Doom 2 was already covered so I’ll go with Roboquest, indie arena roguelike shooter with randomized weapons and perks but static arenas/mobs/bosses. Once you get a handle on the movement it’s one of the comfiest shooters I’ve played in years.
I used to be kbm exclusive but there have been some pretty good controller improvements made over the years, things like hotkey layers in Skyrim UI mods or the final fantasy MMO giving dozens of unique hotkeys on a controller, and new hardware with back buttons and shoulder buttons that keep both thumbs on the thumbsticks. Can’t beat mouse for precision, but there are tradeoffs for that.
That’s true, I’ve had mine 2 years and am seeing some up/down drift on the left stick. Not great on the quality but I have used it often, and I can’t find anyone else with that button layout.
The back buttons are near the middle so I’d assume it’s more comfortable for bigger hands, I think the v3 wireless version has the back buttons closer to the outside where the controller grip connects to the middle of the controller like the elites, I haven’t tried that style yet but I think that may be better for a shorter grip or hands.
My favorite layout so far is on the Razer Wolverine V2 Chroma Xbox wired controller. It has x/y up between the shoulder and triggers, back buttons for a/b, so you can keep your right thumb on the thumbstick without moving it to hit face buttons a/b/x/y.
Gamers are not asking devs to work until burnout on social media or forums, that’s management and usually in person or department/company policy and procedure.
Edit: more specifically to the article for solo devs they are talking about critics complaining they should have made something bigger which is not a bad problem to have for securing funding for future games if people like your art enough to request more and doesn’t require working burnout hours.
If you don’t mind a classic chess. Blitz/bullet/rapid/horde are different styles that don’t take as long to learn enough to have fun. Chess puzzles or against the computer are available if you want to keep it strictly single player. Lichess for multiplayer or I like chess tactics pro for puzzles.
Crosswords, there are programs like alphacross that aggregate from other sources to try different puzzles to find ones that aren’t too easy or hard.
A raspberry pi running batocera has been a good cheap way I’ve been using to revisit some classics. You can integrate it with retroachievements.org too.