this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
35 points (92.7% liked)

Steam Deck

6012 readers
3 users here now

Universal community link
[email protected]

Rules

Order

Models

64GB eMMC LCD
256GB NVMe LCD
512GB NVMe LCD
512GB NVMe OLED
1TB NVMe OLED

Allowed languages

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

How many of you install games outside Steam on your Decks? Do you find the process easy?

I'm a hobbyist game developer myself, and I'm looking into making games especially designed for the Steam Deck. However, for freeware games, the $100 price per title on the Steam store is a bit too steep. I wish there was an easy-to-use alternative store on the Deck, but since that's not the case, I'm wondering if it would make any sense to develop games for the Deck and publish them, for example, on Itch.io.

(As a proof of concept, I created this step-by-step guide for a hacky Steam Deck version of my old game, Soccer Physics. I think it still applies, even though it's a year-old build/guide: https://www.ottoojala.com/soccerphysicssteamdeck/ )

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I emulate a lot of old games on my Steam Deck. It's not too hard, but requires some work. I will do the work for non-Steam stores if/when there is something I want to play from one. However, I suspect not releasing your games on Steam will really limit your reach. My guess is that most people won't go through the effort to get itch.io games work on thier Deck.