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terrible controls

A topic by Nebkallop created Jul 29, 2020 Views: 347 Replies: 4
Viewing posts 1 to 2

the movement controls for this game are totally wack

Developer

It definitely takes some practice to get the hang of it. And it's not for everyone. I think one of the biggest obstacles is that it's so different from everything else, so it's tough to just jump into it. It's like relearning how to walk with a totally new body.

it seems like a very strange decision to go with this control system in lieu of the standard....

I couldn’t even finish the tutorial. Maybe you should allow people to customize the controls and you might make space for people who have less time to play games overall to enjoy your otherwise very cool game? I want to play it very much but I don’t have the amount of time necessary to learn such a radically different control system. 

Developer

I get where you're coming from. I actually did make some major modifications to the controls shortly before launching the game that added support for just pushing the left stick/arrow keys to make the titans 'auto-walk'. I was hoping that would be the compromise that opened up the controls to everyone but watching more people play it seems like it still wasn't enough.

I'm interested in what you would consider to be the standard. I know there's not a ton of physics-based games out there so it's hard to find good precedents. Ultimately I wanted something that rewarded mastery in a satisfying way, without being nearly as frustrating as something like QWOP. I'm sorry to hear that even the tutorial was a barrier, since I added plenty of difficulty options to breeze through the game for anyone who got the basics down but struggled with the combat.

At this point I would try to include a friendlier control option but I'm not even sure what it would feel like, especially since I'd have to build it on top of my existing physics behaviours.

not being a developer I don’t know what you mean by physics based, but when I say standard movement controls I mean using the joysticks (left for movement, right for look) and not having to independently control each limb. The existing left joystick movement doesn’t work with a fixed camera. It might work as is if you could orient the camera in standard third person position on the perspective of the monster instead, but when I move using the joystick the monster pretty much just spins around or strafes and their legs constantly get tangled. It feels over complicated and I think you should consider simplifying it or at least making that an option. If possible, it would help to add an entirely new alternate control system that players could switch to and back from once they are accustomed to the game and want more of a challenge.