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List of motion inputs

NoRestarts
Protege

The touch controllers offer a method of player input that hasn't existed before. I'm compiling a list of actions that can be used to cause an effect. Some of the most fun experiences I've had so far are a result of this. The first contact demo and the game "The Unspoken" use these new input methods to great effect. Here is the list I've put together so far, please reply with any additional control methods you can think of that I have missed:

Grab (subcategories: grabbing item from waist, chest, back, bow and arrow motion, pump shotgun, reload magazine)

Place (like moving a chess piece)

Aim/Shoot (like with a gun)

Throw

Cross Arms

Spread hands (subcategories: horizontal, vertical, diagonal)

Bring hands together (subcategories: horizontal, vertical, diagonal)

Both hands same direction (subcategories: both up, down, left, right, forward/push, backward/pull)

Smash (like with a hammer)

Bounce (like a basketball, similar to smashing but with timing)

Point

Poke

Flip a Switch

Trace a pattern

Circling (moving your hands in small or large circles in front of you)

Twisting (like turning a door knob)

Swipe

Pinch

Thumbs up

Punch

Rip/Tear

Shake (like a salt shaker)

3 REPLIES 3

weasel47
Heroic Explorer
Nice list!  I find that a lot of games focus on what objects you can hold and what actions those objects can perform and kind of skip over what your hands can do by themselves.  There's a lot of room for nuance that has only begun to be explored.

NoRestarts
Protege
Thanks, yeah I guess its hard for most game designers to get past their old ways of thinking. There are so many more options now, beyond just button and joystick/d-pad inputs. I'm trying to think of ways that the new input methods with the touch controllers will allow us to create new gameplay experiences, which is why people buy indie games in the first place. For example, suppose you need to repair a broken access panel in your game, instead of just looking at it and pressing "X", you have to use a twisting motion to remove screws to take the cover off first, then use a grabbing and placing motion to reconnect wires, etc. The first step to making these new experiences is getting a grasp on all the new ways we can use the touch controllers in a way that the game can understand as an input, as opposed to just directing an action like a mouse pointer, and relying on buttons to execute the action.

weasel47
Heroic Explorer
I find that a lot of things are actually easier to implement with touch controls than they were without. Rather than trying to simulate a complicated series of motions that happen after a button press, you make the player do all the work.
A year ago, I was working on a system that let the player pick things up and throw them, using a controller. I used a combination of factors to determine what object should be picked up based on where the player was looking and what was closest to their waste. Throwing force and angle were based on where the player was looking and how fast and far they pulled the trigger. The player could also set things down gently, and I tried to choose the spot where they intended to set something down using more complicated logic. 
Now, the way to implement all of that is to just look at what the hands are doing.