Mobile Touch Input Joystick in Unity

To make a controllable character in a mobile game, one must add buttons visually represented on the screen and responsive to the touch input.

In this tutorial, I will show how to create a joystick-like button in Unity, which is primarily suitable for movement control on touchscreen phones.

You can also use the example below to add more buttons and joysticks. So let's begin!

Step 1: Create All The necessary Scripts

Create two C# scripts using the source code below

MobileJoystick_UI.cs

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;

public class MobileJoystick_UI : MonoBehaviour
{

    //Mobile controller graphics
    public Sprite navigationCircle;
    public Sprite navigationButton;
    //Use this in your movement script for the input control
    public Vector2 moveDirection;
    //Joystick components size
    int circleSize = 120;
    int buttonSize = 100;
    //How far the joystick should be placed from the side of the screen
    int marginLeft = 100;
    //How far the joystick should be placed from the bottom of the screen
    int marginBottom = 100;

    Canvas mainCanvas;

    //Mobile movement
    [System.Serializable]
    public class JoystickButton
    {
        public Image backgroundCircle;
        public Image mainButton;
        public Rect defaultArea;
        public Vector2 touchOffset;
        public Vector2 currentTouchPos;
        public int touchID;
        public bool isActive = false;
    }

    //Move joystick data
    JoystickButton moveTouch = new JoystickButton();

    public static MobileJoystick_UI instance;

    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        if (instance != null)
        {
            //There is another instance already present, remove this one
            Destroy(gameObject);
            return;
        }
        //Assign this instance to a static variable so you can access the movement direction directly at MobileJoystick_UI.instance.moveDirection
        instance = this;

        //This function will initialize canvas element along with the joystick button
        GameObject tmpObj = new GameObject("Canvas");
        tmpObj.transform.position = Vector3.zero;
        mainCanvas = tmpObj.AddComponent<Canvas>();
        mainCanvas.renderMode = RenderMode.ScreenSpaceOverlay;
        mainCanvas.pixelPerfect = true;

        //Add Canvas Scaler component
        CanvasScaler canvasScaled = tmpObj.AddComponent<CanvasScaler>();
        canvasScaled.scaleFactor = 1;
        canvasScaled.referencePixelsPerUnit = 100;

        //Add Graphic Raycaster element
        tmpObj.AddComponent<GraphicRaycaster>();

        //Setup navigation background
        GameObject cntrlTmpObj = new GameObject("Movement Circle");
        cntrlTmpObj.transform.position = Vector3.zero;
        cntrlTmpObj.transform.parent = tmpObj.transform;
        moveTouch.backgroundCircle = cntrlTmpObj.AddComponent<Image>();
        moveTouch.backgroundCircle.sprite = navigationCircle;
        moveTouch.backgroundCircle.rectTransform.anchorMin = new Vector2(0, 0);
        moveTouch.backgroundCircle.rectTransform.anchorMax = new Vector2(0, 0);
        moveTouch.backgroundCircle.rectTransform.sizeDelta = new Vector2(circleSize, circleSize);
        moveTouch.backgroundCircle.rectTransform.pivot = new Vector2(0, 0);
        moveTouch.backgroundCircle.rectTransform.position = new Vector3(marginLeft, marginBottom, 0);

        //Navigation button
        cntrlTmpObj = new GameObject("Movement Button");
        cntrlTmpObj.transform.position = Vector3.zero;
        cntrlTmpObj.transform.parent = tmpObj.transform;
        moveTouch.mainButton = cntrlTmpObj.AddComponent<Image>();
        moveTouch.mainButton.sprite = navigationButton;
        moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.anchorMin = new Vector2(0, 0);
        moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.anchorMax = new Vector2(0, 0);
        moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.sizeDelta = new Vector2(buttonSize, buttonSize);
        moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.pivot = new Vector2(0, 0);
        moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.position = new Vector3(marginLeft + (circleSize - buttonSize) / 2, marginBottom + (circleSize - buttonSize) / 2, 0);

