Controls: Tranquility Touchdown
Tranquility Touchdown supports touch, gamepad, and keyboard controls.
The objective of the game is to safely land on the target pad of as many planets as possible each of which has one of several different types of gravity. Your craft is only able to rotate left or right and fire a single downward-facing thruster.
The touch control scheme divides the screen into two halves. Each half of the screen behaves like an independent virtual joystick and is intended to be played using the thumbs of both of your hands.
To rotate your craft, touch anywhere on the left half of the screen and drag your thumb left or right. As you drag, the thrusters will spin the craft either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on which direction you are dragging.
To control your landing thruster, touch and drag anywhere on the right side of the screen using your right thumb. Dragging up will increase the thrust used while dragging down reduces it.
The distance that you drag your thumbs affects the amount of power used for both rotation and thrust, so if you drag a small amount the rotation or thrust will be less than when dragging a longer distance. In both cases, lifting your thumb or dragging your thumb back to the point where you first touched the screen will stop firing the motors.
Gamepad input is similar to the touch screen control scheme. You can use the left thumbstick to rotate the craft clockwise or counterclockwise by pushing the stick LEFT or RIGHT. Push UP on the right thumbstick to increase thrust and return it to center to decrease and stop thrust. The distance that you push the thumbsticks will affect how much thrust or rotation is performed. You may also use the right trigger button to control thrust if you prefer - the amount that you squeeze the trigger will affect how much thrust is used. The (A) button may also be used for thrust, however since that doesn't support variable pressure input on most controllers it is a less precise choice.
Keyboard input is also possible. Rotating the ship is mapped to the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys as well as to the A and D keys. Thrust is mapped to the UP arrow key and the W key. Rotating and thrusting with the keyboard input is a little less precise than the other input methods because keyboard keys do not report press pressure and so are either being pressed or not. To compensate for this, the rotation and thruster inputs ramp up in power over a brief time period. This means that the longer you press the rotation or thrust keys, the more the power will grow until it reaches the maximum power level. Experiment with pressing and holding vs. tapping the keys rapidly to find a balance that works for you.