The upcoming strategy game Humankind will receive a new “Direct Touch” feature for the mobile version of Google Stadia upon release. This makes it the first game to offer full touch control support on that platform.
With the direct touch feature, players of the human race can directly control the interface via touches on their phone screen, as noted 9to5Google On. This would make the game work as a more traditional smartphone game. Previous Stadia games on smartphones offered an overlay with on-screen buttons to launch, which should mimic a software console. Users can also play Stadia games on their smartphone using a Bluetooth controller.
However, the direct touch feature allows the game to respond directly to users’ touches. For example, in the game Humankind, players can tap an in-game object once to select it, tap with a finger gives users a preview of the content, two-finger un-click, three-finger tap displays the pause menu, and users can tap with their fingers to move their view of the game world. The direct touch feature will initially only be available for Android. The feature will be added later to Stadia for iOS, which works via a web browser, according to 9to5Google.
Images by Stadia, SEGA, and Amplutude via 9to5Google
The strategy game from Amplitude Studios will also receive support for Stadia’s State Share feature, which will allow users to share saved files with friends. State Share allows users to take a screenshot or a video and share it with friends. Those friends can then choose to continue playing in the same game world.
In the case of the human race, users can also use the “leave your mark” feature. This allows players to share their game world after completing the last step. Friends can then continue to play in the same game world and compare their progress with that of the original player.
Human will be released on August 17th for Windows, macOS, and Google Stadia. It is a 4x strategy game, which shows similarities with the Civilization series and previous Amplitude Studio games, such as Endless Legend. Tweakers posted earlier preview from the game.
