作者：Josh Bycer

电子游戏在21世纪如此具有易用性的一个主要原因就是控制方式的标准化发展：不同的主机制造商选择了一种标准的按键布局用于游戏设计并影响玩法。

一方面这更便于玩家体验多种游戏，但另一方面它也让那些不走寻常路的游戏与主流显然分外格格不入，也成了人们开发游戏时的一个重要考虑因素。

Call of Duty(from gamasutra)

控制器大战

在80年代至21世纪早期大部分时间中，不同主机制造商都在以不同设计的游戏手柄相互竞争。其一是为了从竞争中脱颖而出，其二是因为当时的行业还处于发展初期。

这意味着作为游戏设计师，你必须根据市面上发布的主机改变自己的控制方案和游戏玩法。它的另一个影响就是将游戏束缚于控制器设计，否则就只能改变游戏的控制方案。

例如，你的游戏使用的是SNES的四键控制方案，那么你的游戏就无法使用Genesis的三键控制方案。

Dreamcast/GameCube是主机采用不同控制方案的最后时代。从PS2设备开始，索尼和微软都开始为自己的游戏手柄使用相同的基本控制方案：两个虚拟摇杆，D-手柄，两个触发器，两个后退按钮，开始和选择及4向按键。

现在设计师都有个统一的控制方案了，这极大方便了游戏的跨平台移植以及简化控制方案设计。当然，我知道有些人可能会指出任天堂就不走寻常路。任天堂在这方面的确采用了截然不同的控制方案，所以我们不打算在此讨论任天堂的做法。

要理解整合控制方案的最佳方法取决于使用手柄之人的手所在位置。食指和拇指是人们最常用的手指，所以在设计游戏的时候必须考虑到这一点。

食指和拇指会同时落在360手柄的触发器，摇杆和A及X按钮位置（如果你使用的是PS控制器，就是X和Square按钮）。

考虑到这一点，任何电子游戏的主要操作普遍与这些按钮有关。这正是FPS游戏为何使用右触发器来射击，平台游戏使用A按钮来跳跃的原因。

在你开始考虑自己游戏的控制方案之前，你必须先考虑之前无数游戏所采用的控制方案，并且要知道自己并非闭门造车地搞设计。

控制器不协调：

对于任何电子游戏，我们都可以根据以下群组分解将分配到控制器上的操作：

主要：主要操作即玩游戏时所围绕的主要动作。攻击、跳跃和移动只是其中几例。根本上说，它就是玩家必须不断用到的操作。

次要：辅助主要操作或执行情境化操作的动作：使用一个快速道具，施放一个咒语，打开一扇门等等。

以这两个组合为指导，很显然主要操作应该在最容易让玩家接触到的按钮上得到体现。换句话说，也就是A和X按钮，触发器和摇杆。

注意在玩平台游戏时，A和X按钮则存在例外情况。因为玩家要不断使用A按钮，最好不要让X按钮成为主要操作，因为玩家会专注于使用A按钮来跳跃。

比起将两个主要操作设置于同一只手的按钮上，玩家更容易记住分别设置在两手边的按钮。另外，以有序的位置设置方向键也同此理，它更容易记忆。运用双手原则，玩家可以将自己的左手与所有的移动操作联系起来，将右手与战斗操作联系起来。

按钮混乱的案例

这里是一个关于控制布局糟糕以及它如何影响游戏的案例。

在《Valids Story:Abyssal City》这款更为强调战斗和RPG进程的银河恶魔城式的游戏中，玩家要攻击就得摁X按钮，跳跃则是摁A按钮。

在这款以战斗为主的游戏中，阻碍对游戏来说十分重要。但是，设计师将阻止按钮设置为控制器的B按钮。现在看起来似乎没有那么糟，但你必须理解人类手指位置的运行原理。

因为你要用小指和无名指托住控制器，中指和食指则位于控制器表面，拇指就是所有方向键的主要手指。开发者将三个主要操作（攻击，跳跃、阻止）分配到方向键，集中到同一个手指。为了快速反应，人们通常习惯用另一只手指（往往是中指或食指）来摁躲避按钮。

在这种控制设置之下，在敌人启动攻击动画时我更多时候会手忙脚乱，并且会不自觉地碰到触发器或顶部按钮，然后因此受到攻击。

有关于用拇指来负责大量操作的做法还有一个例外情况，即使用右侧模拟摇杆。如果你为摇杆分配一个动作（如躲避或摄像控制）那就没有问题。原因是玩家只会将摇杆与一个操作联系起来。

总结

尽管摆脱常规思维框架是游戏设计所提倡的一个理念，但控制方案设计却并非如此。人们所熟悉的控制方案有助于让玩家更易于掌握游戏控制方法。尽管市场上在多种多样的游戏，但我们仍然只有10个手指可用，大部分手指在手柄上的位置相当固定。

面对如今市场上如此众多的游戏，采用易于理解的控制方案十分重要，但对多数设计师来说其重要性却不如图像或玩法那样明显。如果你能让玩家像本能一样握住控制器，而不是像旧式广告中人们在空中挥舞控制器一样，那就说明你的控制方案甚为妥当。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

How Control Schemes Standardized Gameplay

by Josh Bycer

One of the major ways that video games became accessible in the 00s was the standardization of controls: Where the different console makers picked a standard format for button placement to be used across game design and affected gameplay.

