{"author_link":"\/users\/flauschzelle","author_name":"Flauschzelle","author_uid":"flauschzelle","comments":[],"epoch":1602081419,"event":"LD47","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":229747,"likes":5,"metadata":{"p_key":"150537","p_author":"Flauschzelle","p_authorkey":"1057918","p_urlkey":"367042","p_title":"Thoughts on game controls and accessibility?","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD47","p_time":"1602081419","p_likes":"5","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1057918","us_name":"Flauschzelle","us_username":"flauschzelle","event_start":"1601596800","event_key":"76","event_name":"Ludum Dare 47"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD47","removed_author":false},"_superparent":212256,"_trust":2,"author":57918,"body":"Inspired by a comment on our latest jam game [Radiant Rewind](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/radiant-rewind), I've been thinking about different controls for games...\n\nI'll be using my own past *Ludum Dare* entries as examples, simply because they're the games I know best. The following thoughts should also be applicable to any other game nonetheless.\n\nIn the past few LD games I've been a part of making, we used different kinds of controls. My first two games, [Spring Clean - DO NOT CROSS](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/spring-clean-do-not-cross) and [Writespace](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/writespace), were keyboard-only, while the third one, [Arden's Artisan Artefacts](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/ardens-artisan-artefacts) was playable using only the mouse.\n\nSo, [Radiant Rewind](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/radiant-rewind) is our first game that currently needs both a mouse (or similar pointing device) AND a keyboard to play it.\n\n![38932.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/39722.jpg)\n\nSparked by a comment asking for keyboard or gamepad support, I'm thinking about adding keyboard controls for the player movement now, so that it would be playable without a mouse.  \n\n[Thygrrr](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/users\/thygrrr) framed it as an **accessibility need** in their comment, and it seems obvious now that I think about it - some people can't use a mouse or just don't own one, and strongly prefer keyboard controls over using e.g. the touch pad on their laptop.\n\nI think this is also a very subjective issue of **personal preference**. \n\nFor an action-packed game that needs quick reactions, if I can't have the **intuitive movement tracking of VR controllers** (my favorite way of playing video games), I generally prefer **mouse-only controls**, because I find it easier to focus when I'm not distracted by having to look away from the screen to find keys on my keyboard.\n\nWith that in mind, if I were making **_Spring Clean_** now, I would probably build it with mouse controls instead of keyboard - not doing that back then in 2017 was mainly because keyboard controls were just easier to implement and it was my first game jam ever. \nBut as *Spring Clean* is still mostly a strategic puzzle game where quick reactions are helpful, but not the most important skill needed to play it, it's not that much of a problem to not have mouse controls.\n\n![c1db.png](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/3971a.png)\n\n*\n\nIn puzzle games like **_Writespace_**, this is not a problem at all, because there is no time pressure, so being slow at typing isn't a disadvantage for the player. And of course the typewriter story\/setting of *Writespace* would just not feel right with any other control than a keyboard anyway.\n\n![1841f.png](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/3971b.png)\n\n*\n\nAs it relies a lot on quick and precise reactions, **_Radiant Rewind_** is a very different case. \n\nIn hindsight, I would kind of like to try and build a mouse-only version for my personal preference.  \n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=txWLdFpt_Ro\n\nBut that would probably be quite tricky because of the limited amount of buttons on a mouse - and it feels ok to play with mouse and keyboard combined because the three most quickly needed keys \ncan be reached with one hand, so I can play it with my right hand on the mouse and my left hand on the keyboard, one finger each on the `ctrl`, `C` and `space` keys.\n\n![keyboard_mouse.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/39707.jpg)\n\n*\n\nNow you probably also think that the perfect combination of the mouse's intuitive movement and the keyboard's less limited amount of buttons has already been invented - why don't I just use a **gamepad**?\n\nHaving grown up without any gaming consoles, I personally just never got used to playing with a gamepad - but apart from that, I think it could actually fit the needs of **_Radiant Rewind_** quite well. You could even try it out if you can configure your gamepad so one of the joysticks will move the mouse pointer and map the gamepad's keys to all the keyboard keys used by the game (`ctrl`, `space`, `C`, `R`, and `P` being the most important ones, with `F` and `Esc` just needed for resizing\/closing the game window and numbers `1` to `6` for skipping directly into a level of your choice).\n\nI'm curious now about building in native gamepad support and looking into [L\u00d6VE's possibilities for that](https:\/\/love2d.org\/wiki\/Joystick:isGamepad). But that will probably take a while, so if you want to try our latest game and can't or don't want to use mouse and keyboard, you will need to have your gamepad configurable as described above.\n\n**Now that I've shared my thoughts on different controls for games, I would like to read yours**. \n\nDo you have a generally preferred way of controlling a game?  \nDo you choose the games you play based on the possible controls?  \nAre different keyboard layouts a possible problem for players in a different country?  \nWhat other accessibility issues do you see with different kinds of game controls?  ","comments":3,"comments-timestamp":"2020-10-07T15:18:25Z","created":"2020-10-07T12:40:58Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":229747,"love":5,"love-timestamp":"2020-10-07T14:53:33Z","meta":[],"modified":"2020-10-07T16:48:53Z","name":"Thoughts on game controls and accessibility?","node-timestamp":"2020-10-07T16:48:53Z","parent":223185,"parents":[1,5,9,212256,223185],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/radiant-rewind\/thoughts-on-game-controls-and-accessibility","published":"2020-10-07T14:36:59Z","scope":"public","slug":"thoughts-on-game-controls-and-accessibility","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":699027},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"229747","n_urlkey":"367042","n_parent":"223185","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/radiant-rewind\/thoughts-on-game-controls-and-accessibility","n_slug":"thoughts-on-game-controls-and-ac","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"57918","n_created":"1602074458","n_modified":"1602089333","n_version":"699027","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/radiant-rewind\/thoughts-on-game-controls-and-accessibility","text":"Inspired by a comment on our latest jam game [Radiant Rewind](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/radiant-rewind), I've been thinking about different controls for games...\n\nI'll be using my own past *Ludum Dare* entries as examples, simply because they're the games I know best. The following thoughts should also be applicable to any other game nonetheless.\n\nIn the past few LD games I've been a part of making, we used different kinds of controls. My first two games, [Spring Clean - DO NOT CROSS](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/40\/spring-clean-do-not-cross) and [Writespace](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/42\/writespace), were keyboard-only, while the third one, [Arden's Artisan Artefacts](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/ardens-artisan-artefacts) was playable using only the mouse.\n\nSo, [Radiant Rewind](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/radiant-rewind) is our first game that currently needs both a mouse (or similar pointing device) AND a keyboard to play it.\n\n![38932.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/39722.jpg)\n\nSparked by a comment asking for keyboard or gamepad support, I'm thinking about adding keyboard controls for the player movement now, so that it would be playable without a mouse.  \n\n[Thygrrr](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/users\/thygrrr) framed it as an **accessibility need** in their comment, and it seems obvious now that I think about it - some people can't use a mouse or just don't own one, and strongly prefer keyboard controls over using e.g. the touch pad on their laptop.\n\nI think this is also a very subjective issue of **personal preference**. \n\nFor an action-packed game that needs quick reactions, if I can't have the **intuitive movement tracking of VR controllers** (my favorite way of playing video games), I generally prefer **mouse-only controls**, because I find it easier to focus when I'm not distracted by having to look away from the screen to find keys on my keyboard.\n\nWith that in mind, if I were making **_Spring Clean_** now, I would probably build it with mouse controls instead of keyboard - not doing that back then in 2017 was mainly because keyboard controls were just easier to implement and it was my first game jam ever. \nBut as *Spring Clean* is still mostly a strategic puzzle game where quick reactions are helpful, but not the most important skill needed to play it, it's not that much of a problem to not have mouse controls.\n\n![c1db.png](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/3971a.png)\n\n*\n\nIn puzzle games like **_Writespace_**, this is not a problem at all, because there is no time pressure, so being slow at typing isn't a disadvantage for the player. And of course the typewriter story\/setting of *Writespace* would just not feel right with any other control than a keyboard anyway.\n\n![1841f.png](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/3971b.png)\n\n*\n\nAs it relies a lot on quick and precise reactions, **_Radiant Rewind_** is a very different case. \n\nIn hindsight, I would kind of like to try and build a mouse-only version for my personal preference.  \n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=txWLdFpt_Ro\n\nBut that would probably be quite tricky because of the limited amount of buttons on a mouse - and it feels ok to play with mouse and keyboard combined because the three most quickly needed keys \ncan be reached with one hand, so I can play it with my right hand on the mouse and my left hand on the keyboard, one finger each on the `ctrl`, `C` and `space` keys.\n\n![keyboard_mouse.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/e32\/e\/z\/39707.jpg)\n\n*\n\nNow you probably also think that the perfect combination of the mouse's intuitive movement and the keyboard's less limited amount of buttons has already been invented - why don't I just use a **gamepad**?\n\nHaving grown up without any gaming consoles, I personally just never got used to playing with a gamepad - but apart from that, I think it could actually fit the needs of **_Radiant Rewind_** quite well. You could even try it out if you can configure your gamepad so one of the joysticks will move the mouse pointer and map the gamepad's keys to all the keyboard keys used by the game (`ctrl`, `space`, `C`, `R`, and `P` being the most important ones, with `F` and `Esc` just needed for resizing\/closing the game window and numbers `1` to `6` for skipping directly into a level of your choice).\n\nI'm curious now about building in native gamepad support and looking into [L\u00d6VE's possibilities for that](https:\/\/love2d.org\/wiki\/Joystick:isGamepad). But that will probably take a while, so if you want to try our latest game and can't or don't want to use mouse and keyboard, you will need to have your gamepad configurable as described above.\n\n**Now that I've shared my thoughts on different controls for games, I would like to read yours**. \n\nDo you have a generally preferred way of controlling a game?  \nDo you choose the games you play based on the possible controls?  \nAre different keyboard layouts a possible problem for players in a different country?  \nWhat other accessibility issues do you see with different kinds of game controls?  ","title":"Thoughts on game controls and accessibility?","wayback_source":[]}