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[Xion]

What is your favorite keyboard control setup? Which ones do you employ when creating games? For genre x? Genre y? Why do you prefer it over others?

Me, I used to be a fan of [WASD] [JKL] for everything but now I prefer the cursor keys and [ZXC]. I don't really know why I switched, though, and I have no problem with playing a [WASD] game...

I've always disliked using shift, ctrl, and space for anything though. I guess shift and space are okay for pausing but I'd hate to use them in a gameplay context.


I also have a bit more of a specific question: What would be the best way to go about making a shooter with aiming separate from movement using only the keyboard?

_{is this the right board for this?}

[pgil]

I've always disliked using shift, ctrl, and space for anything though. I guess shift and space are okay for pausing but I'd hate to use them in a gameplay context.

I used to like ctrl and alt, until I started using Windows 95.

For your more specific question.... I guess I'd prefer the mouse for aiming, but a combo of cursor keys for walking and wasd for shooting sounds like it would work. Ever play Smash TV?

[Danmark]

WSAD + mouse is my favorite because of the games I play, but I'm no less effective with the cursor keys. Recently I played Descent with WSAD + cursor keys and that worked fine.

Presumably you're talking about a 2D shooter, which may be problematic in that only one axis of rotation is present. Still, a 2-key distance between the index and ring fingers is ideal, so something along the lines of WSAD + cursor keys might be best. In that case space makes a fine key for firing. If your vendetta against it is too strong, maybe the middle key (S for WSAD) could fire?

You may need to keep the "camera" at the ship's rotation so it's not confusing as hell.

[GregWS]

First off:

_{is this the right board for this?}

Yes.

I think the combo of cursor keys and WASD works pretty well; Everyday Shooter on PC had that, and I'm pretty accepting of it in that context.  To really give a creative suggestion though, I think I'd need to know more about the nature of the aiming in the game. 

[Lyx]

I dont really prefer any specific setup - long ago i used to prefer cursor over wasd - then i got used to wasd - now i can handle any of both. What i want from a keyboard setup are certain properties:

- i want both of my hands being spaced sufficiently apart.
- i dislike action-keys to be on the right side of the keyboard
- i dont like to have keys mapped in the middle of the keyboard or something, because that makes them difficult to quickly and reliably access (no cues)

In practice, the above criteria usually result in the following:

setup 1:
- wasd and surrounding keys via left hand
- mouse via right hand

setup 2:
- cursor keys for movement
- wasd-area -or- shift/strg/alt -or- zxc

setup 3:
- ijkl for movement
- wasd-area -or- shift/strg/alt -or- zxc

---

stuff i hate with a passion:

- stuff mapped on numkeys without remapping or alternatives available (guess what, there are people with laptops and no numpad)

- mapping on y/z with no way to change it

---

I once red that some people dislike mappings on space because that key is inaccurate and ill-balanced on their keyboard. I really had to stop myself from commenting "Bought a logitech again, duh? Get a proper keyboard from Cherry.". Personally, i have no problems if special actions are mapped on space... but very common actions just someway feel wrong on space - dunno why

[Xion]

I think the combo of cursor keys and WASD works pretty well; Everyday Shooter on PC had that, and I'm pretty accepting of it in that context.  To really give a creative suggestion though, I think I'd need to know more about the nature of the aiming in the game. 

well I wanted to see what people said first but I'm talking about a platformer shooter. Thing is I don't like the way some games allow you only to aim diagonally while running, or require you be still - and indeed diagonal- and backward- firing would be important to the game.

The way I'd been doing it is having [WAD] for movement, (W for jump, S being a context interaction) and [IJKL] for aiming and shooting (all tied together). So pretty much like a geometry wars type thing or something.

I just got the feeling that there could be a better way.

[ChevyRay]

Gamepad.

Seriously, though, as long as my hands are apart it's alright. If it's a platformer, do NOT make up the jump button please, or at least make a secondary button for it that the left-hand can use.

In general, arrow-keys for movement, and Z and X for controls. But I realize that setup doesn't work on all keyboards, which is why I design all my games with re-mappable controls, and think everybody else should as well.

If your game has more than two buttons (arrow-keys not included), I think you should re-think your controls. I can almost never properly handle 3+ buttons with my left hand on the keyboard (with a gamepad, easy!), and I think it's like that for a lot of people.

But yeah... as long as your keys are remappable, you don't have to really worry about it as a designer, other than making the optimal choice set as the default, and making it clear how to change them if needed/desired.

[Xion]

But yeah... as long as your keys are remappable, you don't have to really worry about it as a designer, other than making the optimal choice set as the default, and making it clear how to change them if needed/desired.

Word, but It'd still be nice to find that optimal choice for the players so as not to turn off anyone due to "weird default controls" or anything, you know?

And word again on the gamepad. But not everyone's got one. I know I don't.

Honestly I'd cut down the # of keys if I could but I just don't see how to do that while keeping the aiming. If not full 8dir freedom, at least a means for diagonal shooting that doesn't require standing still or running in the direction you're shooting? I wonder would something like Warning Forever work in a platformer?

[Overkill]

Okay, I'll bother dumping about my game keyboard preferences.

If the game uses a mouse, I like WASD-style controls.

If the game doesn't, I want arrow keys for movement, and ZXC/ASD for the action.
If it's a sidescroller, I tend to like Space for jumping too. But I can deal, if the spacebar isn't used.

For pause/menu stuff, I like Right Shift and Enter to indicate pausing.
I like Esc for exiting, when possible. But who doesn't?

For my minilaptop, it was really uncomfortable to play ROMs with the arrow keys in class. I had to come up with some new remapped controls for arrow keys, so I decided to use IJKL for movement. Made playing Metroid Fusion in class possible again, heh.

