What is your preferred keyboard button layout for playing fangames?

[Q-Nova]

Long ago, my games used the Z/X button layout (Z for jumping, X for other actions like shooting). I believe I sometimes used just the space bar if there's only one action (aside from movement). By the time I started releasing games on MFGG, I switched to the Shift/Ctrl button layout, thanks to Clickteam fangames. I initially disliked the Shift/Ctrl button layout because of the whole Sticky Keys thing, but after I figured out how to disable that annoying pop-up and then played tons of games using said layout, I've grown to appreciate it. I consider the layout an iconic part of a bygone era of fangames, when Clickteam products were the norm. I use the Shift/Ctrl layout because of that -- to pay tribute to the old fangames, and also because I think it's cool. It's similar to why I keep using the 4:3 resolution to this day (though, part of that is because I want my games to playable in CRT monitors). If I ever make another game, however, I definitely should let players reconfigure the controls. I implemented that in Bob-Ball vs. Toads, but it never came out. I considered putting it into Go! Go! Gooble!! but I never bothered with it, even though I set variables for the keys early on. I like how Clickteam games have control reconfiguration by default.

As for playing games, I just stick with the defaults provided, unless they're too uncomfortable. If a game has no defaults and instead forces me to choose the keys, I'd probably do Shift/Ctrl/Z or Z/X/C, depending on whatever I feel like. When playing DOS games, I always like using Ctrl/Alt/Space.

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