Unlike many other designers, particularly those making the switch from PC to console,
I often feel that this limitation is a good one. Control pads force the designer to refine
her controls, to cut away all that is extraneous, and to combine all of the game-world
actions players can perform into just a few, focused controls. This leads directly to
games that are easier to learn how to play. Indeed, many of the most accessible console
games do not even use all of the controller’s buttons. Because of the massive keyboard
at their disposal, designers of PC games are not forced to focus the controls of their
games in the same way, and I think their games may suffer for it. As I mentioned above,
some of the most popular PC games have managed to squeeze all of their core controls
into the mouse.
Much of the increasing complexity of game controls can be attributed to the
increasing dominance of RT3D games. These games, by trying to include the ability for
the player’s game-world surrogate to move forward and backward, up and down, side-
ways left and right, turn left and right, and pitch up and down, have already used a
massive number of controls while only allowing players to move in the game-world and
do nothing else. In many ways, the perfect way to simply and intuitively control a char-
acter with total freedom in 3D space is still being explored. This is why for some time
very few of the successful 3D games released allowed players total freedom to control
their character. With the console success of complex first-person shooter-style games
such asHaloandMedal of Honor: Frontlines, players seem to have grown accustomed to
the intricacies of freely moving and looking around in an elaborate 3D environment.
Nevertheless, in order to allow players a fighting chance, the most popular 3D games,
such asThe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker,Max Payne,Grand Theft Auto III, and
Tomb Raider, continue to restrict player character movement to a ground plane.
One technique that can be used to make your controls intuitive to a variety of play-
ers is to include multiple ways to achieve the same effect. For instance, if one looks at
the interface used by the RTS gameStarCraft, players are able to control their units by
left-clicking to select the unit, then clicking on the button of the action they want the
unit to perform, and then left-clicking on a location in the world where they want the
Chapter 7: The Elements of Gameplay 133
StarCraftprovides the
player with a very
elegant interface which
allows her to issue
orders to her units using
a variety of techniques.