Top Down Controls

[KG_Brad]

My current project is a top down shooter inspired by games like Alien Breed, Crimsonland, Alien Shooter, etc...

I've been having trouble deciding on a control style so I'm asking you people.

Should I use mouse aiming like Crimsonland and Alien Shooter or the keyboard only style like Alien Breed?

[joe]

i would prefer joypad or keyboard controls... but i think mouse controls could work better if you have a casual audience in mind.

[joe]

oh.... btw: alien breed rocked!!!

[KG_Brad]

I never have a casual audience in mind... they remind me of match-3's!

So, when you say joypad or keyboard controls, do you mean like Alien Breed which had keyboard controls but only 8-way movement or full 360 degree rotation?

EDIT: I don't have anything against match-3's. In fact, I bought Bejeweled. They're just not the type of games I want to make.

[Addictive 247]

Alien breed is one of my favourite games along with The Chaos Engine :)

My preference especially for a retro style game like this is left and right keys to rotate the player and the up key to run in the direction facing. However, both Alien Breed and The Chaos Engine used the standard 8-way movement.

I think using one of the above methods should work well if you want to get that old-school gameplay feeling.

Good luck with it

[KG_Brad]

Yeah, The Chaose Engine is definately a classic! The iscometric perspective works perfectly in those types of games.

[Artinum]

I think it depends on the style of the game. For something like Alien Breed or The Chaos Engine (both great games, by the way) the impetus should be on speed rather than accuracy. If you're being swarmed by dozens of aliens then aim is the least of your worries - you want to be able to instantly dart for cover and then blaze away like mad.

If you're playing something a little slower where accuracy plays a factor, then the rotate/move method is better. The other style is more "retro" anyway, which can be both a selling point or a sticking point depending on your intentions!

Moving with keyboard and aiming with mouse is doable, but I remember doing that in The Last Sorceror and it can cause a bit of RSI... I think your best bet is to road test the game with two or all three of these methods and see what people think.

[Fry Crayola]

Two things I would consider if I was making a top down shooter today.

For 8 way control, definitely have a strafe button which locks your direction and allows you to move whilst holding your aim in one of those eight directions. A must for fighting off the evil hordes. I've rarely seen a game without it, and it came in very useful when I knocked up a quick example and used it to jump from behind cover. Loads of fun.

Perhaps try to cater for the rise in dual-analogue joypads. I'd say more than a few people who like a good arcade blast will want arcade controls, and might well prefer a Robotron 2084 style running/aiming system to using their mouse (which arguably takes away a lot of the skill of aiming).

Two sticks and optionally having fire on a shoulder button rather than Robotron's autofire system and you can have plenty of action without the player being hamstrung by eight-way controls. However, there is the question of whether or not you can get it to play well if someone's not using a pad or mouse.

[Jamie W]

I hate the rotate / move method for these type of games. I'd go for the method where you have one joystick to control movement and another joystick to control shooting (i.e. like robotron or krull).

[KG_Brad]

Thanks for the input, everybody. I'm taking all of these into careful consideration.

[Grey Alien]

I've played Alien Breed and the modern games. I much prefer the WASD and mouse cursor movement of the modern games. If these keys were in Alien Breed it would have been easier to play, but then the monsters could have been made more challenging.

[jefferytitan]

I hate the rotate / move method for these type of games. I'd go for the method where you have one joystick to control movement and another joystick to control shooting (i.e. like robotron or krull).

Definitely... in the heat of battle you get caught up trying to get out of the way and fire in the right direction. It's different if it's FPS of course, or a tank-style game where one person controls the turret.

[KG_Brad]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

I'm kind of resurrecting this thread because I've narrowed it down to two control schemes, 1. The standard FPS controls -or- 2. Crimsonland/Alien Shooter controls.

Which one should I use?

[spoomusic]

I'm always rooting for WASD. If it's not the casual games market, then the players will probably be familiar with it. Or both, with a menu option to choose between them.

wasd4life
Ariel