On one hand making it a lot easier to play multiple games, but on the other hand it makes games that stray from the beaten path stick out like a sore thumb and an important consideration when it comes to building your game.

Controller Wars:

For most of the 80s to early 00s, the different console makers each competed with each other using differently designed gamepads. First as a means of standing out from the competition and second because the industry was very much in its infancy.

This meant as a game designer that you had to shift your control scheme and how the game was played based on what console it was being released on. Another effect this had was restricting games based on the controller or radically changing the scheme.

For instance: If your game was built to make use of the SNES’s four face button scheme, then your game would simply not be playable on the Genesis’ three face button scheme.

The Dreamcast/GameCube era was the last time where each console featured a different scheme. From the PS2-on, both Sony and Microsoft used the same basic control scheme for their gamepad designs: Two analog sticks, d-Pad, two triggers, two back buttons, start and select and four face buttons.

Now designers had a unified scheme to work on, making cross platform ports easier and simplifying control schemes for design. Of course I know that some of you are about to point out Nintendo went in a different direction. Nintendo is the odd man out for this piece with a radically different scheme and aren’t going to be mentioned here due to it.

Understanding the best way of putting together a control scheme is dependent on the hand position of the person using a gamepad. The index fingers and the thumbs are the most used fingers on the hand and have to be taken account of when designing your game.

The Halo series was the first one to present what would become the standard controller scheme for console FPS.

Combined, the index fingers and thumbs rest on the triggers, sticks and the A and X button position on a 360 Gamepad (X and Square if you’re using a Playstation controller).

Taking that into account, the main actions of any video game are commonly associated with those buttons; it’s why FPS games use the right trigger to shoot or platformers use the A button to jump.

Before you even start to think about the control scheme for your game, you need to take into account the countless games that have came before and understand that you are not designing in a vacuum.

Controller Dissonance:

For any video game, we can break down the actions that are going to be assigned to the controller based on the following groups –

Primary: A primary action corresponds to the main verbs that playing the game are based around. Attacking, jumping, and movement are just a few of the examples. Essentially, anything that must be used constantly to beat the game fits here.

Secondary: Actions that assist the primary actions or perform a contextual action: Using a quick item, casting a spell, opening a door and so on.

Using these two groups as a guide, it becomes clear that the primary actions should be mapped to the buttons that are easiest to reach by the player. Or in other words the A and X buttons, triggers and sticks.

It’s important to note that there is one exception to the A and X buttons and that is when you’re playing a platformer. Since the A button is going to be used constantly, it’s better to not make the X button a primary action as the player is going to be focused on using the A button for jumping.

As a basic rule, it’s easier for the player to remember two primary actions split between your hands as opposed to having them both within the same hand’s reach. It’s the same rationale behind placing the face buttons in an ordinal positioning, as it provides a second source of association to make it easier to remember. With the two hand rule, the player can associate that their left hand for all movement based actions while the right is for combat as an example.

Valids Story’s Button Confusion:

Button heavy games like DMC take longer to learn by simple virtue of having a command associated to every button.

Here’s an example of poor control placement and how it impacts a game.

In the title Valids Story: Abyssal City– it’s a metroidvania styled game with a greater emphasis on combat and RPG progression. To attack, you press the X button and jumping is set to A.

But with combat such a focus, blocking is very important to the game. However, the designers set the block button to B on the controller. Now it doesn’t sound so bad when you read it, but you need to understand how finger placement works.

Since you’re holding the controller with your little and ring finger with your middle and index on top of the controller, the thumb is the main finger for all the face buttons. The developers assigned three primary actions (attack, jump block) to the face buttons or to one finger. For quick response, it’s customary to have the dodge button in position to be used by another finger, usually the middle or index fingers.

By setting up the controls this way, more times than not I was busy attacking an enemy when they started their attack animation and instinctively reached for a trigger or top button and got attacked.

There is one exception to having the thumb be responsible for a lot of actions and that is making use of the right analog stick. If you assign the stick to handle one action such as all dodging or camera controls that is okay. The reason is that the player can associate the stick with just one action.

Wrapping Up:

While thinking outside the box is a popular expression when it comes to game design, the same can’t be said about control layout. Familiar control schemes help the learning period of the game by making it easier to grasp the controls. Despite the variety of games out there, last I checked we still only have a total of ten fingers to use with the majority of those fingers holding the gamepad in place.

With so many games being released these days, having an easy to understand control scheme is vital, yet not as apparent as graphics or gameplay are to most designers. You know you have something when the player forgets they’re holding a controller as playing the game feels like second nature and not like those old advertisements where people are swinging their gamepads in the air as if it would matter.（source：gamasutra）