What I am searching for is for games that support touch screens and can be played with 1 finger / one hand. No action games with fake joysticks on the screen, just games that work with a single finger or at least one hand while lying in bed and trying to wind down. One very good example is Civilization V, which has a dedicated touch screen mode and is a turn based game. Also the windows included card games work good.
I tried to search for games on Steam, but unfortunately there is rarely a tag for touch screen support. Even Civ V with its dedicated touch screen mode has no tags telling about it in the Steam store, so it is hard to find games that work well.
I thought the “The Room” series could work well, because they are awesome on IOS devices, but the Windows version on a touch screen is cumbersome to use. So you can not even look out for mobile games that also exist for Windows.
If someone has some recommendations, I would appreciate that very much :-)
Edit: Changed Civ IV to V!
PC Gaming Wiki states that World of Goo is touchscreen optimized. It’s such a great game.
Oh yes! That one was fantastic. It´s been a long time. Wasn´t it part of the very first Humble bundle?
It was either in the first two or in the second one.
I am not sure because I know I got it from the second bundle, but that one included the games from the first humble bundle too.
Though I already had it on the Wii for quite some time at that point. I knew the original flash game, Tower of Goo, and I’d spent so much time messing around with that thing, I was pretty excited that they made a whole game around it.
Got so many good games through Humble Bundle. I remember the early days when all the games were Linux compatible. That was around when I stopped dual booting and just ran Linux full time.
Oh, I wouldn’t know that. I do remember playing it years ago, I think when it first came out.
I’ll need to double check them on my touchscreen laptop this evening, but 95% sure that both Dorfromantik and Townscaper work well with the touchscreen, and they’re also some of the calmest games in existence. I’ll also check Stardew Valley, which I haven’t played on my laptop, but the Android version is compatible with touchscreen so the Windows version may be too.
Townscaper is so chill
Oh yes, Dorfromantik! I have this on my radar for a while. It looks so lovely. I did not know about Townscaper, but that looks very chill too.
I have Stardew Valley already, never thought about trying it on the tablet, but that´s something I will do. I love this game, but only played it with Mouse & Keyboard so far.
Thank you very much for your suggestions :-)
I also just realised: if Civ V works with touchscreen controls, then Civ Beyond Earth probably would as well, since it is essentially the same game but with a sci-fi setting. Same developer, same controls, almost identical gameplay mechanics.
That´s a good idea. A Sci-Fi setting is a nice change from the classic Civ theme. I loved Alpha Centauri back then, could not stop playing. This might scratch that itch. Thank you :-)
I didn’t see anyone mention Slay the Spire.
I thought about it when compiling my reply, but I can’t recommend it under “calm” requirement. The number of times I yelled at the game for giving me Time Eater when I’m playing a Shiv deck…
Check out Slay the Spire if you haven’t already. I did find some forum posts with people complaining that the touch controls don’t work well, but you can try the game and refund it if it’s not working properly. (At least steam should make this pretty easy.) it worked well for me on iPad, but I can’t personally vouch for the experience on windows.
I always miss Demos for games, but totally forgot that on Steam you can refund within the first 2 hours of gameplay. It should not hurt if it´s used rarely. I can not figure out yet if Slay the Spire is for me (for some games it is pretty clear when reading about them), so this one might be a good opportunity to test it out.
I didn’t test most of these personally on a touch screen, but they seem like good candidates to check:
- Pawnbarian
- Osmos
- Hexcells (+ Hexcells Plus + Hexcells Infinite)
- Frog Detective (+ 2 + 3)
- The Witness
- Taiji
- shapez
Her Storysorry, it needs a keyboard- Eufloria
- KAMI
- Hook (+ 2)
- The Pedestrian
- Subsurface Circular
- Dorfromantik
- Polychromia
- Hidden Folks
- Cogs
Her story definitely needs a keyboard, no?
It definitely does! I misremembered, thought that you can manually select from a list of tapes. Thanks, will edit the parent comment.
That´s quite a list! Thank you :-) I even have a few on that list and will try them out. I did not think about The Witness, but it´s worth a try. I did not finis it on PC, but it has some really hard puzzles in it that keep you occupied for a while at the same place without the need to move around a lot.
The Hexcells series is awesome, played through all of them (of course not through all the random ones in Infinite ;-)), but might be worth to try again on the tablet. I tried Tametsi (also a puzzler), but it did not scale with the High DPI screen and was super tiny.
@buedi I don’t know how calm this is but… Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
I had a good laugh looking at the Video on Steam. I am not sure if this will help me to wind-down, more something I might rage-quit in the middle of the night and then need a coffee to calm down again :-> But it does look pretty fun. Thanks for the suggestion :-)
Tinyfolks is a little indie turn-based roguelike you can compete a run of in a few hours. It’s like Darkest Dungeon except with the opposite amount of stress, and it actually only supports mouse/touchscreen!
Oh cool. That looks like it might also be a battery saver and not causing too much excess heat in the tablet :-)
Definitely not a resource-intensive game!
I just played “behind the frame”
It’s a short story that’s perfect to be played on a windows tablet! Even better if the tablet supports the pen
It’s free this month if you have an active Amazon prime subscription
I liked it, it’s casual and it can be finished in a single session (1 hour, puzzles are very easy)
Oh wow! That looks like a pretty unique experience. I have a pen, indeed! Thank you very much :-)
Mini Metro and Mini Motorways, for sure!
I played Mini Metro on Android a long time ago… did not remember that I might have it on Windows already too! I think it was in a bundle at one time. Thanks :-)
Dorfromantik
Not OP, but I’ve never heard of this and it seems right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation!
XCOM is the other big turn-based combat game. Not sure about touch screen, but i think it’s available on the switch so maybe.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
It’s times like these where flash games are missed a little extra.
Armorgames.com had a ton of fun games that would have been perfect for pads and such.
I’ll double check on my Steam Deck, but from what you described, many old point-and-click game would also work, since a mouse input without right clicking should translate well one finger touch input. This might make SCUMMVM and all the compatible classic adventure games potential successes. More modern adventure games might also work well.
Like I said, I’ll have to test, but tentatively I’ll suggest:
- SCUMMVM + numerous classic adventure games (Amazon Queen and Beneath A Steel Sky are available for free for the SCUMM project, completely legally).
- Beyond A Steel Sky
- Broken Sword 1, 2 and 5
The problem with point and click on a touch screen is that you can not point ( i.e. mouse hover). Finding interactible elements can be very tricky.
Thanks for the suggestion. “Unfortunately” I grew up with those and know probably each one of them inside out, as they have been replayed multiple times over the decades. But I did not think about SCUMMVM and reading this I get the urge to Talk to Mr. Tentacle Guy again :-)
There are some remakes of adventure game classics out there, Day of the Tentacle specifically comes to mind. Not sure if it’s “one-finger friendly” though.
Got distracted playing Beyond A Steel Sky, and it seems designed more for controllers, with one stick for looking, b add the other for moving. Granted I didn’t force it to use mouse inputs only.
Hidden through time!
That looks sweet! I never heard about that, looks like a whole series. That´s on the list :-)
Yeah, my gf and I used to play it together on my surface go to relax a bit, so I can attest that it is 100% playable on a touch screen.
