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[Bricabrac]

I love picross. So, having recently buyed a 3DS, I happily downloaded Pokemon Picross to give it a try. It's a neat little puzzle game, but to my dismay, I found the touch controls completely unsuitable for a left-handed player like me.
In the game, you have to draw an image by filling out a grid. Theorically you could do this with either hand, but the icon to change between a filled and blanked square is on the left. Very comfy if you play with your left thumb on it, incredibly awkward if you're holding your stylus with the left hand.
And this made me so angry. AGAIN. It's not the first time I wanted to love a DS/3DS game, but the lack of a leftie mode hindered my playtime(I'm looking at you, Elebits).

Soooo, instead of ranting on FB as usual, I tought about making a constructive topic about lefties and touch controls.
Did you ever have such problems? And, as game developers, did you ever though about leftie support when developing smarphone games and such?

We Users of the Devil's Hand are 10% of the world population, so we're not exactly a small number. Is it so difficult to make a leftie mode for ds games? Swap the position of some icons, let us switch the function of the + pad and the A/B/X/Y buttons. It shouldn't be too hard to program, I think. I fear most developers just don't think about us. 

[readyplaygames]

This is actually something I've been thinking about for my own game (here in the devlogs):



You drag icons from the left onto the grid. I was thinking of making this "flippable" so the two side panels can switch. The only problem that I can foresee is the fact that the side panels are not the same width.

Would this solve a problem?

[bdsowers]

We spent some time exploring a left-hand mode for a mobile endless runner I was working on. "Left hand mode" meant "swap the direction of everything." Being mobile, it was an attempt to keep the player's playing hand out of the way of the action.

It turned out to be a huge mess during implementation. It's not always trivial to just mirror gameplay, and tiny little hiccups kept creeping in. There was so much code that changed subtly depending on direction, and the added testing burden was obnoxious.

Not even sure it would've mattered... gamers are so conditioned to move from left to right, might've just confused lefties.

[Tuba]

I worked on a DS game once that was fully controlled with touch, not only that but the player was supposed to hold the DS sideways, like in Rhythm Heaven, Brain Age and Hotel Dusk. Halfway through development we realized that this wasn't good for lefty players and so we had to add a left-handed mode to the game and redo all the screens in that mode, reprogramming the position of all the assets. In the end it worked fine.

[Bricabrac]

Would this solve a problem?

Uhmmm. Looking at your game's interface, I can picture myself playing with both hands and the cellphone on my lap - lots of icons everywhere on the screen. I don't think swapping everything would really make a difference...
Have you handed the game to beta-testers and watched them play it? It might give you some insight.

Not even sure it would've mattered... gamers are so conditioned to move from left to right, might've just confused lefties.

It's not just a gamey thing, even comics and movies follow this rule: our brain is accustomed to link left-to-right movement with going forward, while people moving right-to-left appear slower to us. It's because we write left-to-right!
So yeah, it was a nice effort, but I think an endless runner with the character going left would utterly confuse players. Swapping icons of power-ups and such would still be nice, through.
A good example is

: characters runs toward the right edge on the screen, while you play match-3 with icons flowing underneath. The leftie mode simply changes the way the icons flow - they go right from left, so I can easily press them with my left thumb. It works very nicely.

I worked on a DS game once that was fully controlled with touch, not only that but the player was supposed to hold the DS sideways, like in Rhythm Heaven, Brain Age and Hotel Dusk. Halfway through development we realized that this wasn't good for lefty players and so we had to add a left-handed mode to the game and redo all the screens in that mode, reprogramming the position of all the assets. In the end it worked fine.

That was so considerate of you, many thanks! Hotel Dusk was such a confy game, I really like the concept of holding your DS sideways like a book.
How was your game called?

[Tuba]

It's called Satisfashion, it's low budget game about fashion for little girls. Selecting clothes, putting on makeup, that kind of thing. Really don't recommend it but hey, it's one of the few games on the DS that use the "book orientation".

Now, we only noticed that problem because only one of the screens on the DS has touch capabilities, I never thought about that problem on mobile games.

[AtomR]

Interesting question I had never thought about. I just released a mobile game that uses the left side of the screen to control player movement and the right side to control camera direction much like any gamepad generally uses for first person controller.
Does it matter which side controls what for a lefty? I am assuming it wouldn't because you need to use both hands but kinda curious whether I could be wrong.

[Bricabrac]

Does it matter which side controls what for a lefty?

I think it should matter, but after years of controllers and interfaces designed around right-handed people we just learn to cope with it. Personally I have no troubles using a normal controller, and I even play FPS using the mouse with my right hand.
As for touch-controlled games, tapping large icons with my right fingers is fine. The trouble comes when a game requires you to make small precise movements akin to writing - I could never play something like Trauma Center with my right hand, for example. Just try playing it with your left! See how quickly you kill someone

[AtomR]

I see. It does make sense to place the control that requires more precision on your hand with finer control. In a first person context I guess aiming is the control that requires more precision. Interesting. I may add a lefty mode to Memento Mori. Thank you.