INTRO
Gamepads
have been around for ages. The basic concept, directional control for the left
thumb and action control or
secondary movement for the right thumb, a convention, that is
pretty much still being the standard, was nailed already back in 1982 by Nintendo (more specifically by a gentleman called Gunpei Yokoi) with its Game & Watch game,
Donkey Kong (bragging alert: a game
system I actually happen to own, bought back in 1985 or something, still in working
condition! J ).
 |
| It's amazing how far ahead of its time this little device was and how influential standards it set. |
Whereas
8-bit era gamepads, like the legendary NES
controller, were only d-pad plus 1 to 3 face buttons, added Nintendo once again something, with the
release of SNES back in 1990, that pretty much revolutionized
gamepads: shoulder buttons and a 4 face buttons scheme, that has since
been pretty much the industry standard. This made SNES gamepad quite a complicated piece of hardware, sporting d-pad
plus 6 action buttons plus select and start. But, like most of the things Nintendo has done, this controller was
very intuitive to use.
Back
in 1996 Nintendo did it again, they
added an analog stick into this familiar layout, but it was actually Sony who made the iteration, that is the
blueprint of modern gamepad, with their Dual
Analog Controller in 1997 (note:
they showed it already in 1996 at the
PlayStation Expo 96-97, but it was
under the glass non-playable). This controller also introduced a second row of shoulder buttons, which
is also pretty much the standard in modern gamepads.
One
would think that nailing gamepad controls should be easy by now. After all, the
blueprint has been around for about 20 years now. But depending of the game, it
actually can still be surprisingly hard. There are bunch of conventions, tried,
tested and approved by public - some even so strongly, that not many have the
courage, or even reason to alter those nowadays. Still, new type of games,
mash-ups of different genres and just new inventions pop up here and there all
the time, challenging the developers to think about the gamepad control schemes
– sometimes even all over again.
This
article is a study of few games, where I personally think the modern gamepad
controls are GREAT and I’ll try to
deconstruct why they are so and present a theory how to maybe make that nailing
down easier and happen earlier in the development cycle. After all, sometimes a
bad control scheme can even make good features feel weak and thus, in the worst
case, can end up being thrown into the trash bin.
CASE AXIOM VERGE
From
all the examples I’m going to deconstruct in this article, Axiom Verge has the most conventional, traditional pad controls.
So, it’s natural to start with it.
In
Axiom Verge the control scheme goes
like this:
-
First priority movement, left-right, aim: d-pad or left stick, the
player chooses which one to use.
-
First priority actions and second priority movement, shooting,
jumping, grappling hook, drone: face
buttons.
-
Second priority actions, plant feet, glitch-gun, drill, etc: bumpers and triggers.
-
Map and menu: select &
start.
In
a nutshell this control scheme is very straight forward to deconstruct: left thumb does the main moving of the character and the aiming (8-way), right thumb does all the quick
reaction moves and actions and the weapon
change, index/middle fingers are
reserved for the more rarely used or non-quick reflex moves and select/start
are used for map and menu.
As
said earlier, this a very conventional modern pad control scheme, and in a game
like this it just works. Shooting in different directions is done by just
pushing the d-pad/left stick to the desired direction and just like in some Metroid and Contra games, you can plant your feet by pushing one of the shoulder buttons. I really think a game
like this wouldn’t work as well with any other scheme, like for example the twin-stick scheme.
CASE DARK SOULS
Dark Souls is a really
interesting example. Its control scheme is an evolution of many From Software's previous games, but it also loans a bit from games like Monster
Hunter and Ocarina
of Time, creating a very well executed control scheme so many people have fell in love.
The control scheme goes like this:
-
First priority movement,
navigating in the 3d game world: left
stick.
-
Non-combat actions and second
priority movement, jump, evasive roll/backstep, action, equip weapon as
two-handed, use selected item, run: face
buttons.
-
Camera controls: right stick.
-
Item selection: d-pad.
