Can it be done well? All the time these kids in my computer class are playing Street Fighter roms / whatever the hell it is. But the biggest problem for me is the controls. Just so awkward. How would one design controls for that type of genre so it doesnt suck.

Buy a gamepad .

You can also think your controls around the keyboard limitations to make it more friendly. I remember a PC version of Street Fighter (forgot which - Capcom ported MANY of their games to PC) that had many moves simplified for the keyboard. The hadouken (fireball) could be performed by doing DOWN, FOWARD, PUNCH.

Basically, you need to avoid asking the user to press keys simultaneously and have pretty relaxed timing tolerances for special moves.

What about coding a movie trainer? Make a program where you edit moves for your game, by definying a key sequence/combination. Then, add a "training" feature to your program, that allows you to try to perform the move many, many times.

Have your program record the ways you peformed the moves, and add use that data to adjust timing between keys, or even if a certain key in the sequence in mandatory or not (thus creating shortcuts). You'll also need a feature to re-tweak the move so it doesn't become too lax, or get confused with other moves.

[edited by - M3d10n on May 21, 2004 6:43:26 PM]

Actually, thats a really good idea. I never thought about it that way.