Mouse only controls for casual games?

This is in response to a question about making a casual platform game but I though I would spin it off into a whole separate topic. I am sure isn’t the first time we discussed this topic, but I see a lot of people confused and frustrated by the “mouse only” controls idea and some people go overboard cramming all kind of strange things into mouse controls to satisfy a goal they don’t understand.

Quote Originally Posted by clilian
Talking about primary input device... do you think a jumpman on steroids which would require keyboard usage (says arrow keys (move), space (jump) ctrl(pick/release)) could be well accepted, or should I go for mouse only input ?

Right now, I can think about a (near-)mouse-only startegy (poll for left/right relative moves, click to jump, right click to pick/release) but I'm not sure if it would work well... anyone has ever tried this approach compared to keyboard ?

Thank you all for the valuable input so far.

Lilian
I am not sure I am correctly interpreting your “left/right relative moves” statement but I am guessing that there would be no mouse cursor and you would make the character walk at a constant rate to the left when the mouse is moved to the left. But I could be wrong and all of the fallowing would be irrelevant.

I think the main reason people talk about using mouse only controls for casual games is to make the controls as intuitive as possible. That is the real goal. Make the controls simple and intuitive. It is possible to completely miss that goal and still use the mouse only. Whenever possible you should use a mouse cursor. Usually casual games have a cursor and the player clicks on objects to interact with them. The main exception would be if the player avatar is the mouse cursor. In games like Platapus, Feeding Frenzy, and any breakout game, the player character moves nearly in sync with the mouse and there is no need for a cursor. I can’t image you accomplishing this with “left/right relative moves” in a platform game with a walking and jumping character. It seems like the character would be connected to the mouse only very loosely and it may not be that intuitive at all. You may want to consider showing a mouse cursor and having the character walk towards it or maybe even walk to the point of a click.

Either that, or just make the bold move to use the keyboard! My point is, use whatever controls and simple and intuitive. Forcing yourself to use the mouse does not necessarily result is intuitive controls.

Here are the options as I see them for casual games in order of preference from best to worst
  1. Intuitive mouse controls (best options)
  2. Intuitive keyboard controls (not a bad options but will take extra pop-up message to make sure the player knows to press the keys
  3. Nonstandard use of the mouse. Control that seem forced into a mouse system (bad option)
  4. Using the mouse and keyboard at the same time (such as run with keys and shoot with mouse. This words great for Crimsonland but is not very accusable to the casual player)
  5. Complicated keyboard controls with many keys to remember (good for a some types of hard core game but bad for a casual game)

Good keyboard controls are better than bad mouse controls even for a casual game. Don’t make bad controls just to satisfy the “mouse only” design goal of casual games.