-
First priority combat move,
normal attack: right bumper.
-
Second priority combat move,
heavy attack: right trigger.
-
First priority blocking, shield
up: left bumper.
-
Second priority blocking, parry
(depending of the player though, this can be the 1st option too): left trigger.
-
Targeting aka Z-locking: right stick button.
-
Menu/gestures: select & start.
Like the scheme break down above suggest, Dark Souls is partly very conventional,
partly not so. It uses left thumb
for the main movement, right thumb for the evasive and quick reflex moves, as well as for secondary movements, like jump and run, but also for the camera controls. There is actually a
lot reserved for the right thumb.
But all its main combat moves
(although, evasive actions are kind
of in a category of main moves also,
confusing?) are handled by index/middle
fingers. In all its complexity, I think this is a brilliant scheme though:
the evasive moves especially has to
be reacted ultra-fast sometimes,
thus mapping those onto face buttons is the way to go, whereas striking and shield up are well suited for a bit slower index/middle fingers.
But there is one thing, that I personally
never got quite accustomed to though: parrying.
Would it have worked better for me, if it would’ve been mapped onto face buttons? Maybe the timing would’ve
been easier, BUT I understand WHY it was mapped where it was – it’s
natural to map another shield action right next to the other. But it still
makes me wonder.
Z-locking is the one, which makes this scheme work in an
interesting way, as you don’t have to (mostly) care about camera controls in the midst of a battle. Suddenly you’re
concentrating on a pretty conventional
setup, left and right thumb doing
the most quick reaction demanding
work. It’s a very good control design choice. And even though Z-locking is mapped to a button (Right-Stick button) I personally think
developers should use as little as possible for its cumbersomeness, in this
game it works as it is something, that is usually mostly used JUST BEFORE the action starts and not in the middle of the action. Also
the players don’t usually touch the right
stick during the battle, so accidental stick presses are eliminated.
 |
| Locking in Dark Souls let's the player to concentrate in the action, instead of camera. |
CASE FIFA
Like
some other sports titles, FIFA is
easy to pick-up, but knowing all the tricks and maneuverings takes a lot of
skill and practice. But, no matter how skilled you are, the game feels good,
which is pretty much a testament, that the control scheme is very well done.
The
control scheme:
-
First priority movement, navigating on the pitch: left stick.
-
First priority offensive actions, shoot, pass, lob pass, thru
pass, center: face buttons.
-
First priority defensive actions, tackle/push/pull, sliding tackle,
header, charge the goalkeeper out: face
buttons.
-
Second priority movement, skill moves, switch player, first touch:
right stick.
-
Second priority actions, modifiers (run, finesse shot), pace
control, switch player, contain: triggers
and bumpers.
-
Tactics: d-pad.
When
you inspect the break-down above, it’s again easy to notice, that also FIFA uses face buttons for pretty much all the basic actions and left
stick for the basic movement.
It’s again a pretty conventional
scheme and it makes a lot of sense in a relatively fast paced soccer game like FIFA (note: also PES’s control scheme is very close to this). The right stick is used very cleverly, just for giving a first touch to the desired direction, the skill moves, which are deke dribbles or changing to the player who is in the desired direction while
defending. This way it’s not needed to touch all the time and it won’t create any
trouble with the face button first
priority actions.
CASE BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM
Arkham Asylum is also a very
interesting case, as it is a game, which mashes
up few different genre styles: on the one hand it’s a very quick and
responsive action-brawler, while on
the other hand it’s a stealth game,
while also being an exploration game
in the vein of Metroid, adding a tad
bit of detective work in the mix,
not forgetting puzzles. And it uses
all the time the same control
scheme, with success.
Let’s
break it down:
-
First priority movement: left
stick.
-
First priority action moves, punch, jump, dodge roll, counter,
run, stun, climb, takedown: face
buttons.
-
Second priority movement & action moves, grapple hook, crouch,
use gadget, quick fire Batclaw, detective mode, use gadget: triggers & bumpers.
