What are your wackiest ideas for a “universal” controller layout that would appeal to the fans of the Xbox, Nintendo, and PS layouts? You certainly can’t pick one of the three, that would be lazy and frankly unfair for the other two layouts. It’s got to be something that everyone agrees on, something different!
I’ve got a few ideas: NSEW (the cardinal directions), RGBA (colours, also transparent button could be cool…), or maybe CMYK (printer ink colours for ease of printing)
What are your ideas for the universal controller layout?
“When is Lindsey coming out of the closet? We all know you’re gay, Lindsey… and that’s ok.”
why does this sound life-threatening then ?
Shit, wrong thread, sorry
She’s pressing all his wrong buttons.
We achieved perfection with the Atari Jaguar and have strayed from its light further every day since
Also shout out for the NegCon
Final unironic answer, the OG Xbox duke is the ultimate layout, maybe the 20th anniversary version
as someone who has never had a playstation, knowing now the original semantic meanings of the playstation glyps i think they’re the best compromise IF we go back to their original meanings. they had it right the first time with hlw intuitive it is to have O being confirm and X being cancel, and it’d keep Nintendo people somewhat happy because confirm is still the far right button. maybe they could also release a version with reversed or hotswappable buttons, using the current PS layout (which in this case would be O on the bottom and X on the right) to throw a bone to the xbox crowd because this compromise doesn’t do anything for them otherwise
or like another commenter suggested, we throw out the diamond button layout, too tainted by the competing standards of the console wars, and use the gamecube layout like God intended
Everyone could learn a thing or two from the Steamdeck. The twin sticks, the touch pads, the double shoulder buttons, the four on the back, the overall ergonomics, it’s really great to use.
It would have to be modular and customizable. Whether the buttons can be removed and swapped around like key caps, or the D-pads and sticks are on interchangeable units, users would have to be able to arrange things a few different ways to get literally everyone on board.
Xbox adaptive controller
It has to be symmetrical. The asymmetry that Xbox uses is just so uncomfortable.
I don’t really care too much what the buttons are called. I grew up with PlayStation so its button names are the easiest for me to recall. That bias aside, I do think there’s something innately easier about the four shapes than memorising where X, Y, A, and B go, and numbering the buttons R1, R2, and R3 is simpler than the weird names Xbox users use.
I personally prefer the asymmetric joysticks over the playstation symmetrical ones. RB, RT is descriptive of the button itself. B being Bumper and T being trigger.
I do agree with you in the shapes being more memorable though.
But how do you remember whether it’s the bumper or the trigger? Counting downwards 1 and 2 is easy. Knowing the one they’ve named “bumper” and the one they’ve named “trigger” is…less so.
I remember it because one is a bumper and the other is a trigger. Bumper like the front of a car, and a trigger like…a trigger.
I have no idea what makes one a “bumper” and one a “trigger”. The only meaningful difference is one is on top of the other.
the trigger is like the trigger of a gun. the bumper is a bump/bigger button
In what way are any of the buttons like the trigger of a gun? Plus, unless I’m mistaken, isn’t the bigger button the one you’d call a “trigger”? Just picking up the USB PS2-shaped controller I bought off Ebay, R2 is definitely the bigger button by a large amount, and I thought R2 is the one you’d call the “right trigger”. Am I misunderstanding something?
One is a trigger lol
Someone else pointed out that when you say “trigger”, you mean like the trigger of a gun, as opposed to in the sense I was thinking, which is in terms of event scripting, where a “trigger” is the event that causes another event to begin. I was thinking of it like that because, well…none of the buttons look even remotely like a gun trigger to me.
The form is similar and in fps games the use is the same
It was clearer in the 360 days when the trigger was narrow. Now that it’s as wide as a bumper the distinction feels a bit dated. I still prefer the 360 triggers, they felt great for fine control.
and the other one is a bumper
R1, R2 and R3 are endlessly confusing to me. I still mix them up sometimes after over a year of owning PS5. It makes no sense that they aren’t in any order! It should be 1 - trigger, 2 - bumper, 3 - stick or in reverse. In order in the top - down axis.
Historic order. L1 and R1 (LB and RB) first appeared in the Super Nintendo ( 1991), L2 and R2 (LT and RT) made their debut in the PlayStation (1994) and L3 and R3 came out first in the PlayStation 2 (2000), I think.
They could choose any name other that L3 and R3 though.
That’s what PlayStation calls them. Xbox calls them LSB and RSB (Left/Right stick button). Nintendo has no name for them, they just refer to them as “clicking the left/right stick”. Also Nintendo calls the bumpers L and R, and the triggers ZL and ZR.
I think the asymmetry is great! It makes it really easy to move my thumb off camera to grab the dpad without letting go of movement or doing the claw. I like the aesthetic of a symmetrical controller, but offset sticks just works better for me.
Camera?
