This week our biggest task was to work on tweaking and polishing the aiming mechanic further as well as implementing the gamepad controls.
The aiming has now a very slightly acceleration component which enables the player to aim more precisely. For the gamepad we tried different controls, and for now this is the final scheme we came up with:
The most part should be very obvious. To aim and throw the hammer, the player has two possibilities. First, he can press and hold the "Throw Hammer" Button. The aiming preview appears on the screen and by pressing left/right on the DPAD or the left analogue stick the player can rotate freely.
This works exactly as on the keyboard. But with a gamepad it's also possible to just use the right analogue stick, which immediately opens the aiming preview. By pressing the right analogue shoulder button the player can throw the hammer. If you release the analogue stick you can cancel your shot.
This is quite an advantage when playing with the gamepad over the keyboard. Because of that we had endless discussions if we should allow this or not. Of course we'd love to offer the same player experience for keyboard and gamepad players.
We also discussed switchung to a WASD/Mouse Control Scheme on Deskop PCs, but I don't think it fits the retro vibe of the game well. So - at least for now - we decided against this solution and we even tweaked the keyboard aiming more so the gap between keyboard and gamepad isn't too big.
But we would love to hear your opinion on this topic.