird up in the air and fly in between and through the Mario pipe obstacles. For every performed tap the wings flap moving the bird up by a considerable amount. If tapping is withheld, the bird starts falling until it hits the ground.

Holding:

Duet

In Duet, players control a circle with two dots attached to it which are positioned on the opposite ends to each other, and rotate continuously just like in the mentioned game oO. Holding the touch screen makes the circle move upwards along with the rotating dots. The aim is to beat the level, without letting any of the incoming obstacles touch any of the dots.

Hill Climb Racing

In this game, the aim is to travel as many meters across the map with a chosen vehicle as possible. The gas button accelerates the vehicle, the other - brake button does what it says. Interestingly, there's no need for extra buttons to control the car in the air, since adding gas pushes the car engine towards the sky, whereas brake does the opposite, rotating the car clockwise, towards the ground.

Angry Gran

In Angry Gran the point is to smack as many people that the granny walks by as possible. A simple tap will slap the pedestrian, but if the screen is held, the granny will start charging a special slap, which will knock the poor victim out, giving more points if done with a correct timing.

Swiping:

Paper toss

Flick the paper ball into the bin. The aim is as simple as that, yet the game has proven addictive and successful. The variable wind power and direction, is what makes the flicks unique every turn.

Cut the rope

A candy is hanging on a rope. The aim is to cut it so it falls in the mouth of what appears to be a frog like animal. Collecting stars gives bonus points.

Fruit Ninja

The point of the game is to slice open all the fruits that get thrown up on the screen before they fall off screen. If a fruit isn't sliced on time, or a bomb is accidentally sliced, a life is lost.

Dragging:

Angry Birds

Players use a slingshot to drag a bird, to then release it and destroy all the enemies in a level. Power and the right angle are key when using the dragging mechanic.

Flow Free

The aim is to connect two dots of the same colour together. Players can drag out a line from each dot, and have to make sure to 1. not cross one line with another and 2. fill the level out completely with lines, so no square remains empty. Dragging is the main and only input the player can perform.

Sky force

By dragging, players control the position of a spaceship, which flies through the level, and destroys enemies.

Optical Inquisitor

In this game, players drag a cross hair in order to aim and shoot the target which meets the given earlier criteria.

Some games also make use of the motion sensor that comes in-build with smart phones, which means tilting the phone left and right, or flicking it forward, can activate a mechanic in a game. This means that I can use more than just the touch screen to trigger events when making my prototypes.

An example of a game that uses the motion sensor is Fall down:

In fall down, players have to tilt their smart phone in a way so that the ball falls down the platform gaps. Platforms keep moving up, so the game ends soon as the ball disappears off the top side of the screen.

References:
Youtube: androidtechman videos [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/androidtechman/videos [Accessed 19th September 2014]