after long day at my job, i just wanna kick back and relax. maybe holding a controller instead of keyboard and mouse would be nice.
i like stardew valley but the experience with controller is just poor. it’s just not designed to work that way (even with the controller mod). thus the question. Any cool ideas?
I’ve been playing My Time at Sandrock exclusively on my Steam Deck, so controller controls. It’s more focused on crafting instead of farming (you don’t unlock farming until you’re 2-3 in game weeks in), but it’s still very Stardew. I haven’t played the previous game in the series, My Time at Portia, but I understand it takes place in a more fertile area than Sandrock’s desert.
Discounty has been fun, a supermarket simulator. It’s more story driven than Stardew and less open ended but similar vibes.
There a free to play online game called Palia that’s pretty chill.
Not as farm intensive as stardew, but you do have a few plots to grow crops and you can refine them into jams and pickled goods, etc.
Can also cook your food into meals, give gifts to villagers to build up relationships, and each villager has a story and background to learn.
There is also mining, tree felling, plant foraging, animal hunting, fishing, etc.
It’s a first person 3D world, and I haven’t tried it with controller but I imagine it would be fine.
It’s very chill, there is pretty much no negatives for any action or inaction that you take.
Oh also you can build your house on your plot of land and decorate it with a shit ton of decorative furniture and nic knacks.
Main storyline quests are not too bad either, there is a story to the world that develops as well.
Palia is fun, and they finally managed to get some of the worse of “all the floors disappeared in the village oh god help help” cleaned up!
I have so many goobi at my ranch!
Eastward has been on my wishlist for ever. Not really a building sim, and not sure about controller support. But the pixel art might draw you in like Stardew did
In my experience, most games that offer support for both are better with KB/M.
The KB/M vs Controller betterness ratio of a particular game tends to also scale up with the amount of controls required to play the game.
If you want a game that feels almost as good on the controller, find a simpler game with fewer controls.
As far as game recommendations: the wife and I have more hours into Stardew Valley than I’ll publicly admit, and other games we enjoy that work well with controllers are Luma Island, Dinkum, and Plate Up.
A side note: If you’re chasing the magic that is Stardew Valley, you aren’t going to find it elsewhere. Be open to a different kind of magic in these other games and you won’t be disappointed that it doesn’t hit like Stardew.
Coral island! Simpler than stardew but very pretty very wholesome and perfect for controllers
I only played the demo of it but Luma Island seemed quite nice.
Travellers rest is amazing. Still early acess but has tons of stuff already.
It’s been a minute but i think i know what might be bugging you about the controls. If it’s the having to move and look with the same control, check the settings. There might be a way to adjust it.
As for other options…
-The Farming Simulator games are great for controller.
- Story of Seasons is on sale on Steam right now.
- Out of Ore
- Mini Metro
- Jalopy
- Shipbreaker
- the My Time At … series
- No Mans Sky
- Never Alone
- Hokko Life
- Staxel
- Rebel Galaxy
- Olli Olli
- Arctico
Looking on steam cross-referencing ‘casual’ and ‘good for steam deck’ is probably a good way to find some more.
I have only ever played Stardew with a controller so I’m just wondering in what way is it not good? Because for some menus the right stick is emulating a mouse? Or targeting things?
May I suggest turning the always face target (or whatever it’s called) option on? It makes a big difference in how using tools works with a controller.
What don’t you like about it? I played it just fine with an Xbox controller
it’s fine i get it. but do you consider that a good/better experience than kb&m? that’s my it’s not built to work well without pointer…
My wife played that game for longer than I’ve played most games, and she only ever played it with a controller. She also liked Littlewood, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and Cozy Grove; she only ever used a controller for them.
The game is also on consoles so don’t know what you’d mean
It just… feels better with KBM. and I’m sad about that. I wanna sit back, but it just feels crunchier with a controller.
Yeah I tried playing it on console but it was pretty garbage compared to kbm. There’s a reason I’ve got about 30 minutes on console and 700 hours on kbm.
I never tried with KB/M so I can’t say. But I never really felt it was deficient. Selecting stuff from the menus certainly would have been faster with a mouse, but it was perfectly tolerable. If anything, like animal crossing, it adds to the slow play.
Give Spiritfarer a shot, full controller support and even a bit of harvest, fishing, and adventure to boot. 30 hours easy if you take your time, more if you want. Super chill game.
+1 for spiritfarer, but brace yourself for big sad
I also feel Stardew works insanely better on KBM. Terraria too. I WANT to use controller and sit back and be comfy, but I just feel like I’m fiddling more and not as relaxed as point and click.
I quite liked Fields of Mistria though its still early access.
KB/M is a little easier for placing things but its not at all bad with a gamepad.
The game that Stardew Valley blatantly copied - Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.
It was made for the GBA, so has straightforward and precise controls, with none of the irritating camera or targeting complications that come with making the game 3D.
There are other later games in the Harvest Moon franchise with better graphics, but like Stardew Valley with a gamepad, they tend to have irritatingly imprecise controls. Friends of Mineral Town, with its isometric 2D, doesn’t have that problem.
Also, shout out to the female player character version of the game: Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town
Why do female player character have more friends than male player character? I feel discriminated!
The Japanese version is just called: Bokujo Monogatari: For Girl
(Bokujo Monogatari (Farm story) is just the series name in Japanese)
I was just joking, but thanks for the info, didn’t know that.
There’s a modern remake called Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. It’s isometric and cross-platform so I’m hoping the controller support would be decent.
Little Rocket Lab has similar vibes, though it’s not a farming game. It’s an automation game with conveyer belts. Controller experience is good IMO (never played with keyboard and mouse).
thx! definitely going into my list:)
