Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
designers always need to evangelize hard to get people on board with a 60
fps standard, even in games where it is necessary.
Designing inPut
Input is hard to design because it's hard to perceive. I've watched teams of
designers reviewing a game, passing the controller around, and disagree-
ing about what the game is actually doing as it's doing it in front of them.
It's possible, with practice, to tell good control feel from bad. But you can
never know for sure exactly what's going on under the surface, because
this is deliberately hidden.
And the better the input system, the harder it is to understand.
Remember the old maxim: the more effortless it looks, the harder it was
to achieve. Nowhere is this truer in games than in input design. To the
player, Mario's jump controls and
Halo
's aiming system are pure simplic-
ity. But underneath their smooth exteriors lie intricate arrangements of
contingencies, edge cases, and assistance systems.
Most players will never understand why a game feels the way it does.
They'll credit graphics or balance for successes that were actually won
in the input system. Even among game developers, it's easy to forget the
importance of input. So input is often ignored. When money is short and
deadlines are looming, it's hard to spend scarce resources on something
nobody can see.
But input is almost always worth the investment. Because even though
it's never seen and rarely noticed, the player feels it during every moment
of play.
