contro

Game controls done right.

What is Contro?

Contro is a library that offers simple abstractions on top of existing Web input APIs and allows game developers to easily implement controls for keyboard, mouse and gamepad.

Installation

The easiest way to include Contro in your application is using the unpkg CDN:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/contro@2"></script>

If you're using npm, you can also install it using npm i contro.

Usage

• Import the Contro classes and functions using Object destructuring.

const { Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad, or, and } = Contro
// OR
import { Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad, or, and } from 'contro'

• Create instances of the components you want to use.

const keyboard = new Keyboard()
const gamepad = new Gamepad()

• Prepare the controls using the control methods and the operator functions and and or.

const controls = {
  jump: or(gamepad.button('A').trigger, keyboard.key('Space').trigger),
  menu: or(gamepad.button('Back').trigger, keyboard.key('Esc').trigger),
  inventory: or(gamepad.button('LB').trigger, keyboard.key('E').trigger),
  map: or(gamepad.button('RB').trigger, keyboard.key('M').trigger),
  statusOverlay: or(gamepad.button('RB'), keyboard.key('Tab')),
}

• In your game loop, display the relevant .label's and '.query() the controls.

function gameLoop() {
  // Update the UI to reflect the player's input device(s)
  game.jumpButton.text = controls.jump.label
  game.menuButton.text = controls.menu.label
  // ...

  // Query the controls and do something
  if (controls.jump.query()) game.player.jump()
  if (controls.menu.query()) game.openMenu()
  game.statusOverlay.visible = controls.statusOverlay.query()
  // ...

  requestAnimationFrame(gameLoop)
}

Note that all of the code starting with game. is fictional and just serves as an example.

Not convinced yet? Check out this demo!

Wanna learn more? Check out the docs!