Xperia™ PLAY's unique hardware offers both a challenge and an opportunity to developers. How can you use the gamepad to create a satisfying gaming experience for mobile players used to touch-only input? Luckily, the modes established in console gaming provide a roadmap, as many first-person games can easily take advantage of the physical touchpads, buttons, and trigger buttons. There's no need to stop there though: get creative!
You can mix gamepad and touch input to create a navigation/player control scheme on the touchpad and add special powers or gesture-driven input on the touch screen. You can also build your game to use virtual touch buttons as a fallback for Android users on other devices, eliminating the need for creating a completely new project just to support the Xperia™ PLAY.
Unity has a built-in input class that handles all of the gamepad input. You can simply type:
if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.LeftShift)) { //execute left trigger logic }
and you're all set!
There are also a wealth of resources to support you during development. design3 has over 40 hours of Unity tutorials as well as tutorials for 3D and audio software. Sony Ericsson's developer blog hosts tips and news for Sony Ericsson app developers so you can stay up-to-date on new features and hardware.
If you have a great game, we want to help you make it a success! Apply for the Stand Out From The Crowd marketing program and your game could get promoted in their marketing campaigns, social networks, and pushed to users on compatible Sony Ericsson devices. There's no reason not to take advantage of this if you feel you have a truly excellent and innovative game.
What are you waiting for? Make that game and position it on the cutting edge of mobile technology.
The Xperia™ PLAY is a Sony Ericsson mobile phone that runs on the Android OS and has a slide-out gamepad with triggers, joystick pads, a D-pad, and Playstation buttons. It also supports standard touch input and accelerometer data.
Unity is a game engine that can build one project to multiple platforms at once, including Android and the Xperia™ PLAY.
design3 is the leading game development portal with over 100 hours of tutorial videos on game engine, 3D tools, 2D tools, and audio software as well as industry news, career advice, and developer interviews.
