Many told me they're having bad hand pain with #HadesGame. As someone who has hands/wrists prone to high pain (severe tendon/joint damage) + have played a LOT of roguelikes, I know ways to cope, so here's some tips & a control scheme redesign >>

#GameAccessibility #Accessibility

Disclaimer: everything I have to say works for me and may not work for everyone, depending on what causes your pain

We're unique. I'm a strong believer there's no single 'right' way to play ANY game, so these are just my observations and techniques. I encourage experimenting!

First, it's important to know for a lot of people the face buttons can be v damaging & cause tendonitis/tendinopathy/injury; things like carpal tunnel or de quervain's

Esp for people with EDS/fibro/lupus/arthritis etc. the risk and joint damage is higher as well as muscle injury

It's different for everyone though, and for some people shoulder and trigger buttons are worse. For some there's not much difference.

Second, in a roguelike it might feel like you have to mash a LOT and that can lead to pressing the buttons much too hard in intense situations

Now, in Hades you might be surprised but I don't think there's as much mashing involved as I'd been hearing.

I expected it to be super mashy but it really isn't. The game doesn't have the best onboarding, but many of the attacks you can also hold down, in addition >>

It's a solid strategy not to mash too much. It feels frantic and like you should/have to, but there's a lot to be said for keeping the distance, taking time, and using dash and cast

This is something I learned from other roguelikes - it feels frantic but it's better not to be

Third, settle into the weapons that work for you and your hands. The beautiful thing about Hades is you actually have some control over your playstyle based on loadout!

Think of the weapons like classes (even more than the characters in Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac):-

Many of the weapons require much less mashing. Especially those with deep ranged mechanics, but also the twin fists!! You can literally hold attack and dash and it'll keep attacking

Experiment and find playstyles that work for you, your hands, and any limitations you have!

Fourth, the loveliest thing about Hades is the full remapping, and the controls are simple enough that I found a really nice solution for me that doesn't sacrifice any actions.

My redesigned control layout uses as few problematic buttons as possible (see ya R3!)

So, I'm a game designer with experience designing control systems and I get super nerdy about it. I'll try not to get too lingo-y but please don't be afraid to ask questions if any of this doesn't make sense.

Explanation in next few tweets >

So, the primary actions are attack, special, and dash imo: they're the most crucial to the relatively speedy combat.

Outside of square, the other face buttons are at an angle that stresses your thumb/wrist joints, especially if we end up pressing buttons too hard or frequently >

For this reason I remapped Attack and Special to R1/L1 because they're easier on the joints and tendons than almost any other button (as long as you can reach them comfortably, which I recognize not everyone can).

They also cause less stress and require less force than triggers.

Dash remained on square and while I use it a LOT I also do my best to be timely and not just spam it.

Again, important to practice not pressing too hard or fast, and trying to stay relaxed (difficult in roguelikes I know, and takes practice but it's so worth it!!).

All the other buttons I'd consider secondary buttons and so the actions I mapped to them are also secondary.

Take Cast for example - super useful tool/weapon BUT extremely limited uses so you don't want to spam it most of the time.

Call and Summon are special cases :-

And while traditionally triggers are considered primary buttons for games like shooters, I don't like to consider them primary for accessibility purposes despite them being natural to reach for most people. Again, this due to the tension and travel involved with triggers.

Hades is also really nice in that you can leave actions unmapped and I would never use the d-pad for a modern roguelike because you lose nuanced movements - I think it's largely there for hardcore old schoolers.

So I unmapped all the direction actions (it remains on L stick)

The boon info panel sliding out makes way more sense on the d-pad imo, so I could take my DS4 share button back for screenshots :P

Since the DS4 is my go-to, it has the touchpad for the codex. On Switch or using an Xbox controller I'd throw it on down on the d-pad (or up).

Last thing (point five?): try, try to rest your controller in your lap and not GRIP it. This is a really difficult habit to unlearn, and you know what forced me? Losing muscle strength

(lol) Still, I worked years ago to unlearn the DEATH GRIP. It's SO bad for your hands!!!!!!

Again, it takes practice but it's better for hands, shoulders, neck, and back in the long run! Just go ahead and rest it in your lap with your fingers only loosely around the sides.

I just push together with light pressure from palms of my hands and don't grip fingers AT ALL!

If you're playing on Switch I highly recommend not playing handheld. Even if you don't play docked, put the screen on a stand (then a lap desk) like the $15 one in this picture.

The weight of the Switch is BAD for you ok? Especially, again, hands, shoulders, neck, back :P

With the screen on a stand you can either use the pro controller or even better I like using the joy cons one in each hand; then I can literally put each hand wherever is most comfortable.

That might be one above my head and one way out to the side. Whatever our bodies demand

OK! There it is, my redesigned Hades control scheme and 5 tips for (possibly) less hand pain playing a roguelike.

I really, really hope this helps lots of people! If you played a lot already, breaking the muscle memory of the controls may take some time but have patience