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Designing the control system is vital

Discussion in 'Game Design' started by imaginaryhuman, Nov 27, 2022.

  1. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    I think this seems to be overlooked far too often even in very modern games. The control system. Too many keys. Conflicting keys. Badly placed keys. Unintuitive actions from keys.

    Just tried playing a platform game, supposedly very popular, where there's the 4 directional arrows for movement, another key for jumping, another key for moving up a wall, and a key for dashing. It's so confusing. Anytime you want to move upwards you now have to choose between 3 possible keys depending on the scenario, which happens so fast you have no time to think.

    Played another modern platformer, not to mention that it had like 12 keys to remember. But once again there's a conflict of interests using the up key for 'moving up' and some other key for jumping. It's so unintuitive it makes the game almost unplayable.

    The user interface for any game is absolutely vital, it can TOTALLY make or break a game. I have encountered several games now where the entire game was basically ruined by a bad control system. And usually it's designed in such a way that even the configuration options don't let you override the bad design. Like you can usually reconfigure one key but you can't design that a key will work in two scenarios where two separate keys have been created.

    If you're making any kind of action or arcade game, any game where you need quick reflexes or skill, you absolutely must meditate for days on getting the control system right. It has to be super simple, super clear, super easy. You should not have to be memorizing a lot of keys. You should not have to be lifting your fingers off keys to press other keys. You should not be performing finger gymnastics. You should not be having multiple inputs for the same kind of action. You should not be having anything over like 5 or 6 input keys at most for the main action. Definitely not in the region of 10-12.

    Look back at games from 20-30 years ago. They had joysticks. Up down left right and fire. It was enough to make some truly excellent games. You do not need a hundred keys to control a game or to give the player a diverse range of expression. If you're making some less immediate less skill-oriented delayed action game, some game that you have time to think etc, sure, use some more depth to the control system, but if its an action skill game DO NOT. Less is more. More is very very bad.
     
    halley likes this.
  2. halley

    halley

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    I can understand why some game designers like the "upward" button to be Jump and some game designers like the "downward" button to be Jump. I can keep them straight in my head as I switch games. But there are some games which seem to have completely contradictory commands at different times or situations.

    The mis-mash of "Which button is likely to confirm or cancel my choice this time?" in some games *cough* Fallout4 *cough* really grinds my gears.
     
  3. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    On one hand, I was playing Super Meat Boy: Forever recently and was thoroughly impressed with the depth of mechanics and challenge they've managed to get out of two buttons. Not two buttons and a direction, literally just two buttons. Jump and punch-slide. That's it. Everything else is about timing and context.

    As another example, I also recently played some Ghostrunner, and even after playing a few levels I'm still undecided as to whether I'll go back. There are two directional inputs, jump, dash, grapple, and attack. (There is also an interaction button, but that's not used anywhere that matters.) On one hand, by the 4th level (so ~30 minutes in) I did feel that I was starting to get ok at the game when playing with a gamepad. On the other hand, I'm used to playing games with a fair few buttons, and at that point I was still making mistakes where I meant to do one thing but accidentally did another.

    Really the challenge factor comes from the speed. However, as the whole fantasy and point of the game is "be a lightning-fast future ninja" I can't fault the game for that.

    Is it? I think this is really a question of taste.

    Just because SMBF manages beautifully with two buttons doesn't mean that Super Mario henceforth has to manage the same. And there are plenty of players who might enjoy the experience of starting off as a bad ninja and becoming a good one by practice, an experience which would be denied if it stuck to the controls and timing of other games. Similarly, the whole Guitar Hero thing works precisely because of its number of buttons and the musically-tight timings required. This is absolutely a valid form of challenge to provide people with.

    I agree entirely that controls are a fundamental part of a game's UI, and that the UI can make or break a game. But I don't think that "less is more" necessarily holds true, or that games should have to slow down*.

    Fundamentally, I don't think all games have to be for all people. If I never go back to Ghostrunner that's not because it's a bad game, it's because I'm not into it, and that's ok.

    * Under default circumstances. A valid counter-point here is accessibility, so providing accessibility options to broaden timing windows or automate some parts of a game would be perfectly valid.
     
  4. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    Yah I was just playing another game where the C key was the only key you could press to act like 'enter' or 'return' on any menu navigation or skipping screens or anything... and solely because the name of the game began with a C so they thought it was relevant. Usability fail, trying to figure out why nothing is working.
     
  5. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    As to complex controls, it's fine for certain game types. It's totally not fine for games where the action is fast and skill is needed and you have no time to think. Maybe you can learn a more complex thing over time but for the very immediate game styles the controls have to be super slick and simple. Like Sonic was just left/right and jump, with an occasional down for the spin dash. Just 4 keys for the entire game.
     
  6. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

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    I think absolute rules / mantras like that are not helpful.

    It depends on the game, it depends on the design.

    Sometimes more is more. The less is more approach has resulted in designers using the same button to loot / jump out the window and that means when you want to loot something near a window, sometimes instead of looting you jump out the window.

    Sometimes more complicated control schemes allow for more control and higher skill ceilings, and for some games that is appropriate. Even if they are fast and quick games, assuming they allow enough time for the players to get used to their complicated control system before demanding they use it efficiently, I don't see what the problem is.
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2022
    angrypenguin likes this.
  7. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    So Ghostrunner and Guitar Hero should not exist?

    Spot on. Things do not all have to be easy, and they do not have to be for everyone.