Is there any way to play Steam games on an ipad?

October 26, 2017 12:10 PM

I am interested in several Steam games (Stardew Valley and the like), but I have tendinitis that makes using a laptop uncomfortable (my Nintendo 3Ds is even worse) and so I prefer to play games on my ipad. Is is possible to play Steam games on an ipad? I am willing to pay for games, apps, other solutions.

Googling suggests there are apps that may or may not work--are there any you all have personal experience with and can recommend? Can you walk me through the process? I miss playing cute games.

posted by leesh to Technology (9 answers total)

Well, not an ipad, but I think there's that nvidia shield thing that lets you play on other displays?

The probably you'll run in to is that most steam games don't take touch input.
posted by bbqturtle at 1:09 PM on October 26, 2017

i think many of the ipad applications you're seeing are connecting to a laptop or desktop PC to run the steam application and just mirroring the display/controls to your ipad. the games aren't actually running on the ipad. (of course if you have a PC that may be fine!)
posted by noloveforned at 1:12 PM on October 26, 2017

The issue that you're likely to run into is that a touch screen is a very different type of control device from a mouse and keyboard, so it's not as simple as getting some sort of app to stream games from your computer to your iPad. Each game's control setup is going to need to be redesigned from the ground up to work with touch inputs. (And if the developer is already putting in that level of work, why not just port it directly to a native iPad app?)

Would a controller of some sort work better for your tendinitis? Lots of games (including Stardew Valley) are already set up to work with a controller, and there are lots of controllers that will connect to your computer via USB or Bluetooth, and the good ones are much more ergonomic than either a 3DS or a mouse and keyboard.
posted by firechicago at 1:15 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have no experience with streaming, but I do have a possible alternative for playing on the laptop. I hope this isn't too presumptuous of me, but is it possible you could find a USB controller that would be comfortable?

Because of the 3DS thing I suspect something like an XBox controller wouldn't be great for you, but maybe one of those arcade-style joystick controllers would be usable - if you operate the stick with the tips of your fingers or your palm, at least superficially it seems like the movements required would be similar to using a tablet or large trackpad.

You could map buttons with software like JoyToKey or Xpadder. They can be a little finicky, and some games may required a little more complex mapping than you have the buttons for, but I know from experience that SDV on PC is mostly* navigable entirely with an Xbox controller so I could see it also being usable with a custom pad + some mappings.
posted by one of these days at 1:17 PM on October 26, 2017

Maybe an ergonomic keyboard plugged into the laptop along with a USB mouse or trackball device would be workable.
posted by exogenous at 1:36 PM on October 26, 2017

Response by poster: Ah, thanks for the info, the touch screen thing had honestly not even occurred to me! An external controller is a great idea, except that I have basically replaced my laptop with my iPad and so have to REALLY want to play a game to bust out the laptop. But now it is possible to do it with less pain , so maybe I will! Thanks again.
posted by leesh at 1:55 PM on October 26, 2017

Many laptops have touchscreens -- maybe one of those would be part of a solution?
posted by value of information at 1:55 PM on October 26, 2017

Not exactly what you asked for, but building off of suggestions from others—the Steam controller has been great for me. See those round, flat pad areas? They're touch-sensitive, like a trackpad. You can use Steam to program in customized controls for your Steam games, so that you can, say, slide your fingers in one direction to trigger movement, or tap lightly to trigger button presses, etc. No need to press if that's difficult. No need to even tap—you can even trigger a button press on a long hold, I think. It's made it possible for me to play games again.

(I don't have tendinitis like you, but I have severe fibromyalgia. My neck/shoulder/arm/hand pain makes it impossible for me to do repetitive movements or even tap a screen over and over.)

If you do end up going with this, feel free to MeMail in the future if you need help setting it up! If not, I'm also happy to give you suggestions for games that require less repetitive tapping/pressing.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 4:03 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

There isn't a Steam streaming client for iOS, which would be the nice and easy solution. However, some Googling reveals other possibilities, like Moonlight, "an open source implementation of NVIDIA's GameStream protocol." You would need a PC that can run NVIDIA's server, which I don't know anything about. Then Moonlight has a client for iOS.
posted by grobstein at 6:15 PM on October 26, 2017