Post by Wechenbetelly in Requesting opinions - keyboard mapping

Viewing post in Requesting opinions - keyboard mapping

If you have that many keys that need binding, I would (with a heavy heart and a heap of disgust) point out that button combinations were a thing “in the olden days”. I do not know how well that would pen out for the mobile version - which you did not mention previously.

From what I’ve read in your last post I get the impression that you’re unsatisfied with having that many buttons to map. Maybe it would be possible to simplify the game in a fashion that the equipment groups and their ability subclasses work more contextual. Right now we know nothing about what those abilities do (unfortunately the screenshots tell nothing about that), so I’m doing some guesswork here:

Supposed you have a grappling hook, you could have the character automatically grapple something when they shot a grappling point.
Boots that protect from environmental hazards from below (spikes/lava/Legos/…) could also work without needing any input from the player.
Rocket boots could be triggered by a jump mid-air. So the number of keys that had to be bound could be reduced through design decisions.

Also, I would either change the pause menu to “Esc”/“Tab” or make it a double binding together with the already present “M”.

As a general suggestion, I would recommend you play a few modern PC platformers for reference. Dead Cells seems like a good example that comes to mind: It was developed by a small studio, is satisfying to play, has good keybindings (as well as menus), controller support (for comparison), and shows off how progress items can work contextually. The game is on itch.io, but sadly that’s only a Steam key and the publisher’s presentation here seems so lackluster that my gut reaction was to report them as a scammer. The game is also on Steam and GOG (DRM-free) - possible some other places as well.

Again: I Hope any of this helps you.

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dancewiththedevil4 years ago

Button combinations are an idea. I don't think I like it though, at least not for this type of game.

I prefer to keep the interface as simple as possible. More keys and controls are probably fun to some people, but to me it seems an unnecessary complication.

I think rather than button combinations, I'll use equipment combinations. For instance, if you have the same type equipped of torso + arms you can use the grappling hook.

Each item will have a passive ability and an active ability. The abilities are affected not only by which item is equipped but also your energy levels associated with each of the 4 ability categories.

Boots, affect movement: jump height, duration, gravity, acceleration, deceleration, etc. Special abilities give you specialized movement abilities, like a jet blast straight up, or launching yourself as a torpedo horizontally.

bullets have passive abilities like rate of fire, distance bullets travel, bullet force. Activated abilities will be things like homing ability, spread shot.

torso will feature unique abilities like explosives, shields, a drone that can be launched to explore tight spaces.

the helmet features different scanners that can be used to give you information about the environment and reveal things of interest.

I've also thought about a grappling hook. There's a good possibility i'll make that happen.. I'm about 75% done with the character abilities so there's still plenty of room to make adjustments, additions, or replacements.

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