I am making my Input Manager. What would be some usage of the various symbols on the keyboard? The only ones I figured out myself was the + and - sign, Zoom in and Zoom out, but this is going to be a 2D game. Someone's going to say something about different symbol functionality for different games so I'll explain mine: I have no actual story or type of game yet. I'm just getting the basics down: Rendering, Input, Window creation. That way when I have the story I just have to implement it. I have a name though... I guess thats good. It's going to be called Tactics. It might not even have anything tactical about it like... I can't think of a non-tactical game. I'm going to add plus and minus. The rest seem useless.

Well there really are numerous things you can do.. going from normal usage in games to whatever your mind can come up with...

typical:
WASD - movement
F1-F4 - party selection
F5 - quick save

so on and so forth..

um you could do ~ to open a console window to input codes or commands..
[ ] could be to cycle weapons...

Just use your imagination and also make it make sense you don't want people hunting all over the keyboard to find different actions to do.

my .02 cents
peace

I forgot about the F# keys. I'm going to add as many symbols to the input manager as I can. That way when I get a smart idea (like you just gave me) I don't have to implement the key in order to use it. I haven't played a non-mouse based input game in a while.

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Original post by RanBlade um you could do ~ to open a console window to input codes or commands..

Don't do this one. Pressing tilde requires holding the "Alt Gr" modifier key on German keyboards, and it only shows up when you press it twice. In half the games I've played that relied on tilde for console, it's effectively impossible to open the console without changing the keyboard layout to American, and even then it doesn't always work. Instead, map it to some normal, common key like F12.

I'll make a note of that. I was thinking of the code command idea to help me test things.

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Original post by lightbringer Quote: Original post by RanBlade um you could do ~ to open a console window to input codes or commands.. Don't do this one. Pressing tilde requires holding the "Alt Gr" modifier key on German keyboards, and it only shows up when you press it twice. In half the games I've played that relied on tilde for console, it's effectively impossible to open the console without changing the keyboard layout to American, and even then it doesn't always work. Instead, map it to some normal, common key like F12.

German keyboards don't have tilde keys? Hmm...everyday you learn something new lol.

Why don't you just let the users choose which controls to use?

In addition to the foreign keyboard problem, you will probably also get people using screen recording software, which typically needs the f# keys for itself.
Or you may get people who are missing certain fingers and want to remap the controls so it's more comfortable.

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Original post by jackolantern1 German keyboards don't have tilde keys? Hmm...everyday you learn something new lol.

Not quite, there is in fact a tilde key (as the third character on the plus key), but using it requires you to go through those hoops I described, and in my experience it's not reliable in games. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't.

This is a "game design" question.

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Original post by Storyyeller Why don't you just let the users choose which controls to use?

I was going to say the same thing.

Instead of caring what the manufacturer has printed on each key you should set up an abstract set of input options (move left, jump, shoot, etc.) and then provide a dialog which allows players to bind those inputs to whichever keys they prefer. You'll then of course need to set up some reasonable defaults - but the keys you choose should be ones that are sensible based on the actions in your game rather than adding things to the game to match the symbols that are on the keys.

If nothing is added to your game by letting players zoom in and out then it shouldn't be included just to use the + and - keys.