Hi people, I currently have two friends who injured their dominant arm in unrelated accidents and mostly can’t do anything but sit around and watch movies.
I’d like to gift them some games to play with just one hand. Not the hentai variant, but something to keep them occupied with.
Both own a steam deck. One is more into cozy games like Dorfromantik and the other into RPGs like BG3.
One Finger Death Punch would be a good example as you can remap controls so you only need to press left and right on the D-Pad, but both of them don’t really like that game.
Do you know any games which can be played with one hand, preferably a controller or Steam deck? Using a mouse with your non dominant hand is annoying…
I’m interested and for $3 I thinnill give it a shot. How does this compare to rimworld, as they look similar?
My first thought was FTL as well. Great game
FTL is love. FTL is life.
Especially with the Multiverse mod!
(though it’s much harder to install on Linux than it has any right to be)
Oh my god! I didn’t know about the mod! I have to check this out! Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’ve played it a bunch, it’s essentially FTL 1.5 and extremely well made. Hope you have fun playing it!
In case you’re running on Linux, be warned that you might have to add a SELinux exception. Hit me up if that’s the case, I’ll try to find the commands.
Rafa Nadal is right handed and plays left handed. If someone has issues with a non-dominant hand then it’s time to start making the other one dominant.
Try to read the post again, “having issues with an arm” doesn’t sound as simple as you might think…
for most games you need two hands though ;)
I remember that the dev of Legend of Grimrock added an option for movement with the mouse because a disabled gamer wanted to play. Maybe that second friend should check that and the 2nd game out.
Using a mouse with your non dominant hand is annoying…
Yeah, for PC they’ll probably have to grit their teeth and power through the discomfort. An alternative is getting a hand in some old emulated games. Anything from the NES era can be mapped to 4 movements + 4 buttons (start, select, A, B), which on a keyboard could be WASD + Q, E, R and F. Dunno how to set something similar on a Deck.
One really handy thing with the Steam Deck is the ability to remap all of the buttons (as well as the two paddles on the back for each hand), so one could probably make a decent one-handed control setup for 99% of turn-based games. Even ones that require the use of the mouse, given the Deck’s touchpads.
Vampire Survivors requires nothing except the stick/dpad outside of menus (and I’m pretty sure you can use the touchscreen for menus, too).
If your friend(s) are stuck using the dpad, it might not be suitable, but Crypt of the Necrodancer only requires four buttons or left, right, up, and down (and you can assign buttons for the button combos normally required to do things like use bombs). This assumes that they like rhythm games.
I second Vampire Survivors
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008920/Lorelei_and_the_Laser_Eyes/
Brilliant puzzle game
Designed to be played on a controller with one hand so you can take notes with your other hand.
Such a cool stylish game. Highly recommended.
Balatro is turn-based and is easy enough to control. I myself play on mobile, but Steam Deck shouldn’t be very different.
Curious Expedition!
Ben Heck made a couple of one handed controllers a few years ago. One of these controllers might open up more games than remapping buttons.
Pinball with arrow keys mapped to left and right flippers?
The Final Fantasy pixel remasters are all old school turn based RPGs that can be played one handed on the steam deck. Certainly not all 50 games but UFO 50 has a bunch of games made for a non-existent console that are all pretty simple and I would bet a lot of them can be played one handed. Both Crypt of the Necrodancer and Cadence of Hyrule are rhythm dungeon delver games that probably work one handed too, technically so would the new game Rift of the Necrodancer but that requires more skill than I have
Oh, and for the RPG fan Disco Elysium is almost certainly up his alley and perfect for one handed play
Puyo Puyo Champions has a one-handed controller preset. D-pad or ABXY to move, shoulder buttons to rotate.
Only caveat is that if you want to play online, only the Switch version is actively populated, so I can’t recommend the game on any other platform.
You might be interested in the videos made by Champutee, a one-armed gamer who has done several experiments with both genres and controllers to continue enjoying gaming.
That’s an incredible username!
Super Mario Run was quite fun as a single-button Mario platformer. You could also try visual novels or point-and-click adventures, or even something just with simple controls like pokémon.
I think you should be able to play Organ Trail one-handed. It’s a zombie apocalypse version of Oregon Trail.
Organ Trail… What’s the objective?
The objective is to make sure you have enough supplies to survive for as long as you can while making it across America to a place safe from zombies.
I believe the goal is ultimately to get to Canada (I haven’t played in a while) but I might be mixing it up with Death Road to Canada, which is similar in premise but probably not something you could play one-handed.
I guess games like Monkey Island (1 to 3, and Return, the 3D ones would be harder) could work using the touch screen or touchpad working as a mouse
