It’s been about a year since Valve announced the Steam Deck. Back then, I pre-ordered it as soon as I could, then things were quiet for a year. A few days ago I received the availability notice:
I completed the purchase, and it arrived a few days later.
Steam Deck Arrival
I unpacked it, plugged in the charger, and turned it on. The initial setup was effectively just entering my credentials and waiting for it to be ready to use. Using a Steam Deck for the first time was quite interesting.
The hardware side already feels a bit familiar with some similarities to the Steam Controller tech. The Steam Deck’s touchpads use a similar haptic feedback system to make them feel like physical omnidirectional flywheels (flyspheres?).
On the software side, the Steam Deck’s UI seems to not borrow as much from Big Picture mode. It is more of a refined, controller-friendly experience similar to what you get on a computer. I generally don’t play anything with a controller, but with a bit of practice, it is very easy to navigate and move around. Kids will pick this up in seconds.
The next step is getting a Godot game running on it.
Just recently Valve announced the Steam Deck, a hand-held gaming device with the capability to play your entire Steam game library. This is huge. In the news, I largely see comparisons being drawn with the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo recently announced the Switch OLED, with a somewhat lukewarm reception. If Valve gets this right, this goes …
Development snapshot #4 of Godot Engine 4.1 is here. Among many other changes, it fixes a lighting issue related to using Light-only mode in CanvasItemMaterial (#44559). Unfortunately, it also introduced a UX issue with gradient color pickers (#77745), which makes it quite difficult to work with gradients at all. If you use gradients, I recommend …
I use an app called barrier. It allows you to share your mouse and keyboard with multiple devices. I use it, because I tend to have my laptop and Macbook sitting next to my PC, and it makes working across all devices very convenient. It’s a mix of a multi-monitor and multi-computer setup. Concept Your …
Right after I got my Steam Deck, I wanted to know how hard it is to get a Godot game running on it. What’s the developer experience for someone who’s stepping through this for the first time? It was really easy to do, so I’m sharing this here, whether you’re following along or like to …
My Steam Deck has arrived!
It’s been about a year since Valve announced the Steam Deck. Back then, I pre-ordered it as soon as I could, then things were quiet for a year. A few days ago I received the availability notice:
I completed the purchase, and it arrived a few days later.
Steam Deck Arrival
I unpacked it, plugged in the charger, and turned it on. The initial setup was effectively just entering my credentials and waiting for it to be ready to use. Using a Steam Deck for the first time was quite interesting.
The hardware side already feels a bit familiar with some similarities to the Steam Controller tech. The Steam Deck’s touchpads use a similar haptic feedback system to make them feel like physical omnidirectional flywheels (flyspheres?).
On the software side, the Steam Deck’s UI seems to not borrow as much from Big Picture mode. It is more of a refined, controller-friendly experience similar to what you get on a computer. I generally don’t play anything with a controller, but with a bit of practice, it is very easy to navigate and move around. Kids will pick this up in seconds.
The next step is getting a Godot game running on it.
Related Posts
Valve announces the Steam Deck
Just recently Valve announced the Steam Deck, a hand-held gaming device with the capability to play your entire Steam game library. This is huge. In the news, I largely see comparisons being drawn with the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo recently announced the Switch OLED, with a somewhat lukewarm reception. If Valve gets this right, this goes …
Godot Engine 4.1.dev4 is available
Development snapshot #4 of Godot Engine 4.1 is here. Among many other changes, it fixes a lighting issue related to using Light-only mode in CanvasItemMaterial (#44559). Unfortunately, it also introduced a UX issue with gradient color pickers (#77745), which makes it quite difficult to work with gradients at all. If you use gradients, I recommend …
Share your Computer’s Mouse and Keyboard with your Steam Deck
I use an app called barrier. It allows you to share your mouse and keyboard with multiple devices. I use it, because I tend to have my laptop and Macbook sitting next to my PC, and it makes working across all devices very convenient. It’s a mix of a multi-monitor and multi-computer setup. Concept Your …
Running Godot Games on Steam Deck
Right after I got my Steam Deck, I wanted to know how hard it is to get a Godot game running on it. What’s the developer experience for someone who’s stepping through this for the first time? It was really easy to do, so I’m sharing this here, whether you’re following along or like to …