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Controller Guide

Build a controller that fits your hands

Most Mac games were never designed for a gamepad — they expect WASD, Space and a couple of letter keys. So instead of shipping you a fixed controller, TouchNow lets you build the one that particular game needs. Every image below is a real screenshot.

What you start with

Connect first

The editor lives inside a session, so pair your Mac and connect — the setup guide covers that once.

Switch to Game mode

Pick the controller icon in the mode switcher. The screen turns landscape and the default pad appears.

A stick and four buttons

That default is a starting point, not a limit. Anything on it can be moved, resized, rebound or deleted.

TouchNow in Game mode over a running game: a stick at the lower left and four round buttons labelled X, Z, Enter and Space at the right.
The layout editor open: every button is outlined with a dashed border, the selected stick is highlighted in blue with a round resize handle at its lower right, and a panel of controls sits along the top. Drag to resize
Open it

Tap “⋯” → “Edit Button Layout”

That menu item only exists while you are in Game mode. Everything turns into a dashed outline, and the one you tapped last is highlighted — that is the one the panel is acting on.

Drag any button or stick to move it. Drag the round handle at its lower right, or use the slider in the panel, to resize it anywhere from half size to a little over double.

The panel gets out of the way on its own. It fades while you are dragging, so you can move things underneath it. If it is still covering something, tap the ⌃ button to collapse it down to a small bar that keeps Set Keys, Delete and Done.
The same editor with a button selected instead of the stick: a four-way segmented control appears in the panel offering circle, square, capsule and bar shapes. Four shapes
Shape it

Circle, square, capsule or bar

Select a button and a shape picker appears in the panel. A shape is not decoration — it is how big a target your thumb gets. A wide bar is hard to miss for something you hit constantly, like jump; a small circle keeps a rarely-used key from swallowing the screen.

Sticks have no shape picker. A stick is always round, because you push it in every direction. It still moves and resizes like everything else.
The Set Keys screen on iPhone: a list of keys with Space and Shift both ticked. Tick more than one
Bind it

One key, or several at once

Tap the keyboard button in the panel and pick what this button should press. Tick more than one and they are all held together — Shift + Space becomes a single sprint-jump you can hit with one thumb.

The full list is there: A–Z, 0–9, arrows, Space, Enter, Tab, Esc, Delete, ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧, and F1–F12.

The label writes itself. A button shows whatever it is bound to, so you never end up with a pad full of unmarked circles.
The stick key screen: Up, Down, Left and Right listed separately, each currently set to an arrow key. Four separate keys
Steer it

The stick’s four directions are four separate bindings

Up, Down, Left and Right are set one at a time, so a stick is really just four keys arranged in a circle. A new stick starts on the arrow keys; add a second one and it starts on WASD. Both are yours to change.

Add as many as you want. The two ⊕ buttons in the panel add another button or another stick, and the panel collapses straight away so you can drag the new one where you want it.

The panel, icon by icon

In landscape the panel shrinks to icons only, so there is room to actually see the layout you are building.

⊕Add a button — it lands mid-screen bound to Space
⊕ filledAdd a stick
KeyboardSet which keys the selected item presses
TrashDelete the selected item
⌃Collapse the panel out of the way
↺Reset the whole layout back to the default
SliderResize the selected item, same as its corner handle
DoneLeave the editor and play

Worth knowing

It saves itself

The layout is written to your device the moment you change it, and it is there the next time you connect. There is nothing to name or export.

One layout, not one per game

TouchNow keeps a single layout and uses it everywhere. Switching between games with very different keys means editing it — or leaving room for both.

A real controller takes over

Connect an Xbox, PlayStation or MFi controller and the on-screen pad hides itself. Its A/B/X/Y and L1/R1 bindings live in Settings; L2 and R2 are fixed to right-click and left-click for aim and fire.

Two more dials sit in Settings: how far you have to push a stick before it triggers, and how fast the right stick turns the view. Still stuck? The FAQ has the rest, or email [email protected].