Setting up Local Multiplayer / Controller Inputs

Is there a good resource for this? A good method anyone can suggest? I've been working on a top down action hack n slash type game. I want to add more players now. My first experiment was to set up a bunch of different strings, so player2 would use "2pJump" instead of just "Jump" etc.. However this is producing a bunch of weird side effects, and only have of the inputs seem to work right.

Is there a way to just assign a joystick number per player? Doing for every string seems kind of complicated.

Everything that comes up in my searches is either for network multiplayer (not ready for that yet), or for touch input stuff.

Im using a bunch of ps3 controllers if that makes a difference.