So, by both hands, the player can simultaneously control (~approximately) two primary actions, two state changes, and two contextual actions. Require short-term periods of high attention from the player.įrom practice and numerous observations, the maximum limit of simultaneous actions (for each hand) is: Contextual actions – appear from time to time in the context of the primary “Verbs” (reload the weapon, interact, use a special ability, etc.).Slightly increase the overall level of required attention. State change – actions that switch control modes (hold button to aim, hold the button to run, etc.).Require constant attention from the player.
Might include more than one basic inputs (aim & shoot, moving & jumping, etc.). Primary actions – require active decision-making, the main “Verbs”/basic mechanics that the player use.
Of course, there are different types of actions, with different attention demands. There’s always human attention limit for a number of simultaneous actions, even if they’re physically possible (for example, it’s and extremely hard to simultaneously drive the car, control the acceleration level, and also aim and shoot – even if your gamepad physically allows this). The final playest result for such control scheme was 4,7 out of 5. On the keyboard, hacking actions are in places with the fastest access with thumb and index fingers (R, F, C, Space), and “hacking mode” can be activated with the mouse (which makes hacking more precise than the gamepad controls). Such controls layout allows to use the hacking simultaneously with character movement as fast contextual actions. Here’s how it looks like with the gamepad – all the buttons can be accessed with the right hand thumb, and to activate the “hacking mode” the player should hold LB button with the left hand index finger.
Right side of the keyboard according to the Fitt’s Law (the shortest finger trajectories)Īny action that requires to move the handĪs a small practical example, we can look at the keyboard hacking interface for Watch Dogs 2 PC. Accessibility Tiers: Gamepadįor the gamepad, it might look like this (as an example, we can use very common Xbox 360 Controller):įor the keyboard, I would divide them this way (it’s also was my internal guideline for Watch Dogs 2 PC controls layout): The most frequent actions should be in the most accessible places and match primary control group of the player’s hand. In order to do that, we can use a Fitt’s Law, which for our case we can formulate that way: “the fewer the distance to the button and the bigger the button, the more accessible the button is.”Ĭombining Fitt’s Law and knowledge of hand limitations, we can formulate the basic principle for controls layout design: Let’s try to apply our knowledge of hands limitations for the more practical task – designing of the game controls layout. Weak and not very flexible, can be used for secondary actions. Flexible but not so precise, usable for primary hold actions (aiming mode, for walking, etc.). Flexible and precise, usable for primary actions (shoot, jump, etc.).