Xbox 360 Controller Support

[Harry]

I mostly game on my HTPC so use of the keyboard and mouse is a real big no no for me.

It's probably a bit difficult to add controller support to Amnesia: The Dark Descent due to the way you open doors and throw objects but please for your next game, think about us poor HTPC users. The guys that like to sit comfortably in the couch in front of a TV whist playing games.

I was thinking of not buying this game due to it'slack of controller support specifically the Xbox 360 controller. Only ended up buying it to show my support as I enjoyed the demo.

Just something to think about... but it'll be great if you could somehow add it to Amnesia: The Dark Descent

As much as it's nice to support all forms of gaming, you have to keep in mind a number of issues when it comes to supporting consoles and their controllers. As an indie company, time and money are big considerations, and as a controller is quite a big difference to the mouse/keyboard combination more time and money would have to be provided to make developing a control system to suit both.

Another issue is how this dual development would affect the game itself. As you pointed out, opening doors and interacting with the environment in the way its implemented at the moment would be a problem for a direct console port. I'd just be worried that this type of interaction would be 'dumbed down' to make it easier to co-develop on consoles and in turn ruin what to me is such a big part of the immersion of these games.

The physics and interaction isn't merely an addendum or a gimmick but part of the very soul, and to change it to better suit consoles would be a bit hard to take.

You don't necessarily have to change much actually... you could simply just emulate the mouse with the analog sticks.

http://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/forum/sh...hp?t=20755

I have bought Pinnacle game profiler but the damn thing keeps on crashing on me and nothing beats native support. Just an idea.

Edit:
Opps.. thought that you were one of the developers for a second there

Anyways, when you think about it, us PC gamers have a funny way of showing our appriciation and support for good games... I think Frictional games have already started thinking about consoles to be honest.

Oh emulating a mouse is easy, but emulating isn't all that is required of a good port. Many ports fail precisely because they think that all that is needed is a copy and paste of the gameplay. What I'm saying is more that if you want console users to be happy with their experience, the way interactions are handled would have to change, even if slightly.

You can either develop two ways these interactions are handled, or have one way that is acceptable to both methods of control, which sadly would mean that the precision of mouse and keyboard would suffer so as to make for ease of use on controllers.