Aquaria and Gamepads

[TheLostSkeleton]

Great job on Aquaria, Bitblot. I'm still working my way through the demo version (slowly but surely) but I've run in to something of a speed bump regarding your gamepad support. I understand your game is built around mouse support, but to me, that feels like a substitute for gamepad support - the mouse controls are, for the most part, utilized in a very similar fashion to that of an analog stick.

Most recently in the last month some work I have been doing has caused me to suffer a great deal from carpal tunnel syndrome. Holding down the left mouse button for too long causes my index finger to ache a great deal, so I've been primarily using a SmartJoy USB adapter and a Playstation 2 controller for the remainder of my experience. It works very well - left stick for moving Naija, and the L1 is map, R1 is menu, L2 is dash, R2 is sing.

Problem is, Aquaria still seems to force me to use the mouse every now and then. Once you get Naija's energy form, for example, I still have to click on her to return to normal. Reaching from my gamepad to my mouse is pretty awkward and I don't understand why I can't just tap L2 and R2 to achieve the same effect. Similarly goes for targeting - Whenever shoot a small energy bolt, it always seems to go to the right unless I'm dangerously close to an enemy.  I don't know if it's just how the SmartJoy is, but you completely ignore the right analog stick when that could be used for some targetting (similar to, say, Geometry Wars). I don't see why, though, most other games seem to identify the right stick just fine.

Just some food for thought. Keep up the good work - as somebody who hopes to get in to professional game development some time soon, I honor your efforts.

[Alec]

There's a "revert" button you can bind for your joystick so that you don't have to press left + right at the same time.
Its also mapped to "X" on the keyboard.

Second stick is for aiming, but it has to be mapped to the right # axes. (in key config)

[Dirhael]

I'm playing with a Xbox controller S (from the original Xbox), and the game refuses to recognize the right analog stick for me as well. I've tried every number from 0-9 for the axes, but still nothing. This is so far the only game I've had this problem with, so it's not the controller or the driver that causes the problem.

Any help solving this would be appreciated

[Kiggles]

Similar situation for me. I would LOVE to get the same functionality I get out of the mouse with a gamepad, but a few issues set me back. Rebinding the analog control sticks is rocky at best. I'm not even entirely sure how to do it. I tried using the number keys to asign axis numbers, but like the poster above, nothing works.

Also, the POV or hat switch is unrecognized, or at least can not be bound through the in game configuration. This is especially bothersome since the in-game keyboard menu is quite limited compared to the actual number of functions available in game. I noticed Songs are default to 1-0 on the keyboard, and could verily be modified through the usersettings.xml, but that doesn't immediately assist someone who is unfamiliar with how their gamepad will be identified in game, and trial and error just isn't cool. For example, I would like to bind some of the songs to my POV hat switch (D-pad), and outside of using third party software to simply bind keyboard input to the gamepad there is little to work with in the xml.

Finally, I'm a bit of an odd ball, but using a gamepad and mouse (analog movement with mouse aim on the cursor) doesn't exactly work. Try it. You'll see what's wrong. Out of everything thus far the control schemes or at least the configuration of them has been the weakest link in an otherwise very solid game.  I hope I'm just over looking some features so I don't need to manually configure things in the xml before a patch/if a patch address my gripes.

[Quemaqua]

I heard someone say the other day that using the stick wasn't possible unless the auto-aim function was turned off via the game's menu.  I haven't had a chance to try that myself yet (stick didn't work for me either), so... I guess I'll try it now and see what gives.

 ...

Yeah, that's the case.  I don't know if anyone's trouble may actually be that simple, but it's worth mentioning anyway.

That said, perhaps  I should take this opportunity to suggest that the defaults for the 360 are really kind of wrong, looking at it now.  There's no way to use B for shooting and the right stick for aiming with one hand, first of all, which negates the usefulness there entirely.  Also, doing charge shots with wall jumps is very difficult because of B being the shoot button.  If the shoot button were X, it would be easy to hit A with your thumb to perform the usual maneuvers even while charging, but with B it's very tricky and uncomfortable.  I assume all these settings can be changed, but it still seems like the defaults should be to a more usable setup of the face buttons (or the shoulder buttons instead).

[Alec]

Shooting is mapped to both B and the right shoulder.

This is so you can use the A and B buttons if you don't want to use the right stick, but if you do want to use the right stick you can just start using the L/R triggers as the left and right mouse buttons.

[idolminds]

Is there a button for looking, like the middle mouse button? Its a feature I miss when I use the controller.

Would it be possible in your default form to use the right stick for singing? Then you wouldn't need to stop to sing, you could do it while swimming around. I don't see a use for the right stick in default form so it could be useful this way.

*EDIT*
I can't believe this is my first post. I lurk too much.

[Quemaqua]

Idol, you bastard.  You've been spying on me, haven't you?  Admit it.

Also, thanks Alec.  I could have sworn I tried all the buttons, but I guess I must not have been as thorough as I thought.

[doninss]

Bit late <_< for most of the previous posters probably, but perhaps this will help someone else.

I'm playing with a Xbox controller S (from the original Xbox), and the game refuses to recognize the right analog stick for me as well. I've tried every number from 0-9 for the axes, but still nothing. This is so far the only game I've had this problem with, so it's not the controller or the driver that causes the problem.

Any help solving this would be appreciated

I'm using the same controller (XboX S) with XBCD drivers (Ver 1.03 I think). I am able to aim with the right stick with s2ax="3" s2ay="2"  in the usersettings file (Joy axes line). I also have the right stick Y axis set to +Z and -Z (Down and Up), and X axis set to RZ+ and RZ- (Right and Left) in XBCD setup though. http://www.genericgamer.com/Aquaria/XBCD.jpg I am also able to aim with the right stick even with auto-aim on (although there is problem with auto-aim when not moving).

...

Finally, I'm a bit of an odd ball, but using a gamepad and mouse (analog movement with mouse aim on the cursor) doesn't exactly work. Try it. You'll see what's wrong.  ...

I am also an oddball and would love to try mouse and analog stick movement in combination. I tried (and liked) playing with WASD and mouse, but I'm a finger klutz when the pressure is on. But yeah, the problem is the game centers the cursor on Naija as soon as it detects any joy input. One could (and I may) map the stick to WASD with JoyToKey or AutoHotKey and turn off the joypad sensing with aqconfig. Then you're back to digital input though, analog is so much smoother.

I have tried JoyToKey for mapping songs to D-pad, seems to work fine. I also experimented with turbo-fire. (My fingers tire easily.) <_<

Is there a button for looking, like the middle mouse button? Its a feature I miss when I use the controller.
...

You can use AutoHotkey to map the Mmouse button to a joypad button. You don't get full effect though. If you are swimming and hit it, the camera moves in the direction of movement about half of what it does using the mouse. If you are sitting still and hit it, then the right stick (if it is set up to aim) will move the camera about half of what the mouse would. Better than nothing, but for long distance sniping the mouse rules.


Something I miss when using the controller is way Naija slows to a stop with the the mouse. It's much more natural looking underwater than the abrupt stop with joypad or keyboard. Gameplay design decision?


EDIT: One more thing. Using the AutoHotkey script above in conjunction with JoyToKey to map the mouse movement to one stick and the mouse wheel to the other, you can zoom and move the map around with the joypad.