Best One-Button Games to Play With One Hand
In 2013 the researcher Steven Hoober recorded how people held their phones in everyday use, 1,333 observations in all. Among the 780 people he saw actually touching the screen, 49% held the phone in one hand, 36% cradled it in one hand and touched it with the other, and only 15% used both hands. Of the one-handed users, two thirds worked the screen with the right thumb.
One hand and a free thumb was the most common grip in that study. Most games still ask for more.
What makes a game one-handed
A game that plays well in one hand needs three things:
- Upright. A phone turned sideways is hard to hold steady in one hand.
- No target to hit. If the whole screen counts as the button, the thumb can stay wherever is comfortable instead of reaching for a corner.
- Rounds that fit a gap. One hand is usually a sign the other one is busy, on a bus rail or around a cup, so rounds have to be short and easy to drop.
The SalutGames one-button games, compared
| Game | Held | Tap | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skyhook | upright | anywhere | one climb, 7 to 13 anchors |
| One Tap Hero | upright | anywhere | one boss fight |
| Rondo | upright | anywhere | until the ball is lost |
| Tap Burst | upright | anywhere | a race of 5, 10 or 30 s |
| Last-Second Landing | sideways | anywhere | a mission of 27 to 32 s |
| Lightkeeper | sideways | anywhere | one night |
All six take a tap anywhere on the game, so none of them asks the thumb to find a button. The difference is how they're held.
The three that suit one hand best
Skyhook is the most natural fit. The only input is a release, its rhythm is the swing of a pendulum, and every hazard repeats every two swings, so a blocked swing is always followed by a clear one. The first climb has seven anchors.
One Tap Hero treats any touch on the game as a jump, and nothing else. A fight takes about a minute: the game's own balance simulator averaged 41 to 62 seconds per fight in Classic, depending on the hero. A one-hand session is one boss.
Rondo is the most demanding of the three for the thumb. The ball and the player's head circle in opposite directions and the tap has to land within about 50 milliseconds either side of their meeting. It is still played entirely with one thumb, and every tap is checked against the moment it happened, so a quick thumb isn't punished by the delay between touch and screen.
The others
Tap Burst can be played with one thumb, but its own advice is to use two and drum the screen, which the game calls "way faster". One-handed, the Sprint races of five seconds are the realistic ones.
Last-Second Landing and Lightkeeper are one-button games too, with a tap anywhere doing the work, but they're laid out for a phone turned sideways. Each mission in Last-Second Landing lasts under a minute, between 27 and 32 seconds, which makes it a good fit for a short break with the phone held properly.
Where to start
For a first one-handed game, Skyhook's First Ascent has no hazards at all, the widest timing window in the game and seven anchors to climb. It is about as gentle as a one-button game gets.
Sources
- Steven Hoober, How Do Users Really Hold Mobile Devices?, UXmatters, 18 February 2013
- SalutGames: game source code and the One Tap Hero balance simulator
