Good touch controls, and the ones that quietly ruin a game

A brilliant strategy game can be ruined by bad touch controls, and plenty have been. The screen is small, your thumb covers a chunk of it, and precision is harder than with a mouse. Good mobile design accounts for all three.

The best games give you a pause-and-plan mode so you aren't fighting the clock and the interface at once. Big, forgiving hit areas help too — if I have to tap three times to select the unit I want, something's wrong.

Edge-scrolling is a common offender. On a phone, dragging to pan should feel smooth and never snap back. Pinch-zoom should be there and should actually zoom the whole battlefield, not just a menu.

When you try a new strategy game, spend the first five minutes just moving the camera and selecting units. If that feels fiddly, the clever systems underneath won't save it. The controls are the foundation everything else sits on.