Level Up.pdf

164 LEVEL 7 The Three Cs, Part 3—Controls
Xbox 360 controller, the left and right shoulder buttons are physically
smaller than the left and right shoulder triggers. You should assign “ quick
move ” functions to the shoulder triggers such as shooting, braking, and
acceleration or melee attacks. Why? In the heat of combat or as the
player skids around a corner, the player will want to quickly respond to
the situation. With the smaller shoulder button, there is a risk of the
player ’ s finger slipping off. Use these smaller buttons for “ slow move ”
functions, such as precision aiming, looking at a map screen, or swapping
inventory.
Speaking of “ quick moves, ” I can ’ t believe I ’ ve gone this far into the chapter
without mentioning this very important thing about controls:
AS THE BUTTON IS PRESSED, THE ACTION SHOULD HAPPEN
Don ’ t get me wrong, I love beautiful character animation as much as the
next guy, but nothing pisses off a player faster than pressing a button and
then having to wait for the gorgeous animation to finish playing. The only
thing that happens quickly in these situations is the player dying due to
misjudged timing or stray enemy attacks. Save the nice animation for the
finish of the move. Or in other words, when the player presses jump, the
game should say “ how high? ”
Long animation and controls do have their place, as long as there is a
balance between the risk and reward. Mark of Kri has some very long
wind - ups for attacks, but they are the most powerful attacks in the game.
When you hit an enemy with one of those suckers, they aren ’ t getting
back up again. The risk is the wind - up; the reward is the high damage or
instant kill.
Character or Camera Relative?
A common snare that game designers can get into is creating controls
that alternate between being character relative and camera relative.
Because of the frustration it can cause to the player, the designer needs to
pick one control scheme or the other for the duration of the game and
STICK WITH IT.
With a camera - relative control scheme, the controls change depending on
which way the character is facing the camera. Say we are playing a survival
horror game: “Terror Zombie Death Mansion 3” , and our stalwart hero
stands in a hallway.