Playable on Steam Deck?

[punkllamax]

Hello, does anyone know whether this game is playable on Steam Deck? Could not find information on store page. Thank you.

[Soulstenance]

Originally posted by 00-Evan:

Originally posted by ffase:

This works fairly well on steamdeck if you rebind the left trackpad to numpad as someone said earlier. LB+RB (I think by default) zoom in/out on the map, so there is no issue there.

However in order to move long distances, or use hotbar items I've found that using the right trackpad "as mouse" is the best option. It's possible to do these without touching the "mouse" but it feels really bad to me.

Finally the hotkey to "pickup" is default DPAD-L which isn't super convenient. I just rebound that to L3 and L4 on the back.

I don't know how it works but if you (@00-Evan) update the default config it would be helpful for people who aren't comfy with changing the settings. I would say compared to a lot of other games that are "verified" this gameplay fits really well on the deck. There are a ton of games that are technically verified but require constant "mouse" movement or multi-layer-deep-hotkeys so it's really not possible to play comfortably for long.

Thanks for the input, I don't want the default in-game bindings to be too specific to the steam deck, but I do know there's a lot I can do to make the controller setup smoother just in general. I am happy that the game is at least fully playable on controller though.

I've made my own controller config that's a little different than what you described. It works well for me but 2 small issues I have is:
- Inventory items that are not hotbarred I have to click on the item and then click on the button for the action I want to perform. It would be nice if there was a non-mouse way to move around and select these buttons/inventory items. I'm not sure how tricky that would be to implement though.
- Navigating with WASD naturally doesn't pathfind around hazards like click-to-navigate does. For this reason, in hazard rooms I prefer the latter method to move around as I've many time set myself on fire because my joystick was not quite at the right angle. An easy fix might be to have the verification like you get when you walk off a cliff to make sure you really meant to do that.

[ffase]

Yeah I don't think you have to do anything to default in-game bindings. Rather somehow Steam chooses a default setup for the "Steam Input" mapping, I don't know how that all works. I thought maybe from a developer perspective it's obvious, like you can just click a button saying "yeah people should use this specific steamdeck config by default". But it sounds like it's not so simple which is fine. Anybody who is using a steamdeck will know what to do.

[ackmondual]

Originally posted by 00-Evan:

Originally posted by Soulstenance:

It is absolutely playable on the Steamdeck. Mouse is recommended however as pinch to zoom doesn't seem to work, at least last time I played it. I'm unsure if this is a game issue or if the Deck doesn't support multi-touch. I thought it did though. Perhaps Even could look into this unless it's already been patched in which case, ignore what I just said.

TLDR: Great game, great on Deck but have a mouse if you want to zoom in and out (I personally heavily rely on this feature).

I don't have a deck to text on specifically, but in other cases the desktop build will zoom in and out with a scroll gesture (two fingers up or down). It's also possible to bind zooming to controller buttons.

I play this on Chromebook (since newer ones also run Android apps), and at least with my HP one, you can do the pinch and reverse pinch gestures to zoom out and zoom in respectively

[00-Evan]

Originally posted by ackmondual:

Originally posted by 00-Evan:

I don't have a deck to text on specifically, but in other cases the desktop build will zoom in and out with a scroll gesture (two fingers up or down). It's also possible to bind zooming to controller buttons.

I play this on Chromebook (since newer ones also run Android apps), and at least with my HP one, you can do the pinch and reverse pinch gestures to zoom out and zoom in respectively

Chromebooks would run the Android version of the game, not the Desktop version, so touch input will be handled slightly differently.

[Soulstenance]

Originally posted by 00-Evan:

Originally posted by ackmondual:

I play this on Chromebook (since newer ones also run Android apps), and at least with my HP one, you can do the pinch and reverse pinch gestures to zoom out and zoom in respectively

Chromebooks would run the Android version of the game, not the Desktop version, so touch input will be handled slightly differently.

That would have been my hunch as well.

[ackmondual]

Originally posted by Soulstenance:

Originally posted by 00-Evan:

Chromebooks would run the Android version of the game, not the Desktop version, so touch input will be handled slightly differently.

That would have been my hunch as well.

My comment was more so that the game appears to have alternatives for these sorts of things. If not 2-finger gesture to swipe up or down, then scrolling the mouse wheel.

[Soulstenance]

Originally posted by ackmondual:

Originally posted by Soulstenance:

That would have been my hunch as well.

My comment was more so that the game appears to have alternatives for these sorts of things. If not 2-finger gesture to swipe up or down, then scrolling the mouse wheel.

Scroll wheel works to zoom on PC.

[ZeroAffex]

I am just going to say I bought this game explicitly for the SD and ended up refunding it sadly because the gamepad controls don't feel good. I wish for pad users, everything automatically snapped together rather than using a joystick cursor to manually click for each thing. Ends up being a slog solely using gamepad controls as you'll fight those more than any monsters you find. ha Least was how it felt for me sometimes! xD Shame because I really wanted this to be my go-to roguelike when out and about.

Not saying its a bad game and mean no disrepect to dev or fans. Just purely from a gamepad user standpoint, its not what I prefer. Some people will be able to live with it and fully enjoy all the game has to offer. And if you use touchscreen or a mouse, it's golden. However, if you want a polished gamepad experience, you might be like me and feel disappointed is all.

Case in point. Technically yes it's a good SD game. However, it can be a turn off for some due to preference on control schemes. Maybe dev can revamp them someday for us picky players :P See ya!

