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I hear in many game reviews, how gamers complain about the controls of a game, when they hate it, or how they praise them when they work right. This expression comes up: "Tight controls".
It seems like when it comes to games, "controls" is a critic point for a game to succeed, so I was wondering if we could have a discussion about what exactly are tight controls.
"Tight" controls are the opposite of "loose" controls. Generally speaking, these terms are used to indicate whether or not a control scheme responds quickly and appropriately to a player's actions. If the controls lag or otherwise cause slowdown and other undesired behavior, they're not tight. (Another term for "tight" would be "responsive").
For example, I played a PC game recently (not naming any names) where the mouse cursor did not immediately update onscreen as I moved the mouse, and on top of it the cursor was slow, with no option to speed it up anywhere in the game's options. This led to the cursor lazily "floating" around the screen about a half-second behind my actual movements, which was a royal pain when you're trying to click on moving objects with any kind of precision.
It's usually a sign of poorly optimized/programmed control routines, and definitely affects a game's playability.
There is no cut and dry definition for tight controls. So while sandalfoot's answer is not wrong, I would give it a different answer.
Tight controls mean less momentum affecting change. If a character is moving in one direction, turning them in another direction very rapidly would be tight controls. If you need more time to get them moving in the desired location, the controls would be looser.
Let's take FIFA for example. If you change directions 180 degrees, it takes time to stop and gain momentum in the other direction. If it was instantaneous, the controls would be too tight. If it took too long to turn around, the controls would be too loose. You can also turn in a semi circle to maintain your momentum, while taking longer to turn around. The momentum lost while turning this semi circle can be adjusted to change the tightness/looseness of the controls. Or for other games, such as Mario, how drastically you can change your direction while mid air reflects the tightness/looseness of the controls.
You do not want tight or loose controls - you want balanced controls. If they are too loose, and it takes too long to change direction, the game can feel unwieldy. If they are too tight, and you can immediately change directions, they can see unrealistic. You want to hit a middle ground.
After playing a lot of games you simply start preferring a certain type of controls for certain genres, it's a learned bias.
When someone makes a game with different controls it just feels like something is wrong.
It's not like players can't get used to it, it's just that it will bother them for a while.
This mistake often comes from people who are working on a genre that they aren't used to playing or it's just their first time making a game from that genre.
And I'd disagree that controls are a critical point for the game. Sure the reviewers might complain if you make a mistake with controls, but they will talk more about other aspects of your game.
