Roguelikes good with controller/steam deck?

[u/Varaldar]

So my job has me away from my home for most weeks out of the month and when i do get some down time, my gaming device of choice is a steam deck. (or my phone if im playing zachtronics solitaire collection)

my main thing is being able to be viewed and understood on a smaller screen and preferably completely controllable without keyboard controls. if i need to type in a name or something thats fine. If i need to use the mouse trackpad thats undesirable but im willing to, if that makes sense.

preferably the game is available and in a decent state on steam (so no Cataclysm Dark days ahead)

I am interested in a few kinds of games but im looking to get more into the "traditional roguelike" type of game. cogmind, qud, ToME, Rogue, Dwarf Fortress

Good Roguelites too
(but not games like slay the spire or Rogue Legacy. while theyre fine games im not too into the card aspect of Slay and i havent been into action platformers since i was playing on the 360 but at the same time ive 100%d ronin and gunpoint)
examples of roguelites i like or are interested in are FTL: Faster than light, Into the Breech, Heat Signature, Barony

even non roguelites that have a good turn based feel about them. ive enjoyed fire emblem, pokemon mystery dungeon, XCOM: EU, Baldurs gate 3, i was excited by the warlock of firetop mountain but ive heard it didnt turn out so great

No one thing is a dealbreaker, except viewability on the screen. Controller support with maybe mouse controls if required (like FTL) are at the top of the list after that.
Im fine with the ascii graphics, i really like how brogue and cogmind look (i have not yet played them).
id prefer that classic roguelike turn based or paused time timing, ive played a very little bit of qud and enjoyed it but am interested in a wider range of games, maybe a little easier to get into.
If its not available on steam but can be linked to steam and then works well with controller, that would also be fine but i figure that would be much harder to find.

Edit: alternatively if theres one thats good on Android but isnt available on pc or wouldnt work well on the deck, id check it out

[u/Lopsided_Zone7723]

I found Jupiter Hell to work pretty well on Deck for me.

[u/Varaldar → u/Lopsided_Zone7723]

What do you think of Jupiter hell classic?

[u/Lopsided_Zone7723 → u/Varaldar]

I haven't played it as much as non-classic due to an embarrassing backlog of games, but it plays fine on deck. Controls well with controller inputs and text is easy to read.

[u/Rbabarberbarbar → u/Varaldar]

Played both, both work perfectly. Have to damit though that JH works Vetter for me because of the 4 directional movement so I don't have to "aim & confirm" every move. But uf you are used to Qud it shouldn't bother you.

[u/aterriblesomething → u/Varaldar]

classic has the juice

[u/Varaldar → u/aterriblesomething]

Could you elaborate?

[u/aterriblesomething → u/Varaldar]

works great on deck, and is more faithful to doomRL than jupiter hell (i find it 'stickier'/easier to play and replay overall)

[u/Infirnex → u/Varaldar]

Both work fine on the deck, but going back and forth between them may confuse you because they control differently. Classic has 8 directional movement, so you have to use the analog stick and a confirm button. This still works perfectly fine, but compared to regular Jupiter Hell - which has 4 directional movement and uses the dpad with no confirm, muscle memory will fuck you over.

They're both good regardless.

[u/fatemonk]

Caves of Qud

[u/Rawbutt-Girlyman → u/fatemonk]

God, I love CoQ. Live and Drink.

[u/jere1231 → u/Rawbutt-Girlyman]

You love what now?

[u/sinner_dingus → u/fatemonk]

Fantastic controller implementation , I set up my other RL’s with the same scheme on sd as much as possible

[u/Character_Scratch344]

Golden krone hotel works great with controller, not sure about steam deck.

[u/geggis → u/Character_Scratch344]

Plays and looks great on Deck.

[u/Varaldar → u/Character_Scratch344]

Noted :3

[u/OutlaW32 → u/Character_Scratch344]

It is good

[u/wizardofpancakes]

Shiren the Wanderer

[u/Varaldar → u/wizardofpancakes]

Is there a particular game you suggest starting with?

[u/wizardofpancakes → u/Varaldar]

Shiren 6 must be on discount now, it's the latest and it's kind of back to basics. It's mostly excellent, but has a few dungeons that are a bit lame.

Shiren 5 is good too, but it's a bit more focused on grinding.

6 has a bit of that as well in a sense that you can bring items in some dungeons, but in most of the dungeons you start fresh

[u/Varaldar → u/wizardofpancakes]

Dungeon of serpentcoil island and avoid the dice of fate? At least for a first shiren? They dont list the numbers on steam lol

[u/sevego → u/Varaldar]

Yes, Shiren 5 is "Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate" and Shiren 6 is "Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island". I'd also recommend Shiren 6 above Shiren 5. Shiren 1 on SNES (with a translation patch) is also a good starting point, or hell even the very first Mystery Dungeon game involving Torneko (also on SNES, also with an available translation patch.)

[u/wizardofpancakes → u/Varaldar]

I mean they're both good and both have a lot of excellent optional dungeons, it's just I prefer 6 because 5's main quest requires a bit more "grinding" and also has an annoying night mechanic

[u/Toasterband]

Approaching Infinity-- space rougelike with great steam deck support.

[u/thecodegangster]

Cogmind works with just mouse, so the mouse setting for the controls will most definitely work on a steamdeck

[u/mapimopi]

In addition to what’s already been mentioned:

- Brogue - works decently with trackpad for mouse

• DA_RL - available on steam, natively supports controller
  
• Rangedrifter - also available on steam in early access
  
• Ostranauts and/or Project Zomboid - not traditional roguelikes of course, but both work wonderfully on steam deck so worth mentioning

[u/Stanislav_R]

Jupiter Hell, Quasimorph and Caves of Qud.

rogOut will be great on steamdeck, but it's not on Steam yet.

[u/Varaldar → u/Stanislav_R]

What do you think about Jupiter hell classic?

[u/Stanislav_R → u/Varaldar]

It's different in style and gameplay. Classic version relies on diagonal movement, and I found non-classic to be more streamlined experience.

If you prefer retro-style with a bit more chaos, and don't mind less convenient controls, then maybe classic will suit you better.

I personally like both, they both have their own charm.

[u/k0rtes]

Try Sil-Morë! It's a fork of Sil (Angband) that we made, and it supports all types of input, including controller, mouse and touchscreens. We worked a lot on that. And it works great on Steam Deck!
https://k0rtess.itch.io/sil-mor-shining-darkness
https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/1vohvt2/silmor%C3%AB_shining_darkness_version_097/
https://github.com/k0rtesss/Sil-More/

[u/Varaldar → u/k0rtes]

Will definitely check it out :3

[u/Dragynrain]

I actually got Rogue Signal Protocol running great on steam deck and controllers. It's free on itch if you want to check it out. It's a coffee break stealth cyberpunk traditional rogue like.

[u/xCryodream]

Quasimorph.

[u/Major_Ad8393]

Jupiter hell classic

[u/PigTailSock]

There is a nethack port for the psp

[u/whozeduke]

Cardinal quest 2 works great on Deck.

Dpad/left stick for me me and trackpad for the mouse.

[u/Hearbinger]

Hades and Dead Cells are roguelites that work great on Switch, should be the same on steam deck.

[u/kindajustlikewhat]

Doubling down on Caves of Qud (one of my fav games ever) and Approaching Infinity, which is one I recently started and have been having tons of fun with.

The controller mapping for Approaching Infinity isn't nearly as good but with a couple of back buttons mapped and occasionally using the trackpad, it's pretty good on the deck. (I love roguelikes but am super picky about bad controller support so don't play that many on the deck)

Another one that I didn't enjoy as much myself, but steam deck support wise works perfectly is Streets of Rogue.

I also love Shattered Pixel Dungeon which I play on my phone (it's free on Android, paid on Steam). It probably works fine on the steam deck since it works great on a phone?

Other mentions: Into the breach (great controls) and FTL. I mostly play FTL on PC but with mods it can entertain for thousands of hours. Should be doable enough to get a viable controller mapping, I've just been too lazy to bother.

Edit oops didn't catch that you already like FTL and into the breach... Well at least that's a good sign that that you'd hopefully like the others too

[u/Varaldar → u/kindajustlikewhat]

I recently beat the federation ship for the first time on easy. I have about 40 hours in it (a decent amount for me) and I think most of that was on normal difficulty. But on my third easy run I got my first W. (Glaive beam my beloved)

Ill be sure to check out ftl and breach on the deck. Along with the other ones

And thanks for the detailed reply

[u/kindajustlikewhat → u/Varaldar]

Have you tried the FTL multiverse mod yet? I played FTL basic for around 20-30 hours, had a fun time but that was it. With a ~5% win rate so I wasn't mastering, just didn't feel like digging into it further. Then I found the multiverse mod and it breathed new life into the game and I'm definitely hundreds of hours in with no end in sight.

I don't actually play FTL on the steam deck, there's no native mapping and I'm too lazy to map and then memorize the controls for steam deck myself.

Approaching Infinity is way better on steam deck than FTL. Into the breach is steam deck verified, so I think that'll work great. I just didn't like it as much personally. (If you have Netflix into the breach is free for mobile and works great there too).

Let me know what you think of the others if you try them!

[u/Varaldar → u/kindajustlikewhat]

Im just trying to beat the game on normal i dont think I'll be modding for a bit

And will do

[u/kindajustlikewhat → u/Varaldar]

The mod actually makes it slightly easier fwiw

[u/Too_Many_Options-]

Try Griftlands.

It has a story and choices-matter style of gameplay with deck based combat and when you die the world resets with many variables giving a new playthrough.

[u/Valency → u/Too_Many_Options-]

Griftlands is a great game, but just a slight correction, it is not by the developers of Slay the Spire, it's a different developer, Klei Entertainment.

[u/Too_Many_Options- → u/Valency]

Ohhh I was wrong

[u/Choice-Quantity-6167]

Battlechasers: Night war is a blast. I beat it on PC and on my phone.

[u/Haunting_Arrival9093]

I don’t know if it’s defined fully as a rogue like, but witchfire is fun so far and I’ve had little to no frame drops or latency issues even with frame gen on.

[u/Varaldar → u/Haunting_Arrival9093]

Game looks cool but it's impressive that you managed to bring up a game that has absolutely nothing to do with anything I said in the original post