[00-Evan]

Originally posted by ZeroAffex:

I am just going to say I bought this game explicitly for the SD and ended up refunding it sadly because the gamepad controls don't feel good. I wish for pad users, everything automatically snapped together rather than using a joystick cursor to manually click for each thing. Ends up being a slog solely using gamepad controls as you'll fight those more than any monsters you find. ha Least was how it felt for me sometimes! xD Shame because I really wanted this to be my go-to roguelike when out and about.

Not saying its a bad game and mean no disrepect to dev or fans. Just purely from a gamepad user standpoint, its not what I prefer. Some people will be able to live with it and fully enjoy all the game has to offer. And if you use touchscreen or a mouse, it's golden. However, if you want a polished gamepad experience, you might be like me and feel disappointed is all.

Case in point. Technically yes it's a good SD game. However, it can be a turn off for some due to preference on control schemes. Maybe dev can revamp them someday for us picky players :P See ya!

I do agree that the current gamepad controls aren't ideal, some of that is a symptom of the game being initially designed for touch screens. I have tried to add some button bindings to improve this (most actions are bound to a button, including things like opening up a radial inventory selector), but I agree that having proper UI selection functionality would also help.

[Soulstenance]

Originally posted by 00-Evan:

Originally posted by ZeroAffex:

I am just going to say I bought this game explicitly for the SD and ended up refunding it sadly because the gamepad controls don't feel good. I wish for pad users, everything automatically snapped together rather than using a joystick cursor to manually click for each thing. Ends up being a slog solely using gamepad controls as you'll fight those more than any monsters you find. ha Least was how it felt for me sometimes! xD Shame because I really wanted this to be my go-to roguelike when out and about.

Not saying its a bad game and mean no disrepect to dev or fans. Just purely from a gamepad user standpoint, its not what I prefer. Some people will be able to live with it and fully enjoy all the game has to offer. And if you use touchscreen or a mouse, it's golden. However, if you want a polished gamepad experience, you might be like me and feel disappointed is all.

Case in point. Technically yes it's a good SD game. However, it can be a turn off for some due to preference on control schemes. Maybe dev can revamp them someday for us picky players :P See ya!

I do agree that the current gamepad controls aren't ideal, some of that is a symptom of the game being initially designed for touch screens. I have tried to add some button bindings to improve this (most actions are bound to a button, including things like opening up a radial inventory selector), but I agree that having proper UI selection functionality would also help.

I think the main issue is interface navigation which is virtually impossible without a mouse. The touchpads/touchscreen on the Deck work well enough if you're playing handheld and I think this is why it has a Verified status but playing with an external controller is quite difficult, and if you do have a mouse, the experience is indisputably better than without it, in either case. It's still a great game and I wouldn't refund on these grounds but I can see why someone would be disappointed.

It's a good idea to not take the Verified badge as "gospel" and reference ProtonDB as well, since the Verified program can make errors and can't fully test every game to completion. Case in point: 'Horizon: Zero Dawn' a Deck Verified game plays fine until 10 hours into the story (or so I've heard). Or they'll test a game against Proton instead of Native resulting in an Unsupported rating, meanwhile the game works fine natively - case in point Europa Universalis 4.

[00-Evan]

Originally posted by Soulstenance:

Originally posted by 00-Evan:

I do agree that the current gamepad controls aren't ideal, some of that is a symptom of the game being initially designed for touch screens. I have tried to add some button bindings to improve this (most actions are bound to a button, including things like opening up a radial inventory selector), but I agree that having proper UI selection functionality would also help.

I think the main issue is interface navigation which is virtually impossible without a mouse. The touchpads/touchscreen on the Deck work well enough if you're playing handheld and I think this is why it has a Verified status but playing with an external controller is quite difficult, and if you do have a mouse, the experience is indisputably better than without it, in either case. It's still a great game and I wouldn't refund on these grounds but I can see why someone would be disappointed.

It's a good idea to not take the Verified badge as "gospel" and reference ProtonDB as well, since the Verified program can make errors and can't fully test every game to completion. Case in point: 'Horizon: Zero Dawn' a Deck Verified game plays fine until 10 hours into the story (or so I've heard). Or they'll test a game against Proton instead of Native resulting in an Unsupported rating, meanwhile the game works fine natively - case in point Europa Universalis 4.

It's worth noting that I did go through a bit of back and forth with valve before the game got certified. Adding in better controller button indicators to tooltips, and the inventory/quickslot radial menus helped the game get verified. Using the controller pointer is certainly clunky but the entire game is absolutely playable.

I agree that having better interface navigation is probably the main thing to work towards, but it unfortunately requires a lot of work behind the scenes and so it's a priority right now.

[c.camacho]

I see an issue with oled steamdeck, if the screen is NOT in fullscreen mode the touch screen mouse gets clamped such that you cant touch anything down the right hand side of the screen, which is a shame as i prefer the scaling in none fullscreen mode...

btw if you really dont have a steamdeck Evan, then this is the perfect excuse : -D

[Soulstenance]

Originally posted by c.camacho:

I see an issue with oled steamdeck, if the screen is NOT in fullscreen mode the touch screen mouse gets clamped such that you cant touch anything down the right hand side of the screen, which is a shame as i prefer the scaling in none fullscreen mode...

btw if you really dont have a steamdeck Evan, then this is the perfect excuse : -D

I have seen this on some other games. Odd that it is specific to the OLED. I was under the impression that the underlying OS was largely identical to the LCD model, which I have. You could try in desktop mode - this worked for my other games with similar issues. It's not really a true solution though.

He could also request a SDK from Valve though I'm unsure if this is free or what costs are involved with that. But yeah, finding an excuse to get a Steamdeck, assuming you're a gamer, is pretty easy. My "excuse" was - It's a portable console that runs Linux. Nuff said lol.