I am developing a mobile game, for fun, and am adding an analogue stick to control the main character. It looks something like this:
I am hoping to get some advice on the appropriate size and position.
Key considerations:
- When the user scrolls the analogue stick the centre portion moves outside its bounding circle meaning that the larger the stick the further it could potentially run off the screen.
If the user's finger runs off the screen by mistake then the analogue stick will return to centre stopping the players motion - this could be crucial in a tense part of the game.
The larger the analogue stick the more fine control the user has but also the more real estate the stick takes up.
For older devices we have much less pixel space. An 100 pixel analogue stick suddenly takes up over a third of the screen once we factor in padding.
Ideally there will be an additional analogue stick on the bottom right corner but this might be more of an action button to interact with item, object etc.
I know that touch screen devices are not as tactile as a real controller but this is why I want to ensure my controls feel as natural as possible. Primarily looking at size of the analogue stick (diameter) and position in the bottom left corner.