-
Camera controls, look around, zoom: right stick.
-
Select gadget: d-pad.
-
Menu (WayneTech)/Pause: select
& start.
As
it is easy to notice, they’ve left almost all the real reactive action tools
for the thumbs. Another thing worth noticing: in the action situations the
grappling hook is mostly used as a bailout move (not needing super tight
reaction), getting away from the hairy situation, thus making it feel good
being mapped on the bumper.
It
is also easy to notice, that the control scheme stays quite conventional and simple, nevertheless
all the genres mashed up. This is a textbook example how you can also follow the
clear design principle with the
control scheme also and still manage to have enough deepness.
CASE HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER
This
game has an interesting, conventional, but still rather modern control scheme.
It’s a very demanding game for the quick
reaction actions, forcing you to be really fast and accurate on your
inputs. In a game like Hyper Light
Drifter, where there is a fair amount of challenge, it is very important, that the control scheme is nailed sooner than later in the development cycle, in order for the team to be
able to focus on delivering a fair challenge and not a frustrating
one.
 |
| Hyper Light Drifter throws quite a challenge against the player every now and then, thus making the reliability of the quick reaction actions important. |
I’m
going to break down only the main controls, not the special skills, so here it
goes:
-
First priority movement, moving around in the world: left stick.
-
First priority actions, sword slash, dash: face buttons.
-
Second priority actions 1,
change secondary weapon, action: face
buttons.
-
Second priority actions 2,
heal, special, aim and shoot: triggers
and bumpers.
-
Map/menu/inventory: select
and start
So,
basically, like mentioned above, it’s a very conventional control scheme:
almost everything is handled by left and
right thumbs, healing, specials and shooting aside. Shooting happens so,
that the player draws the gun via pressing the left trigger, which forces the player to plant its feet, then
aims with the left stick and finally
shoots with the right trigger. This
might sound very cumbersome, but it actually fits in this game like a glove.
After all, this game is about melee combat and the gun play is just an extra
helping hand, a limited resource in the heat of the battle – the player needs
to know when to use it and against what.
CASE ROCKET LEAGUE
Rocket League is well known for being easy
to pick up, harder to master and a lot of that easy to pick up comes from
its control scheme. It pretty much mashes up two conventional control schemes – one being from sports games and the other from driving games. It goes without saying
this is quite an interesting one to inspect closer.
Let’s have a closer look:
-
First priority movement,
steering the car, maneuvering in the air, accelerating, going backwards: left stick + triggers & bumpers.
-
First priority action moves,
shoot/pass/save, nitro, jump/save: face
buttons.
-
Second priority movement, jump,
nitro, hand brake, shoot (yes J): face buttons.
-
Chat: d-pad.
Like one can see, many of the first priority actions and second priority
movement are actually mapped into the same buttons, face buttons, and are actually the very SAME MOVES. It might be a bit hard to convince someone, who hasn’t
played Rocket League, but it is just
a pure genius control scheme, in a
way keeping it VERY simple, yet
somehow allowing it to be deep
enough for the veteran players. I’d go as far as saying, that without this
control scheme, Rocket League wouldn’t
have risen to be the super smash hit it is
 |
| There are many things this rather simple control scheme allows the player to do, flying (and scoring goals using that skill) being one of them. |
CASE TWIN-STICK
After
reading all the breakdowns above, it could be easy to think, that I hate twin-stick control scheme. Spoiler: I
don’t. But I do think that a true twin-stick
control scheme needs to have a real demand
and purpose. What I mean by this is, that everytime a developer chooses to
have a twin-stick scheme, the both thumbs of the player are pretty much bound to the
sticks, leaving face buttons in the
territory on “hard or cumbersome to use” and the shoulder buttons are pretty much left for many important actions.
