Hi ghouls, My Lil Afterlife is designed to be played with a mouse and keyboard but being a fan of handheld gaming myself, I've always wanted it to be playable on handhelds like the Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go too, so it has been a key priority during development that the game could also be played with a controller.
In this update I wanted to show off the controls for playing My Lil Afterlife with a controller as well as share some video footage of me testing it on my own Lenovo Legion Go using the Steam OS.
Gamepad Controls
When playing My Lil Afterlife with a controller, you can access the gamepad controls by pressing the 'View' button. This window displays each of the games key controls mapped to the gamepad. The majority of the game can easily be played with the controller, but there are some limitations:
The game currently only has 'partial controller support' meaning the UI elements will not update to reflect controller use, e.g. the interact text under residents names will still read 'Press [E] to interact'.
The cursor movement is currently mapped to the directional pad, and the mouse click is done by pressing the right joystick button. This can only be used to interact with UI elements, not objects in the game world. It also will not work when the game is paused, so players will have to alternate cursor movement with either the devices touch pad or by using a mouse.
When editing keybinds a mouse is required to click the boxes to set your new input.
These issues are things I am keen to address in future updates with the aim of hopefully transitioning the game to 'full controller support' and achievening verified Steam Deck combatility.
Handheld Gameplay
This video is of me testing My Lil Afterlife on my own Lenovo Legion Go, running the Steam OS, showcasing that the game can indeed be played smoothly using a controller or on a handheld device. Please note when playing the game on Steam OS, it will run the windows client via Proton which seems to cause some minor slow down to game input. I am keen to build a native Linux version of the game which would address this issue but for the moment, the current version runs well enough.
Thanks for reading this post and hopefully you'll enjoy playing My Lil Afterlife with a controller as much as I do. If you encounter any bugs or issues with controller support please let me know on the Steam Discussion Board and I'll try my hardest to get it fixed!