The first developers are already testing and praising the Steam Deck -apkrig
It’s only been a few days since we wrote that Valve is sending Steam Deck kits to selected developers. Given that they are supposed to have the same performance as the models that the first customers will receive in December, everyone is interested in what the authors of the games say about this novelty. This is the first time that, in addition to the limited first impressions from selected journalists, we have some observations from independent users.
The purpose of the dev kits, of course, is for developers to fine-tune their existing titles for Steam Deck, but also to provide some feedback to Valve. And the first response seems to be positive. The authors have tried their titles on the novelty and the first ones report that they work well. This is true, for example, of the Descenders. With the graphics set to ultra, Steam Deck is said to be able to reach 50 to 60 fps.
Valve sent over a Steam Deck (thanks lovelies!!) so I’ve been going through our games and checking whether they work without any additional dev on our part
Descenders: Works flawlessly!
In fact it runs *incredibly* well. With full Ultra gfx on, I get around 50-60fps pic.twitter.com/RjT3Q233lX
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) September 21, 2021
Mike Rose from No More Robots too betrayedthat titles that require a mouse can be played thanks to the touch screen, but their controls can be further modified and improved. Overall, Mike Rose is visibly excited about the Steam Deck.
Any games that are currently mouse + keyboard only, we need to add controller support to make them work. But the touch screen works, so they can still be played!
Here’s Yes, Your Grace — again, runs flawlessly pic.twitter.com/NOgtQ3QHES
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) September 21, 2021
And here’s a game we currently have in development (Not Tonight 2) already running near-perfectly — just need to deal with input and some resolution stuff
Honestly a bit of a game-changer for me, might end up making my Switch a bit redundant outside of Nintendo first party pic.twitter.com/xdXx5zFMjp
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) September 21, 2021
Screenshots of Steam Deck up boasted and the authors of the X-Plane flight simulator from Laminar Research. They also successfully connected joysticks to the machine.
Steam Deck has also been made available by some VR game developers. Maybe Denny Unger from Cloudhead Games, who created the very popular Pistol Whip.
Positive first impressions of Steam Deck takes away also Cliff Harris. He tested Democracy 4 on it from his studio Positech Games and the game worked well without any modifications. According to him, the framerate should be perfect.
First impressions are that this is really really cool. And Democracy 4 seems to run ok on it out-of-the-box, although the steam paddle-finger doodads work 1000x better than the thumbsticks for my game. The sound is REALLY good. Framerate is perfect. # democracy4 #steamdeck pic.twitter.com/AOenhHOuiQ
— cliffski (@cliffski) September 21, 2021
Steam Deck before tried Xbox boss Phil Spencer praised the work of games like Halo. According to him, it is a very nice device.
Was @valvesoftware this week talking w/ Scott, Erik, Gabe about Steam Deck. After having mine most of the week I can say it’s a really nice device. Games with me on the go, screen size, controls all great. Playing Halo and Age feels good, xCloud works well. Congrats SD team. pic.twitter.com/q4hWBvkk85
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) August 13, 2021