There lies a huge risk of having a cumbersome control scheme on one’s lap, if
there is no true demand and meaning
behind it. BUT, this can also be a restriction, that can give a clear direction
for the gamedesign, if understood well. Below I’ll present quickly three
favourites of mine, in which I personally think the twin-stick scheme is just pure brilliance and there is a real demand and meaning for it.
NHL 07 AND FORWARD
In
NHL 07 EA Sports introduced a twin-stick control scheme, which they
named skill stick. This was so
revolutionary feature, that it pretty much killed their competition (NHL 2K), or at least dealt the final blow. When you think about it, it
really makes a perfect sense to have such control scheme in a hockey game.
Everyone who have ever played hockey in real life know, that it really is a lot
about controlling your feet and upper body separately.
In
the skill stick scheme the left stick does the first priority movement, whereas the right stick does the hockey stick/upper torso movement,
including shooting the puck, deking and so on. So it combined also
some first priority actions into the right stick also.
Passing,
poking, switching players, etc. were left into the shoulder buttons. Some less common moves
like protecting the puck, were left
into the face buttons. This scheme
had a steep learning curve, but once you learned it, there just was no reason
to ever look back.
SKATE
Another
twin-stick revolution from EA, developed by EA Black Box. Even though Tony
Hawk series had brilliant, more conventional
controls and could’ve easily been featured in this study, Skate really was the next step in skateboarding games. And it is
all thanks to the brilliant execution of their twin-stick control scheme.
Again,
the left stick is reserved for the first priority movement, but the right stick is where the magic happens
– all the tricks are executed with that, via different motions, thus making it
the first priority action executor.
So once again it’s the thumbs taking the front row.
Shoulder buttons are for grabs, secondary actions, as are face buttons too, controlling pushing, braking and such.
 |
| Tricks were performed with careful motions via the right stick, leaving some room for the actual errors, which are something, that belong in the skateboarding. (the picture is actually from Skate 3's manual) |
This
control scheme made just so much sense in a skateboarding game. Especially for
a person, like me, who skates also in real life, this was just so huge step
towards what doing tricks feels like. There was this precise motion you had to
execute in special situations, requiring often many, many tries. Of course it
was still miles away from the real thing, where you might practice one trick
the whole summer before you land it (hell, you might never land it J), but it was huge step forward nevertheless. It affected hugely
what kind of game Skate and its
sequels were, what kind of solo campaign they had, and also the multiplayer.
SUPER STARDUST HD
Again, a game, that was an evolution from something old, in this case the classic called Asteroids. In hindsight it is easy to
think, that “well, of course, makes a perfect sense”, because twin-stick really is so perfect fit for
a game like Super Stardust HD. Now, in
all fairness, I just have to mention also Geometry
Wars: Retro Evolved, as it came out earlier and had pretty close control
scheme. But in this article I’ll concentrate on SSD HD.
In SSD HD,
the control scheme isn’t that far off from for example the aforementioned NHL – the left stick once again is for the first priority movement, but the right stick is for the shooting and shooting direction, simultaneously. It is a brilliant modernization
of the control scheme of Robotron: 2084.
And just like in the inspiration, it is an intuitive control scheme.
Second
priority actions, like bomb, switch weapons and
boost, are left into the shoulder buttons, once again leaving
the thumbs to do all the real work.
 |
| In SSD HD other stick moves, other shoots, allowing the player to do quite impressive moves in hectic situations. |
CLOSING THOUGHTS
This
study is of course rather narrow, only concentrating a selection of MY favourite games, or games, that
I’ve enjoyed BECAUSE OF the control
scheme. But the interesting thing here is, that all of these share, more or
less, the common factor of having THUMBS
to do majority of the HIGH REACTION and
precise work – just like back in the days, when the gamepads were way
simpler devices.
I
hope, that this study could offer some food for thought, when designing modern
gamepad control schemes. Modern gamepads do after all offer possibilities to do
overly complex or simply bad control schemes, if one is not careful or just
doesn’t quite understand what makes a working control scheme.
No comments:
Post a Comment