Hey, I'm in the process of designing a game for PC (which we might later move to consoles if it does well) and I ran into an interesting problem. I have no idea what PC game pads are like these days, and I only have a GameStop XBOX controller because at one point I was working with XNA and needed a testing controller.

I'm really passionate about making our game controller-compatible, since I personally believe gaming feels best (probably just my nostalgia boner) when played on a real, bonafide game pad. PLEASE NOTE: a keyboard layout will be the default, I'm not stupid. Every computer USUALLY has a keyboard, so that way it will definitely be playable by everyone. But just for people who feel the same way I do, or in the event that local multiplayer is included, I wanna make sure I have the most popular game pads in mind when designing a control scheme.

Any input would be appreciated, and if you DO happen to have a controller in the "Other" category, if you could link a pic or amazon listing for it that'd be awesome.

Thanks again~

Both :P

I use a keyboard/mouse for almost all games, but use a 360 game-pad for the few that are better on it (anything where absolute-inputs from a joystick is better than digital keys or relative-mouse inputs, like a car or plane).

In battlefield I actually switch between them while playing -- KB/Mouse for soldiers/tanks/helicopters, and the game-pad for jets.

I also have a steering wheel for serious racing games.

I personally have a PS2-style controller (Logitech brand). You might want to look into how emulators handle a range of gamepads because those being non-commercial community projects the information should be publicly available.

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick. You gotta have a joystick for the real space sim experience.

Unfortunately, not too many space sims around these days, so I stick with the cheap-and-cheerful joystick.

(I also have a PC-receiver for my XBox controllers, but I've never actually used one connected to the PC)

I personally have a PS2-style controller (Logitech brand). You might want to look into how emulators handle a range of gamepads because those being non-commercial community projects the information should be publicly available.

The reason I want to find this out is less about how to do it for certain controller brands, since almost every gamepad reports the same information (from what I've seen anyway) but how to design the control scheme within the game to be as compatible as possible from the get go. However I will definitely take a look at that, seems like it'd be an interesting read.

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick. You gotta have a joystick for the real space sim experience.

Unfortunately, not too many space sims around these days, so I stick with the cheap-and-cheerful joystick.

(I also have a PC-receiver for my XBox controllers, but I've never actually used one connected to the PC)

I miss those style of Joysticks XD My guess is probably won't be attracting the space sim aficionados with this game genre, but remind me: when using a joystick like that, its a combination of the joystick and some keyboard inputs right?

I'll do keyboard and mouse for most, but I use an Xbox controller frequently too. There's some games, notably racing, that are trash with keyboard/mouse.

If I can't play it with kb+mouse, I'm not interested in it. But then, I don't play console games either.

I play with a mouse and this guy: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8GFPC100-Nostromo-Speedpad-n52/dp/B0000DC643

I generally play FPS and RTS on PC, which aren't exactly controller friendly... I do however play copius amounts of Halo on my 360. I still don't understand why console control schemes tend to be so inflexible. Is it really that hard to be able to swap a single function between A and B and not have 3 others changed at the same time?

I play with a mouse and this guy: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8GFPC100-Nostromo-Speedpad-n52/dp/B0000DC643

I generally play FPS and RTS on PC, which aren't exactly controller friendly... I do however play copius amounts of Halo on my 360. I still don't understand why console control schemes tend to be so inflexible. Is it really that hard to be able to swap a single function between A and B and not have 3 others changed at the same time?

I guess that's actually one of the things I would like to nip in the bud from the start, I want a really easy to use Input Manager that just lets you not only switch from keyboard to gamepad, but lets you relatively painlessly switch up the control schemes for that device. That's why I wanted to see what the major gamepad brands and styles are, so I could compensate for those early on in development.