this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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I just want a game that lets my avatar be left handed.
As a gameplay programmer, I got anxiety from reading this (and I think the animators are already in a fetal position on the floor)
Can't you just swap x for -x. Run some unit tests just in case. We'll push to prod next Wednesday. Sound good? Got to dash, strategy meeting started 5 minutes ago. Seeyoubye.
As a programmer, I've learned to cringe at any suggestion from someone that starts with "can't you just". Cause I guarantee you, I can't "just" do that. It's way more complicated than just.
😬 I am familiar with the PTSD trigger words.
You little shit xD
Ok, but all your dialogue will be spoken backwards.
That makes sense. All left handed people are witches anyways, they'll feel right at home
Noted. I'll talk to Jeff in FX and get all the .wav files reversed. Shouldn't add too much to storage. I wonder if lip sync will be affected? I'll mention it to Sue when she gets back next week.
The location that the player is visually interacting with would be different, but the world wouldn't know that. Eg. in a cutscene, the player reaches out and touches a button on a control panel. If the player's X is flipped, their left hand will be further left than their right hand, and will miss the button visually as they go to press it. Asymmetrical animations might also be fucked, ie. sidestep/jump right normally extends the left leg for leverage, but now their right leg would push off visually and they would still move right.
I don't want you to come to me with problems. I want you to come with solutions. I'm going to schedule some action orientated soft skills training for you next month. There is a push to increase our education KPIs so budget is available.
Not sure whether to upvote because this is so accurate it's funny or to downvote because it's infuriating 😂
Ow that one hits me right in the briefcase
dies
Would it be possible to just mirror what the player is seeing so literally everything is backwards? Like a visual effect 'in-post'? Obviously that would mess with any printed text but other than I cant think of big issue?
That’s basically what they did for Legend of Zelda:Twilight princess. GameCube version Link was left handed, Wii version he was right handed. Looking at game guide sites was kind of comical. They basically said we’re not rewriting our guide for Wii…just flip the directions. If the guide says go left…go right for Wii.
The entire game is mirrored.
You could even do that on the player's model specifically. But it's still a maybe, you're almost guaranteed to get some cursed bugs due to every preexisting code having been made with right handedness in mind.
I'm sure animators are internally screaming at the reasons why this will make some originally right handed animations look off but that's not my area of expertise.
In reality it's probably not the hardest thing to do gameplay-wise, especially if you're doing it from the very beginning of the project, but I don't think you can simply mirror animations (and some animations-related logic) and have it look natural, so you'd have to make dedicated animations and possibly logic for left hand strikes, right hand blocks etc. which would obviously be much more expensive. But yeah that's probably what Minecraft does now for example, and since they have a very low level of detail on player characters and their animations it looks alright.
The Zelda tactic
changes all weapons to be two-handed
This way, no one will complain and there’s only one thing to maintain!
You can hold a two handed weapon favoring the left, or the right.
😵
You’ll just hold it right at the center of your screen. You’ll not see anything, but it’ll work!
FTFY
hahaha
Counterstrike did that over 25 years ago. Yikes I'm old
They just mirror the viewmodel
minecraft allows left-handedness ever since they added the off-hand mechanic
I think before that even
Hahah
No.
Could I at least get some left handed emoji?
We'll see with the investors
Counter strike