Mobile touch feedback from Rocío

[manuq]

I had a nice chat with @rothiotome and she gave me amazing feedback about the current mobile touch support.

I observed that she was trying to swipe for aiming and throwing the grappling hook. I asked and she explained me that that's what she would expect, and that is very common in mobile games (to use the swipe gesture). If we do that, a set of bugs become resolved: There are places in which the camera limits prevent the player from using the grappling hook at all. Because the idea is to throw the grappling hook in the swipe direction.

Also, tap on the screen (without swipping) could be used for repel / interact. That is, we can get rid of the big touch button, and instead leave the player to tap anywhere (except in the virtual joystick place or the pause button area).

She also said that we got the virtual joystick right, except that the area for moving could be bigger. In fact, the reason we did this area so limiting was because of the grappling hook.

We need to QA a solution like this, because the tap for repel won't be immediate as it is today. If the script checks for a swipe, repel has to happen on release, not on press. I think it will be fine.

Also with this the task #3026 becomes irrelevant and we can even have input hints on-screen for swipe and tap, in the same way we have for keyboard, mouse, and joypad controls. Which would be more consistent. The only problem is that the atlas texture we use from Kenney doesn't have touch icons. We could start with labels instead of icons. Something like: "Swipe: Aim & Throw | Tap: Repel". This will also help #3024.

Thanks for your great feedback, @rothiotome! I will try to implement this soon.

[manuq]

I started implementing this in a draft PR: #3080

[wjt]

The only problem is that the atlas texture we use from Kenney doesn't have touch icons.

Actually there is a separate sprite sheet for touch input. I didn't import all the sprite sheets, only the ones we used.

[manuq]

Oh excellent, thanks for letting me know! I will use it.

[manuq]

I am surprised how well this works. Here is in browser emulation, but playing it for real in my mobile phone is now much more satisfying.

Grabacion.de.pantalla.desde.2026-11-11.11-24-57.mp4

The aim can be more precise now. Because the direction of the red arrow while dragging provides visual feedback. It is basically another virtual joystick. And having one side of the screen for moving and the other for triggering the actions feels great. One thing that is different now is that in keyboard / mouse / joypad the player can keep the "repel" input pressed, to have a constant repel:

Grabacion.de.pantalla.desde.2026-11-11.11-31-56.mp4

And since in touch we use press-and-hold for the swipe detection, that can't happen. Still, the player can tap multiple times.