Comments on: Making Games For The Xbox 360 Controller

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:52:35 +0000

I agree completely that game developers need to build support for the 360 controller into their games. I say as a long time console gamer who doesn’t have a 360 in favor of simply using my windows machine. (after all, they really are about the same) Since i don’t have tons of experience in using the mouse and keyboard combo for games, and have become a firm fan of the rumble used in Microsoft controllers, I WILL NOT game without it. I’ve tried, and it simply isn’t as immersive to me to use the keyboard and mouse combo.

By: Sachi

Sachi — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:33:54 +0000

Well written article.

By: » Why You Should Use XNA

» Why You Should Use XNA — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:04:31 +0000

[...] of tutorials and see how easy it is to get a simple 2D sprite and a 3D model working with full Xbox 360 controller support. My next article will be more focussed on where I think Microsoft should be taking XNA in the [...]

By: QA Master

QA Master — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:32:44 +0000

If the sticks have varied precision, how does that affect the fact that a lot of games offer the ‘Left Handed’ gamer alternative? (ie. Switching analog sticks so left analogue becomes the right analogue functionality and vice versa?) I agree with the whole ‘Stick to the familiar’. People on the whole, hate change and anything unfamiliar or bizarre will likely be rejected by them. (Space Giraffe anyone?) I have read quite a few things saying ‘Use methods and conventions that have been done before as gamers will be used to them and not so intimidated by the game’s mechanics’ and I believe that is the same with controls.

Interestingly enough, X seems to be becoming a replacement for B as the second most common action button. Or maybe it’s just the games I’m playing. (You should know we didn’t even use the B button in BSG. ^_^) Though I’ve never been a fan of analogue buttons, both in a digital and analogue scenario. Many a time I’ve missed a hit because I didn’t push an analogue button down far enough in a digital scenario (Sony, I’m looking at PS2 games!) or I’ve never been able to control the depth of my press during action games and just did the maximum attack/thrust always. Although analogue buttons work well as a throttle in flight or racing games.

Triggers and shoulder buttons have always appealed to me as a ‘modifier’ or ‘common, repeated action’ button. They’re most often used for switching between things like weapons, modifying your attack/movement (Assassin’s Creed uses RT for modifying your actions to be high or low profile), or as a trigger for a gun.

The D-Pad seemed to be left out, and isn’t a stick nor a button. I think it’s become obsolete in light of the analogue stick and is probably just there for backwards compatibility. Most games for the past few years have used it as a selection for some aspect of the game, such as weapons, items or camera modes. It could easily be replaced by say… c Buttons a la N64. I’d like to also add that having the analogue stick for movement and the D-Pad for menu selection is a very dumb idea because I don’t want to keep switching controls every five seconds during a conversation, and yes there are some very modern games (*cough*Final Fantasy 12*cough*) that do it. -_-’

I’d be interested to hear a comparison of the XBox controller to the Playstation controller since they have different positions of the analogue sticks, no triggers buttons (though I think the PS3 has a pseudo trigger button for the L2/R2 buttons now), and different predominant genres. (FPS games vs. RPGs and platformers)

By: Doolwind

Doolwind — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 05:51:31 +0000

Thanks for the extra info Greg. I had forgotten about the different precision of the two sticks.

I agree that the N64 was an awesome controller also. I do remember getting a sore hand after about 6 straight hours of Mario Kart though.

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:52:10 +0000

Just a couple of comments on the 360 controller…
The Right stick is more sensitive to the Left, as if designed for higher precision ‘Look’ instead of ‘Move’ functionality. It also has a different recommended Dead Zone, which is an insignificant point, other than to confirm the hardware difference. As Dools says, sometimes you need to remap the Circular coordinates to Square, so for example, moving to the Top Left returns coords -1,-1 rather than -0.7,-0.7, allowing full range of independent four direction movement. The sticks have so little movement range however, that remapping loses even more of the limited precision. It is interesting to hear how Halo used movement over time to imply more information. I know many PC games track the mouse at higher than game frame rates and analyze the movement over greater than frame time, for the same effect. The 360 controller sure is a great piece of hardware, and much fun to use. Only the N64 controller comes close to it for usability.