The Journey to Controller Support (Thanks to You!)

It’s here. One of the most community-requested features, Controller Support (V1), is now live for SENTINEL 519: SAGA - GENESIS. This isn’t just an update; it’s the result of a long journey of feedback, iteration, and learning. I wanted to share a bit of that story.

The Vision: A Console in Your Palm

Initially, when creating the control system for SENTINEL 519, I had a clear vision: a console-like experience in the palm of your hand. I worked on it in a silo to start, and I was so sure the controls I had put in place were awesome!

The Reality Check: Feedback is Everything

When I finally got friends and family to test the game, it was an understatement to say it was a reality check. Translating a third-person perspective to a phone is not easy; the tactile feel of joysticks and buttons can’t be perfectly replicated on a tiny screen. This feedback forced the game to change, evolving from a slow-paced shooter into a non-stop enemy barrage with a much tighter focus.

Then came Open Testing. The game was downloaded over 15k times, and I received a stellar amount of feedback! The first major hurdle was optimisation. I had only tested on a high-end device, but the Android landscape is vast. A sweeping change of optimisation tweaks were made, stripping out effects like motion blur to create a more streamlined version.

The Big Question & The Community's Answer

After climbing that wall, feedback started coming in for the production launch, and a second insight became abundantly clear: the controls needed more finessing. But how can you iterate past the limitations of a touchscreen? The community's suggestions continued to pour in, and the answer was overwhelming: controller support was pushed to the top of the priority list.

The Solution: Building V1

To tackle this, I leaned on my background as a full-stack developer (this entailed everything from solution design, architecture to development). Though I used to build systems from scratch, I learned to value progress through frameworks like Laravel. I applied this same logic when choosing my engine, building the game in Unity with the asset Game Creator 2 as my framework.

This approach allowed me to map out and implement Version 1 of controller support: updating the game to support gameplay only, while leaving menus and other aspects on the touchscreen for now.

Conclusion: Community-Driven Development

I'm new to dev logs, but what I wanted to highlight here is that innovation comes from constructive feedback. I feel I have been able to make the game better through countless iterations, driven by a passionate player base that wants to see the best possible product out there.

So here I am, on my first dev log, trying to say... SENTINEL 519: SAGA - GENESIS now has controller support, and it is all thanks to a great gamer community!