Key Contributions
- Created responsive interactions through visual, haptic, and audio feedback, helping players understand when actions were registered and making gameplay feel faster and more satisfying.
- Designed customizable control layouts and accessibility focused options that accommodated different play styles, hand sizes, and player preferences without sacrificing competitive responsiveness.
- Simplified navigation across menus, matchmaking, and gameplay by designing predictable state transitions and clear system feedback, helping players stay oriented throughout the experience.
01Unique challenges
Challenge
New input
The mobile version relied entirely on touch controls. Virtual joysticks and on screen buttons needed to maintain the speed and precision expected in a competitive platformer.
Solution
- Large touch targets
- Input forgiveness
- Thumb friendly control placement
Challenge
Modern UI/UX
The original game predates many current mobile patterns. The task was to modernize usability while preserving the game’s identity.
Solution
- Modern navigation
- Clear hierarchy
- Reduced complexity
Challenge
Screen space
Small displays forced us to prioritize essential information, make every layout responsive, respect platform safe areas, and reduce visual clutter.
Solution
- Simplified layouts
- Platform safe areas
- Responsive UI across devices
02Controls that disappear
Touch controls had to tolerate imprecise taps without sacrificing the accuracy expected in a competitive game.
Room for Error
I made collision areas larger than the controls themselves. When a player tapped the space between two buttons, the game calculated which action was closer and registered that input.
Button Properties
Playtests showed jump and zap were the most used actions, so I positioned them closest to the thumbs and made them larger. I also created layout presets to accommodate different player preferences.
Joystick Interaction
I tested drag distances and activation areas, keeping the joystick active even when a thumb moved slightly outside its visual bounds. Players no longer had to repeatedly correct their hand position.
03Designing responsive interactions
Every interaction in the game, from in game controls to UI interactions, also needed to feel immediate and responsive, not merely functional.
Immediate feedback
I layered motion, sound, particles, camera response, and haptics at the start of each action so the game felt responsive before the final result appeared.
Particles, timing, lighting, and camera movement guided attention toward important events without explicit instruction.
Consistent response patterns built trust, while reducing even small delays made repeated actions feel more satisfying.
We watched whether players understood outcomes, felt in control, acted without hesitation, and wanted to repeat interactions.
04User flow
Menus and online multiplayer states created many possible paths. Players needed to move between them without losing context.
Designing around player intent
The game contains multiple menus and multiplayer states, from matchmaking and waiting rooms to errors and disconnections. Every screen communicated what was happening, why it was happening, and what the player should do next.
Key learning
Perceived responsiveness often matters more than perfect technical accuracy.
That principle shaped the final interaction system: controls became more forgiving, feedback arrived earlier, and navigation states made the next action clear. In future products, I would test perceived responsiveness alongside technical performance from the first prototype.