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Posted By
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Message
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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15th January, 2004 at 01:05:45 -
MAIN QUESTION:
I'm curious as to what control scheme people are most comfortable with. Right now I am coding a control scheme that involves the arrow buttons being ASDW and the action buttons being JKL. Are people comfortable with that? Or do you prefer the arrow buttons? I am mapping it out that way because for first person shooters, ASDW are used extensively for movement. It also makes sense since video game controllers have the directional pad on the left side with the action buttons on the right.
OTHER QUESTIONS:
Also, for people familiar with the recent Castlevania games (Symphony of the Night, Harmony of Dissonance, and Aria of Sorrow), I have a question about the drop kick and double jump moves. In those games, you jump, do a double jump and then if you press "down" and the "jump" button, you drop down really quickly with a kick. If you hit an enemy, you pop up and you can do another double jump and drop kick. Theoretically, you could chain together an infinite series of double jump and drop kicks.
My question is: do you hold the "down" arrow while you do the double jump??? One of my friends insists that he holds "down" while he double jumps so that he do the drop kick immediately afterwards without shifting his thumb too much. My engine will not let you double jump while "down" is pressed (for a variety of reasons. If you want to hear them, please ask by all means).
If you've managed to make it this far, please bear with me just a little longer  In Viewtiful Joe, if you do the drop kick (Red Hot Kick), you can cancel it by jumping again. I haven't played the game, but a friend tells me this is the case. I have implemented this as well. Again, you can't cancel out of the drop kick if you are holding "down." Would this be a nuisance?
THANK YOU!
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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15th January, 2004 at 01:19:37 -
Oh, here is what I have of my platform engine, just in case anyone cares. You need cncs232.dll, but I'm assuming all of you have it already. You may have problems accessing this file. I didn't.
ftp://pubweb.northwestern.edu/public_html/controlTesting3.exe
ASDW are the directional buttons. J is attack, K is jump, and L is dash.
--You can pivot instantaneouly while dashing, and can change directions in the middle of a drop kick. This is intentional.
--The thin red platform is a drop-through platform. Press "down" and "jump" to drop through.
--The diamond that shoots three bullets cannot be killed... yet.
--If you hold the "dash" button, a counter at the top will fill up. If you let go when the counter is full, you will do a faster dash (will be used as an attack later on and for busting down some walls). If you release the button any other time, a normal dash is done.
--Press "down" and "dash" to slide. You can slide in the middle of a dash if you press "down" during the dash. This is intentional.
--If you dash and jump or dash off a platform, hold the directional buttons to move. You will move a lot faster
THANKS AGAIN!
PS. If any of you are awesome pixel artists, please help! hehe
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David Newton (DavidN)
Invisible
Registered
27/10/2002
Points
8322
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15th January, 2004 at 05:05:15 -
It's odd - having the left hand for directions and the right hand for action buttons is normal for consoles, but I find it a lot easier on PCs if the directional buttons are on the right and the action buttons on the left. In the good old Apogee days I always used the arrow keys and S D F etc for action buttons.
However, while playing FPSses(sesseseses) I do use WSAD, because it's so much more comfortable that way than having to stretch your left hand to the right of the keyboard.
As for the double jump/drop kick question, I think what you have there sounds reasonable. I can't test it, though, as guest logins aren't allowed on the FTP you provided.
http://www.davidn.co.nr - Games, music, living in America
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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15th January, 2004 at 05:13:42 -
errr... let's try this...
http://pubweb.northwestern.edu/~wpe871/controlTesting3.exe
That ftp thing was by accident.
I see. Thanks for your feedback.
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David Newton (DavidN)
Invisible
Registered
27/10/2002
Points
8322
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15th January, 2004 at 05:55:11 -
Impressive engine.
http://www.davidn.co.nr - Games, music, living in America
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Pete Nattress
Cheesy Bits img src/uploads/sccheesegif
Registered
23/09/2002
Points
4811
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15th January, 2004 at 09:14:46 -
well, if you think about it, using the arrow keys on the PC does make sense, as you're still using your left hand for movement (with your right hand on the mouse).
and an easy way to answer your main question: allow the player to chose  .
www.thenatflap.co.uk
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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15th January, 2004 at 11:33:52 -
Wong Chung: Thank you.
Pete: I tried to make the controls customizable through controlx by adding:
controlx: Key paragraph$("string", 1) is pressed
But at some point of replacing all my
'Upon pressing "<key>" ' conditions, all of my events suddenly disappear. I swear I can't have more than 1024 conditions, events, and expressions in my engine. I can't imagine why I'm running into this limit.
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Karnage [Ragnarok Games]
Registered
28/10/2003
Points
664
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15th January, 2004 at 13:04:15 -
For your first, definitely arrow keys. My brother won't play a game that uses wsad because, as he said, "Arrow keys are the easiest for movement, that's why they'rre called arrows". For your second, maybe use a different button in midair to kick. That's what they did in the ps2 caslevania (Lament of Innocnece)
Remember, there's a little darkness in all of us... we just express it best.
