Will not load on a Steam Deck

[DeathsEye]

So like, YES i know ARK wont run godlike on a Deck, and yes i have a gaming PC capable of playing ARK flawlessly. But i would still like to do it and haven't seen anyone else with this issue, so here i am.

Basically after launching the game and waiting upwards of 15 minutes for it to load, it just wont load. RAM usage has reached a high of 11.4GB which is awfully high for not even reaching the main menu. I've attempted stock proton and latest proton-GE versions, I have page-file disabled so everything goes straight to RAM, and a few other commonly-used performance tweaks on my system, but nothing big.
I have seen people get the game to load to menu in about 2 minutes, it seems like a common time period. I have the game installed on internal memory also, and made sure during this does-it-work stage to install ONLY base game; no mods, no expansions.

Anyone have any advice i could try, or have the same issue? Any help is appreciated!

[mayhem]

It's very enjoyable on the Steam Deck and has surprisingly good performance. Kind of like playing it on a console at 30 FPS.

The Protons I've got installed are:
- Proton Experimental
- Proton 7.0
- Proton BattlEye Runtime

If you haven't yet, I would try verifying the game files, then re-installing completely if that didn't help.

I also haven't changed much from default settings, have you considered a re-image of the Deck? Last resort and all that, but if you've messed around with a lot of settings it might be worth a shot.

[DeathsEye]

I was able to get it running simply by reinstalling it... well, kinda reinstalling it. Rage-uninstalling and then reinstalling it cuz i really wanted it to work!
And you're right, the game runs very well on the deck! Graphics dont compare to PC at all but the battery life and performance at medium-low is still fantastic and its not as ugly as the original switch version, so thats a win!