Gamepad Results

Hello fellow Tiny Rogues!

Usually I wouldn't write posts like this, because I would feel like the time spent writing this would be better spent on development. I will try to keep myself short and mostly share my notes that have been already written.

Thank you for over 200 comments of feedback on gamepad controls.

Binding Problems:

• Trigger and Shoulder buttons feel swapped. Triggers are more comfortable than Shoulders. So actions like Health Flask (which are needed less often) should be on the Shoulder, not Trigger. And buttons like Attack on Trigger not Shoulder.
• Weapon swapping should be a button on the right side of the gamepad so it's easier to move and weapon swap at the same time. Probably even a face button.
• Dash and Confirm have the same binding for no good reason. Should be split.
• Make it possible that an action is not bound to a button at all, even if just for smoother rebind process.
• The default Dash binding should be a face button.

Context Problems:

• When navigating menus, the Weapon also aims.
• Action Button has no context, sometimes you try to do something in inventory and pick up an item, buy an item or speak to an NPC. Also, this flaw makes Alchemist not usable.
• Scrolling is probably more synonymous with aiming and probably should be handled with the Right Stick in addition to the D-Pad. In the Character Panel it should also be able to be scrolled with DPAD.
• Dashing, Attacking, using Skill should not work at all while Menus are open.

Menu Problems:

• When any menu is opened, some sort of button should always be default selected. Also, sometimes it does select something but the tooltips don't show.
• Cursors in Menus feel slow and delayed and should at least be sped up to move faster and feel snappier.
• Character Selection is janky. Rework it with quick access buttons in mind.
  • Start run with START.
  • Select Bonfire with SELECT.
  • Selecting a character can be difficult. Change it so classes are selected with Stick.
  • Access sub menus and random with direct button presses e.g.: D-Pad buttons and face buttons.

• Inventory controls are janky. Controlling inventory with right-stick is unintuitive. Should be controlled with D-Pad.
• You have to open and navigate through the Inventory to consume something. Solution: Implement a radial / ring menu to quick-access items.
• Trait selection menu is very janky and confusing, especially since last patch. Should be controlled with D-Pad. It's also bugged currently as the D-Pad seems to sometimes confirm selection. Confirmation should only happen when pressing A.
• Pause Menu should be controlled with D-Pad. As it pauses game, it should be controllable with D-Pad, Left Stick and Right Stick.
• Shoulder Buttons should navigate Option Menu Tabs.
• Campfire in spawn rooms feels slow to navigate.
• Use controller icons and glyphs instead of text. Make sure different controllers are supported and can be selected in the options menu to avoid the case where Unity fails to know what controller you use. X-Box and PS4 glyph-sets will be supported.
• When rebinding a button (both for keyboard and gamepad) and the button is already bound the game just plays an error sound and does not give any further information. This can be confusing and the player should be informed what exactly went wrong.
• Meta Perk Tree cursor is slow and Allocate and Deallocate should be the same button. Then Cancel can be added as a way to exit the menu.
• Remove how dialogue prompts you to advance dialogue. (They are kind of useless, we all know how to press Space or A button.)

Bugs:

• The shown binding for Consume From Floor is wrong.
• D-Pad Left (Weapon Swap) key is also used for Confirm in some cases.
• to enter next floor doesn't show the gamepad binding but keyboard binding.
• Shrines also show instead of the gamepad binding.
• Controller skips options in the Gameplay Tab and when moving all the way down it selects non-existent buttons.
• Cannot reach end of masteries screen when zoomed out completely. Also, allow zooming out even further.
• The side-inventory bar shows when playing with gamepad, including the numbers. This entire bar doesn't mean anything for gamepad players anymore and should be hidden.
• Weapon Swapping doesn't work while Inventory is open.
• Weapons aren't auto equipped into the Weapon Swap Slot when the main slot is already filled.
• When navigating Menus you often cannot hold the button but have to spam it.
• Comparing items doesn't always work. Sometimes it shows comparison sometimes details. This is possibly a bug with accidental multi-bindings.
• When playing as Cyborg the lasers from the gloves will not shoot into the same direction that fists go. This also happens for some other weapons. (Might be intended.)

