Windows Button Configuration Preferences

SaraTonen

Member
Without getting into the whole "just have customisable button mapping" debate, I'd like to inquire as to people's general preference when it comes to mouse/keyboard controls, specifically in a 2D platform setting.

I'm working on my game and for the life of me, nothing feels good with keyboard controls. Now I don't ever play games on PC and fully intend for Gamepad to be the desired control method but short of having zero keyboard controls, I can't enforce it, nor should I.

And yes, ultimately I will do button mapping but I'd like to get a good default layout set and learn how games are played and experienced with this control method I'm very unfamiliar with.

A couple points that pertain to Lobetrotter:

My walljump mechanic is single-wall based. I don't want wall scaling so I force momentum for a bit during a walljump. On Gamepad, it feels as I think it should with the player holding their directional input into the wall and pressing the jump button, then rolling the stick towards their destination during the hspd lockout. All of this works the same with keyboard but you can't roll the arrow or WASD keys. It just feels off.

Aiming. I originally intended to have full 360 aiming, thus the mouse would be used. I have actually decided on 8-directional aiming as I don't want any run-and-gun style combat so momentum is stopped during aim-mode. Normally I'd think Mouse-Right would serve as an aim button but with no need for the mouse, I need a key. It could toggle or be held but just once again, nothing feels right or easy on my hand.

As it stands, controls are:

Move - Arrow Keys
Jump - C
Attack (melee and fire gun) - V
Dash/Run - Z
Grapple - X
Aim - L-Shift

Not really sure what the point is here. I've read lots of stuff online and everyone has their preference but I'm still unsure how I should proceed. Just asking for opinions here, nothing to be fixed for me.
 

derboo

Member
I would put the most important keys (jump & attack?) on Z and X. Having jump and attack not immediately next to each other would feel weird to me in a platformer.

I know the Z,X,C,V config is common, but I usually reconfigure to use Z,X,A,S instead (and Q, W if needed) to mimic a controller button layout, feels more natural and closer to "as designed" for me.

The Shift keys tend to have weird interferences depending on the keyboard and system, so it might be advisable to avoid them as default keys.
 

Mk.2

Member
If a 2D platformer has movement mapped to arrow keys, and no alternative control scheme, I won't play it. If I really want to play it, I'll maybe give it a few minutes then decide it's not worth continuing with controls that feel like my hands have been swapped around.

Left hand for movement and right hand for other actions has been the standard for the majority of games in this genre for a long time.

If given the option of button remapping, I'll always change it to WASD and the other actions to letters on the opposite side. If it has gamepad support, I'll likely use that.

Something to consider is that many keyboards have a limit on how many keys will register as being held simultaneously, and in my own experience, the WASD setup didn't cause this to be a problem, but the arrow key setup did. Players of one of my games were mentioning difficulty using one of the mechanics, and it became apparent that I hadn't experienced it when testing because I always used WASD.
 
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Many of us raised on console games(Platformers especially) are used to using our left hands for movement. Whenever a game forces me to use only the arrow keys for movement I end up still using my left hand for that and having to cross my arms so my right hand can access the other keys.

WASD for movement and JKL are my defaults for most simple games.
For my jam games, I often have WASD and Arrow keys both work, as well as having JKL mirrored to ZXC.
You have to be careful still though, since there will be users using AZERTY or other keyboard layouts that obviously messes with those.
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
I'm biased, since I made a whole input system about this stuff(among other features). You for sure want to have mapping and gamepad support, so I'm glad you are going to add those. I ALSO agree that its good to have defaults just so there is something there, though since you will support custom mapping, it isn't that important that the defaults be perfect.

Seemingly, older PC platformers used the arrows and then ZXC for things. But as someone mentioned above, consoles have generally always had movement on the left and actions on the right. I grew up on consoles and only started on PC in the 90s. FPSs were around by that time and WASD was the preferred movement so I adopted it. And like @Siolfor the Jackal I like JKL for action keys. I used to run SNES emulation using JKUI for the 4 face buttons for example. But as I mentioned, even if you decide to default to arrow keys and ZXC, as long as you provide the mapping feature players can switch to WASD/JKL, or gamepads.
 

SaraTonen

Member
I appreciate all the input! I too have been having to cross my arms when I used the arrow keys for movement. WASD definitely feels best and it's nice to see that people are fine with JKLUI keys being used as that's ultimately what I've been using as I absolutely need movement on my left hand and other actions on the right. I still will encourage Gamepad use but just want to make sure I at least try to make keyboard controls feels as good as I can, even though nothing feels exactly right to me. Awesome feedback here all around. Thank you again.
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Arrows + ZXC is pretty much the standard for games not using the mouse. I do all my test playing on kb+m (I use a laptop for development and the less stuff you need to drag around everywhere, the easier it is to move around, plus USB ports are precious and limited) so I'm generally fine with it. Going against the established standard is gonna mess with players that don't read instructions (i.e., 90%+ of people) and could ruin your precious first impression, so I'd avoid it if you don't have a really good reason.

Re "you can't roll on the arrow keys", professional fighting game players these days actually often use a hybrid controller with arrow keys and arcade buttons, you can't beat the precision of digital inputs. And arrow keys have their completely own thing too, being able to input opposing directions. Only on arrow keys can you crouch and aim upwards at once! A Link To The Past even has a trivially achieveable game-breaking bug if you hold up+down / left+right when going through a door, which is only possible when emulating the game but wouldn't work on a regular SNES gamepad.

For walljumps specifically: force the player to move at max horizontal velocity away from the wall for X time (like half a second) after jumping regardless of input, that way the player both is forced away from the wall regardless of inputs, and they have a generous grace period to change directions before they start losing speed.
 

SaraTonen

Member
Arrows + ZXC is pretty much the standard for games not using the mouse. I do all my test playing on kb+m (I use a laptop for development and the less stuff you need to drag around everywhere, the easier it is to move around, plus USB ports are precious and limited) so I'm generally fine with it. Going against the established standard is gonna mess with players that don't read instructions (i.e., 90%+ of people) and could ruin your precious first impression, so I'd avoid it if you don't have a really good reason.

Re "you can't roll on the arrow keys", professional fighting game players these days actually often use a hybrid controller with arrow keys and arcade buttons, you can't beat the precision of digital inputs. And arrow keys have their completely own thing too, being able to input opposing directions. Only on arrow keys can you crouch and aim upwards at once! A Link To The Past even has a trivially achieveable game-breaking bug if you hold up+down / left+right when going through a door, which is only possible when emulating the game but wouldn't work on a regular SNES gamepad.

For walljumps specifically: force the player to move at max horizontal velocity away from the wall for X time (like half a second) after jumping regardless of input, that way the player both is forced away from the wall regardless of inputs, and they have a generous grace period to change directions before they start losing speed.
I meant rolling it like an analog stick in a literal sense but yes you're right about digital inputs. Honestly, no mater what, nothing feels right on the keyboard to me. No matter what configuration I default to, there's always buttons that feel wrong because I have no muscle memory for this. But you're absolutely right and I don't want people to think it's inherently bad because they didn't read a text blurb even if the controls themselves do work.
 
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