Right stick, generally used for camera control. Reading my comment back that’s super unclear lol
Oh ok I see. I don’t really see how it matters for that purpose whether it’s symmetric or asymmetric. When moving the camera your hand is in one position, and when using the buttons for things like jump, attack, interact etc., your hand is in the other position. You have to use both positions either way. So I’d rather the kind of natural position of both hands resting on the analogue sticks is symmetric rather than twisted.
on the xbox controller the D-pad is to the left of the Right stick, meaning you can easily move your thumb over it to use it in certain games (like in Dark Souls, you use it to change equipped consumables/weapons). Whereas with the symmetric design, you’d have to move your right thumb a bigger distance, and also get in the way of your left thumb (which is on the left stick for movement). Ofcourde, you can always let go of movement to switch items, but that’s not always an easy option (Bossfights, enemy encounters, ehere you have to be moving constantly)
That’s just one game i can think of where the asymmetric dedign is better
Wait, you use the d-pad with your right hand on an Xbox‽ I’m gonna be honest, I can’t even imagine wanting to do that, and it feels like it would be bad game design if a game necessitates it.
But if you did want to do it, I’d say your best option in a symmetric design would be to use your right thumb on the left stick. It’s a little awkward, but it’s only for a split second, which IMO is better than sacrificing the comfort of the design as it’s used 99% of the time.
Controller layout was mastered with the GameCube and I will harbour no dissent
Unironically though it has a fantastic conversation with you as soon as you see it. A is obviously primary, B is obviously secondary and X and Y are clearly tertiary and equal.
Actually yeah, this has merit. I see a few places for improvements though.
- I’d swap the d pad and yellow for joysticks, playstations mirrored joys are generally better for your thumbs over time.
- replace the round B button with another bean shaped button like the X and Y, add a 4th bean button in the lower corner and color code them.
- Bumpers and triggers, but use the mechanical style the 360 had, they were durable and reliable.
- extend the palm pads, the ps4 had a really good feel in the hand, not too small, not yo big.
- attach fans to the rumble motors and air flow holes around the palm pads. Sweaty hands on a controller suck, active cooling during intense moments would be great.
amen! i’m not bothered by different glyphs as much as i am by everyone making the primary button different (although i guess now xbox and ps agree) and that just doesn’t happen with a physical controller that has an obvious hierarchy of buttons. plus B A and X all being in a line makes them all accessible with the natural wiper motion of the thumb, way easier for my arthritic mitts to find their way around than two rows of two
I always thought the colors were dumb. Imo this is what the color scheme should be:
A/Circle=Green=Accept=Go
X=Red=Cancel=Stop
B=Blue
Y=Yellow
Put them wherever you want lol and I guess square feels blue and triangle feels yellow (kinda looks like an upside down y and a y has 3 points). It also satisfies the original intent for ps buttons without being confusing since x and circle are represented with the commonly known colors for those things. I personally prefer the asymmetrical Xbox stick/button layout.
And actually now that I’m thinking about it it’d be kinda cool if the triangle was flipped and the square had a horizontal line through it, then circle could be like a lower case a. Then you have both ps AND Nintendo/Xbox labels XD
I like PS glyphs because they are language-neutral and look more distinct, and I think, it would be point one in my choice. Point two is color-coding that helps most people (but may adjustments for accessibility?). Point three although ofercomplicating things is direction-coding, as it’d be generally nice to have a > shape near them, so they’d read intuitively from the first playthrough.
My initial thought went for second set of arrows. Like d-pad has one kind ⬆️➡️⬇️⬅️ and buttons have the other 🔼▶️🔽◀️. But I doubt it would be consisntetly great in different games with their own visual approach to portraying them.
Having more direct sign buttons on the other hand ✅️❌️❓️❕️ may be limiting to what devs want their game to be as it implies the check button is always approval, etc.
Math symbols, tho, ✖️➕️➖️➗️🟰 can be a universal and neutral set to pick from, especially if avoiding the confusing X button.
Also, ♤♡◇♧, in connection with older modes of gaming, but it should be tested for illegebitility between them and compared to arrows as three of them have vagualy triangular shape.
Also loss.
I know OP’s rules say no picking one of the three already, but these are such good points I can’t help but agree. I’m also biased from years of using a PlayStation controller. Even though I haven’t owned a PS console since PS2, I’ve still been using the PS4 & 5 controllers for PC gaming.
I think legibility and avoiding overloading symbols is top priority and the PlayStation glyphs achieve this admirably. On a pettier note, I’ve never liked seeing a prompt with a big, red B button pop up on screen telling me to do something, it’s very immersion breaking. While the PlayStation prompts aren’t exactly diegetic themselves, they’re at least less non-diegetic I guess, if that makes sense?
I won’t argue symmetry vs. non-symmetry of control sticks as I don’t really think there’s a correct answer here, it’s very preferential. I obviously prefer the symmetric, but I think there’s a reason the DualShock has undergone only minor changes since it was first introduced in check notes 1997?! JFC, that’s almost 30 years …
That’s immersion 🅱️reaking, lol.
I vouch for symmetry, or rather important buttons not being placed on the bottom. Active movements and especially button presses, e.g. in QTEs or multiple menus, are rather uncomfortable there, while sticks employ a different and less demanding moveset of slightly tilting them to the side. I don’t see a reason why it’s assymetrical on Xbox and I feel it’s really dumb in autonomous Joycons with Nintendo party games when they should be completely interchangeable when shared between casual gaming persons.
I like the suits!
Steam controller, but swap the buttons/touchpad locations. Everything else is perfect basically.
X-inverted c-stick southpaw
It already exists.
The one Xbox layout (asymmetric sticks) is to me the best.
I don’t see it any other way.Are you by any chance a Nintendo hardware dev and need inspiration? ;)
The Steam Controller was perfection.
People don’t want to hear it. But you are right.