Gameplay:

• Weapons that use a Cursor or Reticule to aim feel janky. Make these weapons instead aim into a direction at the nearest enemy in that direction. Spellbook should also summon totems more intuitively.
• Some auto-aim of skills move very slow. E.g.: Smoke Grenade
• Flame Wall doesn't have distance controls.
• Aim assist should either explain how it works and get an indicator in-game how big the aim assist angle is or be reworked to just be a toggle.

Features:

• Re-open the inventory after dropping items at Pawn Shops. (Already implemented in internal version.)
• Show more information in HUD, so you have to open the Character Panel less often. E.g.: Stats, Alignment, Curse, ...
• 360° Movement
• Dead-Zone Option for Sticks
• Allow Aim Assist to work for mouse.
• Option to toggle Character Panel and Inventory at the same time.
• Possibly add a binding to toggle aim assist. E.g.: Right Stick 3.
• Make it possible to turn the Attack Button into a toggle. (Attack while Enemies exist.)
• Option for Gamepad Buttons and Keyboard Buttons to work at the same time.
• Option to pause game while opening inventory or character panel.

Clarity on Steam Deck:

• Steam Deck should by default use the Renogare Font.
• Steam Deck should by default tune back CRT modifier.
• Steam Deck Auto Aim by default should be ON.
• When Option is added: Game should auto pause when in menus on Steam Deck.

Problems I don't know how to solve (both design-wise and technically):

• Game is very small on Steam Deck. Zoom won't really work due to pixel-consistency and screen space being needed. Also, game is designed with a certain view range in mind.
• Controllers disconnecting randomly or pressing buttons randomly. Might be hardware issue on your side or Unity issue.

Planned Default Control Scheme:

Lowest Context:
FIELD (IN COMBAT):

• Attack = RIGHT BUMPER
• Dash = LEFT TRIGGER
• Bomb = X
• Flask = A
• Skill = RIGHT TRIGGER
• Inventory = B
• Weapon Swap = Y
• Open Ring Menu = LEFT BUMPER
• Select Item in Ring Menu = RIGHT STICK and LEFT STICK
• Move = LEFT STICK
• Aim = RIGHT STICK
• Toggle Aim Assist = RIGHT STICK PRESS

EDIT 27/08/24: Dash should obviously not be a face button even if some people would prefer it. By default Dash needs to remain on a trigger. The Flask on the other hand doesn't need movement or aiming so it should be on a face button, so it moves to the A button. The Ring Menu then moves to the LEFT BUMPER button.

Context Level 2:
FIELD (NOT IN COMBAT)

• Interact = A
• Details = RIGHT BUMPER
• Compare = LEFT BUMPER
• Scroll = DPAD/AIM

Highest Context:
INVENTORY & CHARACTER PANEL:

• Select = DPAD/AIM
• Use/Equip = A
• Details = RIGHT BUMPER
• Compare = LEFT BUMPER
• Close Inventory = B
• Scroll = DPAD/AIM

OTHER MENUS:

• Confirm = A
• Cancel = B

Those are my notes so far! Let me know what you think. My main questions are:

• Do you like the plan of all menus being controlled with D-Pad? (Aim-Stick will still be able to also be used.)
• Do you like the plan of the default Dash and Weapon Swap buttons being face buttons?
• Do you like the idea of the ring/radial menu? You will hold the button to open it and then use the stick to select an item and use it. The game will pause while the menu is opened.

In other news: So far I have already fixed a lot of bugs and I plan to push a beta update with those fixes in a few days. If no new bugs got introduced, the update with the bug fixes will roll out onto non-beta at the end of the week.

After that I will immediately start working on all the stuff mentioned in this post.

Cheers,
RubyDev

PS: I recently had an appearance on a (brand new) podcast by @Burr_TV!
Watch on YouTube