shmups.system11.org

Hello, I am developing a new game, this is one of my first games, but the first Shmup I am developing.

What is your opinion about using:
Using WASD to move the ship + 3 keys to shoot the 3 different weapons + other specials less used keys for special functions
Using the mouse to move the ship + 3 mouse buttons to shoot the 3 different weapons + a few special functions on the keyboard.

What are your ideas about those two options?

Thanks you very much.

Support arrow keys, allowing WASD (or arbitrary keys) as an alternative (particularly if you have two players at the same keyboard).
Mouse control is so different from keyboard or joystick control that the choice affects very basic design parameters.
For example, dodging quickly in small spaces is basically impossible with a mouse: quick mouse movements need to be large and coarse, whereas a key or a joystick can be activated both briefly (to limit movement) and with precise timing.

Thank you for your feedack, I didn't think about those details.

The problem is taht the game is a browser game and using arrow keys creates an annoying bug, the page scrolls when I press up or down (something I can't fix/control), the only option I have is using WASD and a few other keys for controlling shooting and changing the weapons.

Any suggestion?

[EDIT]: I will try to find ways to get around the problem about the page scrolling up and down. I think I can find a workaround.

Thanks

If you go down the WASD route, it's important to offer rebindable keys, since some non-English keyboard layouts are different in that corner (for example the French and some others use AZERTY instead of QWERTY). This leads to tears, if WASD is hardcoded.

Thanks for your information. I will take it into account for my controls.

Many times with a keyboard if you press more then a certain number of keys, it will jam.
You need to implement joystick for sure.

Mouse control sounds great! You should check out Jamestown, Sky Force Reloaded, and Bullet Heaven 2 on Steam. They have great cursor-based mouse movement implementation.