        //Save the default location of the joystick button to be used later for input detection
        moveTouch.defaultArea = new Rect(moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.position.x,
            moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.position.y,
            moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.sizeDelta.x,
            moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.sizeDelta.y);
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        //Handle joystick movement
#if (UNITY_ANDROID || UNITY_IOS || UNITY_WP8 || UNITY_WP8_1) && !UNITY_EDITOR
        //Mobile touch input
        for (var i = 0; i < Input.touchCount; ++i)
        {
            Touch touch = Input.GetTouch(i);

            if (touch.phase == TouchPhase.Began)
            {
                MobileButtonsCheck(new Vector2(touch.position.x, Screen.height - touch.position.y), touch.fingerId);
            }

            if (touch.phase == TouchPhase.Moved )
            {
                if(moveTouch.isActive && moveTouch.touchID == touch.fingerId)
                {
                    moveTouch.currentTouchPos = touch.position;
                }
            }

            if (touch.phase == TouchPhase.Ended || touch.phase == TouchPhase.Canceled)
            {
                MobileButtonStop(touch.fingerId);
            }
        }
#else
        //Desktop mouse input for editor testing
        if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
        {
            MobileButtonsCheck(new Vector2(Input.mousePosition.x, Screen.height - Input.mousePosition.y), -1);
        }

        if (Input.GetMouseButtonUp(0))
        {
            MobileButtonStop(-1);
        }

        moveTouch.currentTouchPos = Input.mousePosition;
#endif

        //Moving
        if (moveTouch.isActive)
        {
            moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.position = new Vector3(moveTouch.currentTouchPos.x - moveTouch.touchOffset.x, moveTouch.currentTouchPos.y - moveTouch.touchOffset.y);
            moveDirection.x = moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.position.x - moveTouch.defaultArea.x;
            moveDirection.y = moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.position.y - moveTouch.defaultArea.y;

            if (Mathf.Abs(moveDirection.x) < 19)
            {
                moveDirection.x = 0;
            }
            else
            {
                moveDirection.x = Mathf.Clamp(moveDirection.x / 75.000f, -1.000f, 1.000f);
            }

            if (Mathf.Abs(moveDirection.y) < 19)
            {
                moveDirection.y = 0;
            }
            else
            {
                moveDirection.y = Mathf.Clamp(moveDirection.y / 75.000f, -1.000f, 1.000f);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            moveTouch.mainButton.rectTransform.position = new Vector3(moveTouch.defaultArea.x, moveTouch.defaultArea.y);
            moveDirection = Vector2.zero;
        }
    }

    //Here we check if the clicked/tapped position is inside the joystick button
    void MobileButtonsCheck(Vector2 touchPos, int touchID)
    {
        //Move controller
        if (moveTouch.defaultArea.Contains(new Vector2(touchPos.x, Screen.height - touchPos.y)) && !moveTouch.isActive)
        {
            moveTouch.isActive = true;
            moveTouch.touchOffset = new Vector2(touchPos.x - moveTouch.defaultArea.x, Screen.height - touchPos.y - moveTouch.defaultArea.y);
            moveTouch.currentTouchPos = new Vector2(touchPos.x, Screen.height - touchPos.y);
            moveTouch.touchID = touchID;
        }
    }

    //Here we release the previously active joystick if we release the mouse button/finger from the screen
    void MobileButtonStop(int touchID)
    {
        if (moveTouch.isActive && moveTouch.touchID == touchID)
        {
            moveTouch.isActive = false;
            moveTouch.touchOffset = Vector2.zero;
            moveTouch.touchID = -1;
        }
    }
}

TouchPlayerController.cs

using UnityEngine;

public class TouchPlayerController : MonoBehaviour
{

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        //Move Front/Back
        if (MobileJoystick_UI.instance.moveDirection.y != 0)
        {
            transform.Translate(transform.forward * Time.deltaTime * 2.45f * MobileJoystick_UI.instance.moveDirection.y, Space.World);
        }

        //Rotate Left/Right
        if (MobileJoystick_UI.instance.moveDirection.x != 0)
        {
            transform.Rotate(new Vector3(0, 14, 0) * Time.deltaTime * 4.5f * MobileJoystick_UI.instance.moveDirection.x, Space.Self);
        }
    }
}

Step 2: Set up a Simple Scene Using The Scripts Above

Create new Scene
Create a new GameObject and call it '_TouchInput'
Attach MobileJoystick_UI script to it
Assign 'Navigation Circle' and 'Navigation button' variables.

You can use the sprites below or click here:

After importing them to Unity, make sure to change the Texture type to 'Sprite (2D and UI)'

Step 3: Setup The Player Instance

Lastly, we set up the player instance (In my case it will be a simple GameObject with a Cylinder inside it):

Create a new GameObject and call it 'MobilePlayer'
Attach the TouchPlayerController script to it
Create a new Cylinder and scale its height down until it looks almost flat (In my case the scale is (x: 1 y: 0.0142 z: 1))
Move the Cylinder inside the 'MobilePlayer' GameObject
For testing purposes, you can also move the Main Camera inside the 'MobilePlayer' and rotate it so it's pointed at the player like this: