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Looking for games you can play on a laptop with a trackpad
Sometimes my girlfriend commandeers my desktop to play games like Fallout 4 (which she discovered after the Fallout TV series last year) and sometimes I’ll go on my laptop while she does that. I usually like to program when I’m on my laptop then but I’m looking for suggestions for games to play that don’t need a mouse or much graphical power. Is Dwarf Fortress something I should try?
Civilization. Any of them, really.
Could you give a list of what genres you're interested in? There's a lot out there. Plus do you have a gaming console and can you connect your gamepad to the laptop? Because that opens up a whole ton of genres. Likewise, if you can use a wireless mouse on your thigh, that also opens up some genres versus a trackpad.
Off the top of my head, looking at my steam library, in no particular order, FTL: Faster than light, Civilization, Balatro, Slay the Spire, Factorio (on peaceful), are all top tier games that are either turn based or reaction times aren't an issue.
Dwarf Fortress is an amazing game, but it's a commitment. I haven't played much of the steam release, but the original had literally no mouse support out of the box. Everything was done using a cryptic set of keys that changed on every single menu. Yes, if you're a masochist, you enjoy really, really, really deep roguelikes with advanced physics simulations and emerging gameplay, you should definitely try it, but be aware it's a slog at first to get familiarized and get any enjoyment out of it whatsoever, let alone the stories that people tell. By the time you can truly enjoy Dwarf Fortress, there's probably a support group out there for you.
The Steam release is much easier to learn, but ironically, the control and input situation has been flipped on its head. The Steam release can no longer be played exclusively with a keyboard, and actually requires a mouse (or trackpad, pointing device, etc) for most of its gameplay.
This was done to make the game easier for new players, and full keyboard support is still being incrementally added back to the game.
If you install DFHack alongside Dwarf Fortress, it brings back a lot of the keyboard controls, but not everything.
But for anyone reading this thinking "I want to learn Dwarf Fortress" my advice is buy the game on Steam, install DFHack (also on Steam, automatically launches alongside the game), and then go watch Blind's tutorials on YouTube.
I'm probably a bad judge on the matter, having been an ASCII enjoyer for over a decade, but the game is much easier to get into these days. I'd say it's about the same as RimWorld honestly.
What does DFHack do? I'm very new to the game and haven't played beyond the vanilla game so far.
I feel like it took me about 10 hours just to get my footing in the game though. The learning curve is STEEP
Honestly, DFHack is something that's easier to experience than to explain, so I'd just recommend downloading and trying it out. That being said...
DFHack is a "memory hacking library" that adds a ton of performance tweaks, bug fixes, and tools to Dwarf Fortress.
The quickstart guide gives a good breakdown of what DFHack is and can do.
One of the big things DFHack adds are a bunch of commands and tools for automating things in the game.
For example, in Dwarf Fortress you need seeds to grow plants. If I create a 3x3 farm plot and assign it to grow plump helmets, I need nine plump helmet seeds to fully sow the plot. When those plump helmets are fully grown, the dwarves will harvest them, yielding nine plump helmets.
So you "spend" nine seeds to "earn" nine plump helmets.
Notice though, that when you harvest the grown plump helmets, you don't get any plump helmet seeds back.
You need more seeds to grow more plants, so how do you get them?
Well, it depends on the plant, but generally you brew or mill the given plant into alcohol or flour to get seeds.
However, plants can also be cooked into meals. Cooking plants does not yield any seeds. So it's entirely possible for a fortress to cook all of their plump helmets, and not have any plump helmet seeds to sow farm plots with.
Enter seedwatch, one of DFHack's many automation and quality of life tools. It automatically tracks the amount of seeds for each type of plant in your fortress and, unless you have more seeds than a (configurable) threshold, forbids the relevant plant from being cooked, or otherwise having its seeds destroyed.
Without seedwatch, it's very easy for a fortress to cook away all of its seeds and not be able to grow more plants. With seedwatch, that's impossible.
DFHack has several automation tools like this, for all kinds of industries: animals, clothing, cheese, fish, trees, etc. You can find a list of them under the documentation's "auto" tag. They all have command-line variants, but most also have graphical interfaces, such as gui/seedwatch.
If you're playing the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress, I'd recommend just installing DFHack through Steam. It should automatically launch alongside the game. If you're using the free version of Dwarf Fortress, DFHack has releases and installation instructions on GitHub
Reminds me:
Rimworld might be a bit more approachable than Dwarf Fortress. I played hundreds of hours of that on a laptop trackpad. Don’t get the DLC immediately, the base game has so much to enjoy before you ever need to add on top of that.
Thanks, I'll check it out!
Have a look at Dungeons of Dredmor. It is rogue-like game that has references to a lot of things and you will have fun playing it.
As someone already recommended, have a look at FTL: Faster than light. You have to move cursor, but you also have a lot of key mappings and ability to pause so you can use trackpad when you need it.
Speaking of FTL, have a look on the other game from the same team which is Into the breach. This one is turn based kinda chess-like where units have specific abilities and movement (patterns) and you have to fight enemies the smart way. You have to move cursor in this one a lot but you can take your time as you already have to play slow and smart. And turn based.
EDIT: fixed some spelling
Thanks! I played FTL back in the day (as in, whenever it was relatively new). I'll have to try it out again. Into the Breach sounds cool, too!
Into the breach plays a bit like FTL.in that you play over and over again the same game and everytime newly generated maps await. You can unlock new squads (as you did with ships in FTL) and take new approaches on the game. One playthrough is around 20-60 minutes (depending on how much you want to play) and different squads and skills and other various things make it very unique every time. Just like FTL.
It is not fast paced though, which battles in FTL are. You have to think much more about your strategy and next turn(s). It is great game! I wouldn't be able to picke between FTL and Into the breach, they are both that good.
Minecraft wouldn’t be too bad under those conditions.
The trackpad would drive me bonkers. But so would a mouse. I use a thumbball and cannot do mice after 30 years of thumbballs. lol
Dungeon crawl stone soup and its many many brethren are all keyboard first games.
I mention that particular one because it’s free, but the genre is full of them.
On the other side as someone with a similar list of games for just laptop days:
Islanders (and the soon to be released sequel). Cool and chill “city” builder. You’ll need the track pass but that would be it.
Snkrx. Simple snake meets auto battler style game.
utopia must fall. Missile command plus space invaders plus nonsense.
Slay the spire and its many friends. One of the best clas/card based roguelike games.
Nexus 5x. Quick and dirty 4x game where an entire game takes an hour or two instead of 30.
I’m sure I’m forgetting a ton as I don’t have acres to my stuff right now so if you narrow down some genres I can come back with more.
Traditional roguelikes :)
I'll second caves of qud. It's great for a lot of reasons, but a big one is "interesting melee combat". It's still not optimal usually, but at least there's really interesting ways to interact with the various monsters with little combos and what not.
The other great one I forgot was Rift Wizard and Rift Wizard 2.
Compresses a roguelike into a few hours max rather than a several day affair (you know, if you live) and has a TON of spells/items/combos. All about doing builds and dealing with insane monsters, less worrying about inventory management/skills/equipment.
Check out Terra Nil. Wonderful little game. I played it exclusively on a trackpad.
That sounds interesting, thanks!
Disco Elysium. It's a dialog-heavy point and click adventure game with mechanics inspired by table top RPGs. You play a drunk, amnesiac detective investigating a murder amid a labor uprising in a fictional eastern-European country. The writing and world building in this game are top notch.
Oooh, I do have that but haven't played past the first 20 minutes or so. That's definitely one that could work. Thanks
If you're into turn based combat you should try Slay the Spire or Backpack Hero! But if you're looking for something more fast paced maybe something like Hollow Knight, Celeste or even Undertale. All of these are incredible games and the trackpad shouldn't be an issue.
If you can play Hollow Knight or Celeste well on a keyboard and trackpad you are some sort of superhuman.
Isn’t celeste entirely keyboard controlled?
By default yes, but I was only able to play it successfullyl when I used a gamepad. It is fairly trivial to map keyboard commands to a gamepad. Hollow Knight is IMO one of the most difficult metroidvania games out there. I am the only one of my friends that was able to beat it and I just can't fathom playing it on a keyboard. And for the record, I love Hollow Knight, so I say this as not wanting OP to ruin their or their GF's experience with the game.
I tried to suggest a bit of everything and since those two are platformers the trackpad shouldn't be an issue, you'd only use it to navigate menus.
As per the difficulty: I also find it way easier to play on a controller but hey, if someone could beat Dark Souls on a drum kit I think OP can enjoy some platforming on keyboard
Oh god, I saw a video of that drum kit nonsense. Absolutely nuts! Yeah, I agree, I just didn't want someone going in thinking it would necessarily be a fun time rather than a "OMG I suck" time :D
Any console emulator with buttons + dpad would work if there's an old game you've been meaning to play. Visual novels like Phoenix Wright are also a good laptop genre.
Would second a gamepad and a wireless mouse, though. I use them on my Steam Deck when I'm sitting in weird positions, otherwise my hand cramps up.
Do you like management games? Here's quite a few that will run on a potato:
OpenTTD
Basically start out with nothing and build a transport empire. Start by ferrying mail and people from town to town, eventually begin transporting raw material to factories and then final goods to towns for consumption. You can pause anytime and play by yourself or with competitors to up the challenge.
OpenRCT2
The person who originally made the above game (Transport Tycoon) also created this later on, which is also an open source project now. Build a theme park, build your own rollercoasters, management maintenance, entertainment, budget, etc. This is a port of Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and you'll need the original game (and the first, if you want those maps) if you want to play, though I think they include the original demo. You can currently pick it up on GoG for $2.50.
CorsixTH
Yet another source port of an old game (surprise, everything in my post is), this is a port of the Bullfrog classic Theme Hospital. Build a hospital, manage staff, cure ridiculous diseases and make money. An absolute classic and very simple to play with a touchpad. Again, you'll need the original game, also on sale on GoG for $1.50
fHeroes2
Open source port of Heroes of Might and Magic 2, one of the greatest games of all time. This one includes a lot of quality of life features from later games, such as better AI and an auto battle feature, great for resolving what will be an easy battle later in the game. Not much of a management game, but more of a strategic boardgame. Start with a castle, build it up to create more and better troops, set out and battle on a grid and collect more resources out on the map to eventually be able to steamroll your enemies. Easily one of my favorite games ever. You will also need that original game for this one, not currently on sale, but only $10 for what will be a limitless game.
That's what I've got for now, but all easy stuff that will run on a potato, but could be played for hours upon hours.
Oh, as addendum, here's some more:
Armoured Commander 2
Do you like WW2? Do you like tanks? I do and this game is awesome and can be played completely with a keyboard. Pick your country, your theatre, your tank, your crew and your allotment of shells and set out. Make sure to get your tank hull down if you can and always your front armor towards your enemy so you're more likely to bounce shots. Easy to play, easy to run and a Roguelike, so easy to come back for more.
Caves of Qud
Admittedly, I haven't played this one extensively, but again, this is an easy one that'll run on pretty much anything and has keyboard and mouse controls, without needing an actual physical mouse. I'm not super into a Roguelike structure, especially with a game as dense as this, but you can play with saves so you can actually just progress through the game like normal. It has a lot of interesting areas to explore with a lot of procedurally generated creatures and people.
Rimworld
Will pretty much run on anything. It's a less complicated, easier to play Dwarf Fortress and actually has an end quest to shoot for (escape the planet). Lot's has been added since I last played, but I put hundreds of house into this with just the base game alone, so I don't think the DLC's are a necessity. Create your crew of survivors (or tribe or single survivor) and try to survive in a harsh world that doesn't care about you. Your people will die, they will be mutilated, but if you can scrape out an existence, you'll find it ultimately very rewarding; also, you can do the same thing to other people, if you're that type. Choose to roleplay as a tribe of cannibals, raid other villages, kidnap their people, harvest their organs to sell and then eat whatever is left. I personally haven't gone that direction myself, but there's heaps of options for how you want to play your people and that's just one of many.
Super awesome, thanks! OpenTTD definitely seems like something I'd be into to and the others are interesting as well.
Simutrans started out 30 years ago as essentially a TTD clone, although it went its own way. The biggest difference is that in Simutrans, goods and passengers have actual destinations, rather than being able to be transported willy nilly anywhere. :)
If you are into simulations, Simutrans is a good choice. The graphics may be a little outdated, but it's a pretty fun game, and surprisingly deep. There is a learning curve, but we have a forum.
It can be played as a game, but also if you enable "freeplay" mode, you can make your own game and use it as a virtual railroad simulator (along with all the other modes of transportation). I typically play with freeplay enabled and just try to connect everything up and transport everyone and everything where they want to go - which is a challenge.
I can talk a little bit more about it if you have the slightest interest, but I'll stop here for now in case you don't. :)
Darkest Dungeon is great fun on a laptop. Turn-based combat and min-max dungeon dives. Great art style that doesn't require high specs.
This is another to add to the pile for Steam Deck recommendations as well: Spin Rhythm DX
Its a music game sorta akin to DJ Hero, but its control config is incredibly versatile. I know you're looking for track-pad games, which it should work for, but i've also played with my PS4/5 controller using the gyro for turning and its just friggin' neat. The music is also pretty good (important for a music game :P), which is mostly bassy-techno in style.
People have already listed a lot of great games in here. So I'll just mention that a TON of the games I play can be done so with just a trackpad or mouse. Look for the genres roguelike deckbuilders as well as grand strategy and you'll find tons of amazing games that fit your criteria.
Assuming you have steam, anything that is verified on Steam deck imo.
Also factorio!!!
Stardew Valley, runs on a potato.
I will second the recommendations for Slay the Spire, Into the Breach, Balatro, and Darkest Dungeon. Those are all some of my most played games of all time on steam, most of which was spent on a laptop with a track pad. One I haven't seen suggested is Loop Hero. It has a lot of deck builder elements, but that is kind of a smaller part of the game. Its also sort of like a rogue-like board game where you are re building the world around you based on what you get in the cards. You indirectly manage a little person who travels around a loop battling monsters, as you defeat the monsters you get more cards, as well as gear and stats to level your character up. It's a great game for laptops and pretty chill to play.