Ouya Trying Out Different Controller Designs As Development of The Console Continues

After shipping the first couple of units to developers, the makers of the Ouya are now refining their controller design based on the feedback given to them by developers and people who have already tested units. In a blog post over at their website, the makers of the Ouya explained that the D-Pad has now adopted a ‘disk’ design instead of ‘cross’ style in a bid to stop “accidental” diagonal move, “Accuracy and precision are back” they commented.

They have also changed the thumbsticks, giving them a rubberized top which is designed to “give better traction and just feel better than the current design.” There are also refinements to the triggers, which have better mechanics to them and sit a little more flush with the body of the controller. Ouya also added that they are pushing for their controller to be as fast and responsible as possible by testing the button-to-screen latency down to the millisecond using an oscilloscope.

Controller design is going to be a challenge for the Ouya team.

Controller design is going to be a challenge for the Ouya team. Since the console is based around Android games, developers are used to the idea of displaying controls onscreen for the player to tap wherever they want for whatever action. With a controller its different, you have to assign an action to a button which means working with the design of the controller and making sure each action that is placed in each button makes sense, otherwise you’ll end up with game that plays awkwardly.

This is one of the challenges that Rovio were faced with when porting Angry Birds over to consoles last year; being able to take advantage of the controller layout and more importantly catering for the Kinect/Playstation Move is hard for a game that was designed with the sole purpose of flinging birds at pigs with your finger.

It will be interesting to watch this unfold and whether the Ouya makers will make changes after the console is released based on general user feedback. The makers of Ouya have touted March as their release date, which is only a month away.

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