Getting Space Drilling Station Playable on Steam Deck Was a Real Challenge!
Space Drilling Station · published
Hello everyone!
Recently, I got a Steam Deck as a gift, and of course, the first thing that came to mind was: "My game has to run on this!" I naively thought two short weeks would be enough: one for controls, another for testing. Spoiler alert: I was way too optimistic! 😅
After more than a month of work, I'm super happy to announce that I finally have a playable demo on the Steam Deck! But let me tell you a bit about what went on behind the scenes of this adventure...
🎮 Controls: Less Is More!
At first, I wanted to use all of the Steam Deck's options: trackpads, joysticks, buttons... I thought it was awesome to exploit every possibility. Except, when playing, I quickly realized it was anything but pleasant. My "lazy" side took over, and I got tired of juggling between trackpads and joysticks. So I radically simplified: goodbye trackpads! I streamlined the controls to use only the bare minimum, making the experience much smoother and more intuitive.
📉 The Performance Wall: Chasing Milliseconds!
Once the controls were set, I hit the performance wall head-on. I knew my game wasn't an optimization champion, but on the Steam Deck, it was a disaster! I spent a good week tracking every millisecond, juggling parameters to find the right balance between fluidity and visual quality, and most importantly, to avoid draining the battery in less than 30 minutes. A real headache!
📜 The "Verified" Holy Grail: Valve's Requirements
Valve has very strict guidelines for the "Verified" badge. I had to face two big challenges: making all text readable from 30 cm away (you almost needed a magnifying glass before!) and removing all mentions of a mouse or keyboard. That meant redoing all the in-game videos and explanations so they were perfectly adapted to the Steam Deck. A huge amount of work!
🙏 A Month Later, Pride!
More than a month after receiving my Steam Deck, I'm incredibly proud to have managed to solve all the issues. It's immense satisfaction to see Space Drilling Station come to life on this machine.
I sincerely hope you'll enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it compatible. Please don't hesitate to give me your feedback; it's essential for continuing to improve the game!