This game uses 4 fire buttons. I like to think of them as 'DOWN', 'RIGHT', 'UP' and 'LEFT', since that's where they are located on my controller. Simple! I thought. So we labelled them that.
However, Mr Tom then used his joypad... which happens to have the 'DOWN' and 'UP' button the opposite way around. Oh dear. We managed to implement a custom control screen, where you press the button that is represented by a glowing light on the screen. This lets us configure every controller to use the same controls, regardless of which button was originally fire button 1.
This throws up another problem- what if people don't customise their controls before playing the game? I mean, surely most people just pick up a game and play it, skipping the README file and the 'CUSTOMISE CONTROLS' screen in the process? I can't think a way around this one. Hopefully, people will play the game, realise that something isn't right, and will go back and change their controls, instead of quitting the game and never playing it again.
BUT... what about keyboard controls? Even though this game is optimised for a joypad layout, pretty much everybody will be using it on the keyboard. Let's just ignore the face that most keyboards can only register 2-3 buttons at once, since there's absolutely no way around that. Everybody uses different controls on a keyboard. For example, from past experience on this site, I know that most people don't like using WASD (even though it's CLEARLY the best one to use, since it's surrounded by other keys that can be used for different functions  )
Okay, the above paragraph wasn't really a problem, just a load of potential problems. The real problem we've got now is deciding on a method of naming the fire buttons. What do we use? Do we use '1, 2, 3, 4'? Do we use the Playstation symbols? How about ABXY, like Xbox controllers use? Do we use UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT? Do we use colours?
No matter which one we choose, there will be problems. Console people will be confused if we use the wrong controller buttons (ie, Xbox controls for a Playstation controller player), while keyboard players will get confused no matter how we do it, since how ever we label our buttons is likely to have absolutely no resemblance to how they've configured their controls.
Well, I'm stuck. I want people to be able to easily switch from keyboard to controller, and to retain the combinations they've learned so far without feeling that they're starting again. I guess I could let the player choose what the buttons look like when they're about to start the game, but if we end up using different sets of symbols, it's going to make it very difficult to share combinations with people anywhere other than in the actual game itself.
Plus people will probably just skip past the bit where they're allowed to choose, unaware of the importance and confusion that lead to it in the first place.
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3kliksphilip 
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