This is the fourth in a series of tips that supplement the Xperia™ game developer recommendations. This tip expands on Display recommendations – DS3 in the list of game developer recommendations: If applicable, the representations of the device’s buttons should be displayed in the correct layout.
Background
When designing the heads-up display (HUD) for the Xperia™ PLAY or other Xperia™ Android™ devices, if you decide to show the on-screen buttons as images in tutorials, it is recommended to use the actual representation of the hardware keys and buttons, and in the correct layout. Using actual key images for the HUD or GUI will make it easier to understand your instructions, tutorials, etc., and thus ensures an optimised experience for the user. Otherwise, if you display keys and buttons that do not correspond to the actual hardware, this will probably confuse the user.
Special considerations
An overview of the Xperia™ PLAY gamepad, as well as a table of the Xperia™ PLAY key codes, key code constants and recommended actions, are described in a previous tutorial – How to develop gaming apps using the Xperia™ PLAY gamepad.
The Xperia™ PLAY game key and button images can be obtained here.
More information about Android key codes in general can be found in the description of the android.view.KeyEvent class at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent.html.
Example
For example, if your Xperia™ PLAY game uses the PlayStation® buttons (△/○/×/□) to fire missiles or drop bombs, your on-screen instructions should show the actual PlayStation® buttons:
Your on-screen instructions should NOT show buttons with missile or bomb icons:
Otherwise, you may confuse users by displaying buttons and keys that do not exist on the device.
About the Game developer tips
The XperiaTM game developer recommendations offers guidance in developing games for XperiaTM devices such as XperiaTM PLAY. The tips in this series provide additional information about some of the significant recommendations in that document. Each tip provides the following information:
Background. This is a fuller description of the recommendation. It answers the questions “why should I follow this recommendation?” and “when or where should I follow this recommendation?”.
Special considerations. This describes any special considerations, such as device-specific considerations or application type-specific considerations that pertain to the recommendation.
Examples. This shows screen captures or code snippets that further illustrate or explain the recommendation.
