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Eracade Era Museum · Worksheet 6 of 8

The One-Tap Hall, 2012–2014

NameDate

Read the One-Tap Hall (about twenty minutes), then answer in your own words.

How does a player’s thumb change the way a phone game has to be designed?
Give two reasons why phone games of this era used flat colours and big shapes.
One tap can mean different things. Give two examples of what a tap might mean.
What makes a one-tap game feel fair in its first three seconds?
Why was music often optional in these games?

Look closely

Play Pendulum Pop or One Thumb Hop three times. Each time a run ends, write the cause in one line. Could you see it coming? Would you change anything?

Make your own

Design a one-tap game. Describe it in one sentence. Then write what a tap does in two different moments of the game, and draw the main character.

Printed from eracade.com/museum/hall/one-tap/

For teachers: where each answer is in the hall

The glass: it hides about a centimetre of screen and does not forgive small targets.
The glass: it felt calm after years of gloss; flat shapes are cheap, scale to any screen and stay readable in sunlight.
The input: jump, flip, let go, grab, release, change direction.
Fairness at a glance: you see why you lost; generous hit boxes, visible hazards, clean restarts.
Small, sharp, fast: many players were on public transport with the sound off.

The look-closely and make-your-own tasks have no single right answer. Ask pupils to explain their choice in one sentence.