--Ragnarok Games
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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15th January, 2004 at 13:25:29 -
Alright. For some strange reason, ever since I started playing platformers on the keyboard, I always used WASD and tried to map the buttons exactly to the contour of the gamepad. I got so used to it that I am more proficient with the keyboard than an actual gamepad or joystick. I didn't realize it would be a problem until I showed the engine to some of my friends. Well, I will definitely try to work out a customizable control scheme--somehow reduce my condition/event/expression count--so that people can use the arrow buttons instead. I, myself, have to test it with WASD since I cannot use the arrow keys very well.
I will definitely consider a different button for the midair kick then. What are other people's opinion on this? I've just been so used to the 'ol symphony of the night scheme, and I also want to reduce the button count as much as possible.
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Mr Coffee
Registered
04/09/2003
Points
440
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15th January, 2004 at 14:39:36 -
wp, in my game I simply made it so the player can use the WSDA combination AND the arrow keys. However, I did not even bother to make a key configuration. If the player presses the right arrow key he moves right, and if the player presses the "D" key he also moves right. This is much simpler than making a key configuration.
99 percent chance that the above post is 100 percent correct.
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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15th January, 2004 at 18:42:03 -
Oh, Karnage, I've been thinking about removing the midair kick entirely. How much did you use it in castlevania anyway?
Mr. Coffee: the problem isn't implementing customization of buttons. It's this stupid event limit that kicks in. If I were to duplicate all the commands, with the arrow buttons, the same thing would happen. And thanks for all your replies. You've managed to come up with some great responses for all of my posts! I like how you think of function and practicality rather than the merely the joy of coding all of this in. Having fun making the game is only part of it; there's no point if you can't make the game enjoyable for other people.
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Karnage [Ragnarok Games]
Registered
28/10/2003
Points
664
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15th January, 2004 at 20:31:27 -
Not that much, wp.
Remember, there's a little darkness in all of us... we just express it best.
--Ragnarok Games
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Mr Coffee
Registered
04/09/2003
Points
440
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16th January, 2004 at 13:18:32 -
Well, I like coding, but my favorite part of making games is level design. I tend to try and minimize coding by making heavy use of extensions and finding other shortcuts. Game design is whats going to affect if the player enjoys your game, not how you coded it.
99 percent chance that the above post is 100 percent correct.
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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17th January, 2004 at 22:26:51 -
I have another question regarding platformers. If you are walking off the screen to the next one, and you are holding the directional button down, you continue walking at the beginning of the next screen. I'm having a problem with controlx: when you hold down the button and go to the next screen, the character stops automatically. You have to release the direction button and press it down again to start moving. Is this annoying? Or can you live with that?
Thanks
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cosmos
Registered
18/03/2003
Points
9
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19th January, 2004 at 01:33:14 -
wp i like the engine is pretty smooth with double jump and wall jump and dashing!
too bad there is a limit problem to the event editor, what program are you using? maybe perphaps you can put the coding for the buttons in the global event editor? i would like to know how you use the controlx extention for that feature.
always try your best
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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19th January, 2004 at 02:09:55 -
Shifting events to the global editor is what I ended up doing in the end. So yes, I've managed to incorporate controlx. Now about that wall jump... are you talking about the moving platforms? Err... hehe... I have a major problem with overlapping and moving platforms. You're not supposed to be able to wall jump. It's just that when you overlap, it resets the jump so that you can jump again. But heck, if I can make it into a wall jump, then all the better I guess.
About controlx; You know how you can make the condition:
Key <string> is pressed
Well, if you want to check if the letter "1" is pressed, you say 'Key "1" is pressed'
If you make a string object called "String" with the alterable value "1" in it, you can say instead:
Key string$("String") is pressed
This way you can customize your controls by changing the value of the string object "String".
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wp
Registered
22/11/2003
Points
34
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19th January, 2004 at 04:16:42 -
http://pubweb.northwestern.edu/~wpe871/controlxTestEngine.zip
Alright, here is a zip with the test and an .ini file that determines the buttons. I have the controls assigned as ASDW and JKL. Open up the .ini file to assign your own controls. Ignore all the other groups in the .ini; you can even delete them. Those are things that will be implemented later on.
Character list
List of all characters recognized.
Characters with a * dosen't work on all keybords.
Letters a - z. The same as A - Z
Numbers 0 - 9
"shift"
"control"
"escape"
"capslock"
"backspace"
"space"
"return" or "enter"
"tab"
"scrollock"
"numlock"
"f 1" - "f12"
"/"
"decimal"
"-"
"seperator" *
"+"
"*"
"0 on numeric" - "9 on numeric"
"menu" *
"right window" *
"left window" *
"help" *
"delete"
"insert"
"snapshot" *
"execute" *
"print" *
"select" *
"down"
"right"
"up"
"left"
"home"
"end"
"page down"
"page up"
"break"
"§"
"´"
"¨"
"'"
","
"<"
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