[Martin 2BAM]

Arrows + [ZXC] For non-mouse games. [WASD] otherwise.


Is there a specific reason to avoid the mouse in your game? Because most keyboards can only take 4-8 keys at time... it depends on the internal "wire" grid/matrix. Sometimes you just can't even press two keys at the same time if they're on the same line.

In any case, for moving/aiming I would recommend [WASD]+[IJKL], because your thumb is near the spacebar (and could be a good shooting key).
You should also allow to swap between it's functions, for players that prefer to aim with the right and move with the left hand, or viceversa.

I've always disliked using shift, ctrl, and space for anything though. I guess shift and space are okay for pausing but I'd hate to use them in a gameplay context.

I used to like ctrl and alt, until I started using Windows 95.

I used that until all frickin' keyboards started coming with the windows/right-click key between them.
Now alt is like 2inches away, and if you by mistake press a key in the middle, everything fucks up... specially in fullscreen (if not taken care of).
For me, [ZXC] or [M,.] are nice replacements for ye' olde [Alt-Ctrl-Shift].

Regards
-Martín

[Oddball]

Maybe it's because I started out on the Spectrum, but I have always had a soft spot for the decidedly retro O, P, A, Z, Space.

O/P - Left/Right
A/Z - Up/Down
Spacebar - Fire

Suppose it's not the most versatile config. though.

[Lyx]

Heh, how i hated games which did stuff like that, already when i was 6 years old.

[saimo]

What is your favorite keyboard control setup? Which ones do you employ when creating games? For genre x? Genre y? Why do you prefer it over others?

I'd say that arrow keys + [X] is a generally good setup to start from. Depending on the complexity of the game, [Z], [C] and [SPACE] can be added.
F.ex., lately I made a game where I wanted controls to be very basic: just arrow keys +[X] ([UP] = run forward, [DOWN] = retreat, [LEFT/RIGHT] = turn left/right). Then, somebody requested sidestepping, so I assigned to [SPACE] the function of switching [LEFT/RIGHT] to sidestepping on the fly for as long as [SPACE] remains pressed. Then, somebody else requested direct sidestepping keys, so I also added [LEFT CTRL] and [NUMPAD 0] for sidestepping left and right, respectively. Finally, somebody else asked for map zooming, so I added [Z].
Of course, the key (heh) is making controls entirely configurable

I also have a bit more of a specific question: What would be the best way to go about making a shooter with aiming separate from movement using only the keyboard?

Well, that's going to be hard no matter the combination of keys, I guess... mmm... the first options that come to mind are arrow keys + [WASD] + [SPACE] or arrow keys + numpad... but the more I think of it, the more I looks it's going to be very, very difficult to control the movement, the aiming and firing all at the same time

[Lyx]

as for shooter on keyboard-only... it depends on what kind of shooter it is. If for example it is a horizontal or vertical shooter, then i would NOT add full-blown manual aiming, and instead allow the player to "skew" the path of bullets left/right (v-shooter) or up/down (h-shooter). However, if you want 360degree aiming, then IMO you really shouldn't do that IF aiming has to be accurate - if accuracy is relevant, then keyboard just doesn't work well. However, if you dont need accurate aiming (i.e. only changing firing direction between left/right/up/down) then you may be able to get away with WASD + IJKL/Cursorkeys.

Something about default keys:
IMO, if keys are configurable, then for a default keymap it isn't really all that important that it is as "popular" as possible. What is important instead is that a player first trying the game will quickly find the correct keys without knowing them. Therefore, for a default keymap the cursor keys are IMO preferable over WASD, because everyone can figure that out, even noobs. Something else to take consider: Think about if there even are potential conflicts between different user-preferences. If for example all you need is movement-keys and a fire-key, then you dont even need to have keymap-configuration... just map all popular mappings simultaneusly, just as SYNSO2 did. In practice, this would for example mean: WASD, IJKL, Cursor-Keys, all Joysticks and Mice are simultaneusly mapped as movement keys, so that it doesnt matter which one you choose. Then SHIFT, ALT, CTRL, SPACE, ZYXC, all joystick buttons and all mice-buttons are mapped as fire keys, so that again it doesnt matter what you choose. Et voila, no key-config necessary and everyone is happy Of course, something like that only works if your controls do not open up any potential for conflicting preferences... which basically means that it only works for simple controls.

[davidp]

arrows + asd, wasd+mouse

zxc is a disaster on qwertz keyboard, as it requires really awkward and painful (for me, over long period of time) hand position, so i hate it.

[Captain_404]

As a game player I'd have to go with WASD+mouse or arrows+A+S/arrows+SPACE.

As a game designer, I think there's really no excuse not to have fully customizable controls these days.

[GregWS]

Cursor keys + A/S/D or Z/X/C sounds quite nice to me, given the circumstances.  The edge ones for shooting, and the middle one for jump, in either of those sets of 3.  And man, that sounds like a really cool game you're working on there; I'm definitely exited now! 

[rob]

I'm curious, why is the numpad never, ever used? It seems like it would lend itself well to games.

Eh, brainfart, forgot they're not on laptops

[Xion]

I like it for RLs but innit havin' to do with something like not all computers have numpads? Laptops and the like would be unable to play games dependent on numpaddery and such, yeah?

Also, thanks muchly for the input, guys. I think I can come up with some creative and naturalish ideas for movement and aiming now.

[jamesP]

Generally I like wasd+mouse, or arrow keys+zxc for keyboard games.

If you're making a platformer-shooter, though, and you want to shoot in various directions quite easily, would it make sense to use the following scheme:

cursor keys: movement
QWEADZXC: shoot in the corresponding direction. (Eg. to shoot towards the top-left, hold Q. To shoot down, hold X. To shoot to the right, hold D.)
Space: jump
Maybe you could use S for the action/use switches button?