Ask HN: Recommendations for Steam Deck Games
19 comments
Platformers play really nicely on the deck, so check out Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and its ilk.
RimWorld - which has been completely optimized for the Deck
https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/
Factorio - Dev team is currently in process using the knowledge gained from the Switch port to create a fully Deck verified version
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/
Factorio - Dev team is currently in process using the knowledge gained from the Switch port to create a fully Deck verified version
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/
I'd love factorio to be deckified. I've had rimworld on the list for a while but never taken the plunge. What's the hook?
Rimworld is a very nice base building game, which gained a enormous amount of popularity from the get go due to the similarities to another quite popular game (Dwarf Fortress) and excellent game design (to make the game somewhat challenging every game you play is supervised by a AI director which more or less does the same thing as the one in L4D). The game as also expanded tremendously as of now due to three DLC packages which add a lot of fun gameplay:
- Nobility (Royalty)
- Belief systems (Ideology)
- Pregnancy, biotech and genetic modification (Biotech)
The game also has a pretty big modding community.
If you like sims you def are going to love it.
And if you happen to be interested in a deep dive into the game design principles behind Rimworld Tynan Sylvester (the designer/developer) wrote a entire book about it: https://tynansylvester.com/book/
- Nobility (Royalty)
- Belief systems (Ideology)
- Pregnancy, biotech and genetic modification (Biotech)
The game also has a pretty big modding community.
If you like sims you def are going to love it.
And if you happen to be interested in a deep dive into the game design principles behind Rimworld Tynan Sylvester (the designer/developer) wrote a entire book about it: https://tynansylvester.com/book/
Get Xbox Game Pass and play all the controller friendly games there
Most of the uplay subscription games also support controller
You can run most of the games either locally on the deck, streamed from your desktop, or streamed from the internet
Most of the uplay subscription games also support controller
You can run most of the games either locally on the deck, streamed from your desktop, or streamed from the internet
this is my dream - does it work without running windows though?
If you want to stream from the web using GeForce Now: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5337/~/h...
If you want to stream from your gaming PC, just start Steam on the gaming PC, login to the same account, and then your Steam Deck's "PLAY" buttons in the library should have drop-downs that let you select "STREAM" instead. It should work whether the host PC is running Windows or Linux or Mac, but of course you'll have a bigger library selection if the host is on Windows. (To be clear, the host PC can run any Windows game and stream it to Steam Deck running its default OS; no need to add Windows to the Steam Deck).
If you want to stream from your gaming PC, just start Steam on the gaming PC, login to the same account, and then your Steam Deck's "PLAY" buttons in the library should have drop-downs that let you select "STREAM" instead. It should work whether the host PC is running Windows or Linux or Mac, but of course you'll have a bigger library selection if the host is on Windows. (To be clear, the host PC can run any Windows game and stream it to Steam Deck running its default OS; no need to add Windows to the Steam Deck).
ok, so there is no way to run XBox Gamepass games straight from the Deck (sans streaming) :(
Ahhh I see what you're asking now. Sorry, I misunderstood.
Yeah, I think you'd have to run Windows :( Even if the games were supported via Proton, I think (but I'm not sure) that Gamepass adds its own DRM layer.
If you do have a separate Windows machine though, streaming actually works very well... better than the Deck on its own... better graphics, way less heat/fan/battery life consumption (since the computer is doing all the hard work). I'd try if you haven't already.
Yeah, I think you'd have to run Windows :( Even if the games were supported via Proton, I think (but I'm not sure) that Gamepass adds its own DRM layer.
If you do have a separate Windows machine though, streaming actually works very well... better than the Deck on its own... better graphics, way less heat/fan/battery life consumption (since the computer is doing all the hard work). I'd try if you haven't already.
Xbox Live apparently has some kind of Stadia style cloud streaming, maybe this can work?
I'm scared to even mention it - considering it can be very addictive, but have you checked out Vampire Survivors?
You recommended this one day ago and I've clocked 4.5 hours already...
I'm sorry :( :) :(
All the games you mentioned are excellent! I find Hollow Knight and Celeste to be perfect handheld games.
I'm a Rocket League addict myself. I heard Hollow Knight is good on it.
- Hades - The Cult of The Lamb - Disco Elysium - Thimbleweed Park
But I trust people here have many good things to add to the list!