trans christian, any pronouns. artist at heart, programmer by trade. this is my journal of sketches, project notes, and assorted thoughts – spanning games, technology, creativity, neurodiversity, and more!
970 posts
It's Time For A Report On Something Nobody Asked About But Maybe Someone Kind Of Wondered: Playing Mari0
It's time for a report on something nobody asked about but maybe someone kind of wondered: playing Mari0 with the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Cons! (insert ® and ™ as needed)
For the unaware, the new controllers for the Switch are PC-compatible out of the box, no need for drivers. You just connect them via Bluetooth and they're good to go without any other setup. They interface through DirectInput, which is an older standard, so they don't work with every game. However, Löve2D recognizes DirectInput, so they work in Mari0!
Mostly. …Kind of.
The first setup I thought to try was to put the Joy-Cons together as one standard controller, and play with two sticks. Even though they're technically recognized as two separate controllers, there's nothing stopping one player from using two controller inputs. Curiously, though, the control sticks are recognized as "hats" (like a d-pad) rather than axes, and Mari0 only recognizes axes for aiming the portal gun.
This screenshot was unfortunately not taken with the new capture button.
In other words, this idea was pretty short-lived. You can play like this if you have a platforming-centric mappack (read: doesn't use the portal gun at all), but it's not exactly the best experience out there - especially since, in my testing, the right Joy-Con often had input lag of up to half a second. It was pretty excruciating to say the least, although that's probably just my Bluetooth driver not playing nice. (It's kinda amusing, though, since everyone else is having problems with their left Joy-Con.) If you're just going to platform, using just one on its side is your best bet. This still leaves us with one other option, however: one Joy-Con in one hand, and the mouse in the other.
This picture, on the other hand, was taken with the capture button. The one on my phone.
The problem with playing like this, however, is the button layout. There's not really a comfortable way to map even just run and jump. You could use SL and SR (the side shoulder buttons), but those are hard to press when holding it like this. You could use L and ZL (the back shoulder buttons), which works pretty decently; however, you have to hold the controller in a claw grip, which I can't imagine doing for more than five minutes - and I have small hands! You could press the stick for one of them, but that's hard to do when you're constantly moving it. Any other buttons require removing your thumb from the control stick, which is no bueno for platforming controls. And just imagine a left-hander trying to play with the right Joy-Con! In sum, it works, but with plenty of caveats. Final verdict: 2/10, just wait until Super Mario Maker: We Finally Added Slopes Edition comes out.
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notquiteapex liked this · 2 years ago
More Posts from Skysometric
me: *makes thing*
me: I hope people like this thing
people: Wow your thing is really great!
me: No, you're wrong, it's terrible, I'm awful at this
It took long enough to nail everything down, but I think I’m finally done with my new avatar. Working on this was quite the learning experience!
WIP1: This was kind of the mockup stage. I knew the general shape I wanted, but I had no idea what specific colors to use, how to highlight the W effectively, whether the outline would work, etc.
WIP2: I changed the outline to a shadowy effect - I wanted it to look like a window into another world. This didn’t pan out so well, so I removed it in future iterations. Tried to refine the colors a bit more, but I still couldn’t figure them out.
WIP3: It was about this time that I realized I was basically going for a Material Design look, so I researched Google’s design documentation and a few tutorials on getting the shadows and colors to look right.
WIP4: Decided to redo the geometry from scratch - some of the objects didn’t appear to be lined up quite right. I made it slightly smaller so that it could be comfortably resized to 100px. A friend suggested that the purple was too bright, so I toned it down to match the blues more closely. I also reduced the shadows because they were jumping out at me too much.
Final: I wanted the shadows to only draw along the W, so I redid the geometry again to add some shadow masks underneath the shapes. I also changed the cyan to be more blue than green, while still keeping it the same kind of relatively bright color. The results speak for themselves!
2015 Year in Review
For some reason my brain keeps telling me that 2015 sucked. There were some not-so-great things about it, sure, but it wasn’t totally awful. Thus, I’m writing this list to focus on the positive aspects of the past year. If it sounds like I’m bragging, I’m really not - I’m trying to feel better about what I’ve accomplished. A lot’s been happening!
Got my first job! Because of it, I enjoyed a lovely summer of working in the morning, then getting home and chilling for the rest of the day.
Super Mario Maker came out and I made a bunch of levels for it. Some were even promoted by big names like GameXplain and Nintendo UK!
At college, I’m now senior-level by hours, even though I’m in my third year.
Learned my way around Photoshop - enough to make a new avatar! I’m not 100% done with it yet, but this is pretty close at least.
Speaking of Photoshop, I digitized a bunch of mazes. Wait, actually, that was Illustrator.
Broke 50 followers on Twitter, and 200 followers on Tumblr (most of the latter is just bots, though). Also, 1000 video views on Youtube?? But why???
Got a new phone that I absolutely love. It’s been a big help in keeping me up to speed with everything.
I’m realizing as I go back through my social feeds that I posted a LOT more than I thought I did this year. Like, wow.
Worked up the courage to start drawing again after about five years. It’s been a slow start, but I've drawn more complex stuff than ever (like humans).
In any case, I’m looking forward to 2016! New year, fresh start, lots of big plans and opportunities. Can’t wait to get started!