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 Pillars of Good Programming
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Pelikaruga    Member since: 10/28/2004  From: Finland
 Posted - 10/8/2005 1:35:13 PM
"In a FPS, PageUp and PageDown should allow you to look up or down (if the game supports that kind of thing. Also, there should also be a key defined to return you to a level viewpoint). There may also be jumping (X), crouching (C), and maybe an alternate firing button (Z). Also, if you have more than 5 weapons, you might want a button that allows you to switch to the last weapon (usually backspace)"


Good game programming would of course take into consideration that not every user uses an US QWERTY keyboard layout. Most flash games are ruined for more educated (Dvorak) or international users, as the keys can not be changed, and the game has been designed with "good programming" in mind and key locations are based and hardcoded for qwerty keys.

In such a case the developer of the game has falsely assumed his developement is based on "Pillars of Good Programming", which results in the user having to press a key on the left of the keyboard to fire, and a key on the right of the keyboard to drop a bomb, which is really hard - in the worst case the movement is on the QWERTY WASD keys, and results in inverted directions on many other keyboards.

Using X, C, and Z is not good programming. Allowing the user to use any keys on the bottom left of the keyboard is.
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Anonymous Poster  
Warning Level: 10%
 Posted - 3/2/2006 9:30:40 PM
that article wasn't about good programming, it was about keys/custom keys in fps games
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message nuvem    Member since: 1/17/2004  From: Ottawa, Canada
 Posted - 3/2/2006 10:43:25 PM
This is what passes for an article now?
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Washu  Curiously Tentacled Community Manager  Member since: 3/24/2001  From: Kanemitsu
 Posted - 3/2/2006 11:05:02 PM
Perhaps you should read the date that the article was published.
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message eedok    Member since: 9/15/2003  From: Edmonton, Canada
 Posted - 3/4/2006 1:30:55 AM
Quote:
Original post by Pelikaruga
"In a FPS, PageUp and PageDown should allow you to look up or down (if the game supports that kind of thing. Also, there should also be a key defined to return you to a level viewpoint). There may also be jumping (X), crouching (C), and maybe an alternate firing button (Z). Also, if you have more than 5 weapons, you might want a button that allows you to switch to the last weapon (usually backspace)"


Good game programming would of course take into consideration that not every user uses an US QWERTY keyboard layout. Most flash games are ruined for more educated (Dvorak) or international users, as the keys can not be changed, and the game has been designed with "good programming" in mind and key locations are based and hardcoded for qwerty keys.

In such a case the developer of the game has falsely assumed his developement is based on "Pillars of Good Programming", which results in the user having to press a key on the left of the keyboard to fire, and a key on the right of the keyboard to drop a bomb, which is really hard - in the worst case the movement is on the QWERTY WASD keys, and results in inverted directions on many other keyboards.

Using X, C, and Z is not good programming. Allowing the user to use any keys on the bottom left of the keyboard is.


Most educated dvorak users I know have a shortcut set up to change the keyboard back to qwerty when they go to play things like this.
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message TsuruyaSan    Member since: 8/8/2008
 Posted - 1/2/2009 9:35:06 PM
What kind of conventions are those? Arrow keys for an FPS? Try WASD, which is actually placed on a moderately easy to access part of the keyboard.
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Drew_Benton  GDNet+  Member since: 7/29/2004  From: Katy, TX, United States
 Posted - 1/2/2009 9:58:14 PM
Quote:
Original post by TsuruyaSan
What kind of conventions are those? Arrow keys for an FPS? Try WASD, which is actually placed on a moderately easy to access part of the keyboard.
Quote:
Original post by Washu
Perhaps you should read the date that the article was published.
Quote:
Date this article was posted to GameDev.net: 11/23/1999


In case you missed it, this is a 10 year old article

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Moe    Member since: 1/24/2000  From: Calgary, Canada
 Posted - 1/3/2009 12:04:38 AM
Quote:
Original post by Drew_Benton
Quote:
Original post by TsuruyaSan
What kind of conventions are those? Arrow keys for an FPS? Try WASD, which is actually placed on a moderately easy to access part of the keyboard.
Quote:
Original post by Washu
Perhaps you should read the date that the article was published.
Quote:
Date this article was posted to GameDev.net: 11/23/1999


In case you missed it, this is a 10 year old article

Wow, talk about necroposting! Egads!
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