Witchfire director says “everybody should attempt to support” Steam Deck as it just makes games better for everyone
https://frvr.com/blog/witchfire-director-says-everybody-should-attempt-to-support-steam-deck-as-it-just-makes-games-better-for-everyone/
581 points · 48 comments · view on lemmy.world
48 Comments
Katana314@lemmy.world · 105 pts · 235d
Not just the Deck. Having these games work there also means I have an easier time transitioning my desktop to Linux.
Bongles@lemmy.zip · 79 pts · 235d
Valve is probably responsible for me moving to Linux fully because of proton and how steam works on Linux. While I would be bitching nonstop about Microsoft, I don't know if getting off windows would be worth it to me if it was a hassle to play games.
chaogomu@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 234d
Microsoft has driven me away from Windows at least a half dozen times over the last 20 years.
Each time the siren call of some game or another will pull me back.
I'd played with Linux native games as well, but most of the greats were Windows only.
And yeah, then Proton.
Now I'm trying to save up the small fortune needed for a computer upgrade, and I'm not even planning to pirate Windows.
Diurnambule@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 234d
Bad timing though
chaogomu@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 234d
It is, but my current setup is struggling.
fadedmaster@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 234d
I'm in the same boat. Been using Linux on a laptop for decades. But have always used Windows for gaming on my gaming desktop. I'm due for a rebuild and had a Linux build planned out that I was going to buy parts for during the holidays when they were expected to be on sale... Then RAM shot through the roof. A few months back the retail price of the parts (minus accessories and a case) was at a little above $1700 now it's almost at $2100 due to the RAM pricing.
chaogomu@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 234d
It is harsh. I'm hoping for the AI bubble to crash. For a lot of reasons, but partially so that I can buy parts at reasonable prices.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 70 pts · 235d
Working harder on your game makes it better! Wow!
But seriously, it's great that Valve is leading the way pushing demand for this.
realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip · 50 pts · 235d
It's not really about working harder. Before, it just wasn't a justifiable expense investing time into ensuring proton support or even linux support because a sub 1% OS just isn't "worth" supporting from a financial standpoint. That changed with the steamdeck and because the steamdeck is actually just a small PC with built-in controller, things that profit the deck also profit the linux ecosystem.
Honestly the steam deck was a genius move from valve.
Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip · 46 pts · 235d
Devs targeting Steam Deck Verified sets a bar for performance that ends up including other PCs with integrated graphics or those with older graphics cards (up to ~10 years)
By extended the usable life of older gaming hardware, It’s even a win from an environmental point of view.
JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz · 7 pts · 234d
I'm willing to bet that without the Deck, most AAA games would have already jumped to requiring roughly PS5-level PC hardware now that last gen consoles are effectively dead.
UE5 on the Deck might not be pretty, but making it run at all on it lowers the minimum requirements of a game tremendously.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 235d
Read the article - this isn't just about Linux support.
realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip · -8 pts · 235d
Steam Deck verified is like 90% done towards linux support
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 234d
Please try reading the article.
realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip · -23 pts · 234d
No
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 234d
That is very contrary to what's the point of the article. Supporting the Steam deck also means supporting the controller and the small screen format. Things that can benefit users of Windows based handhelds too.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 234d
And people who use controllers in general. And people with small screens. And people with poor vision. And ...
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 234d
exactly
Buffalox@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 234d
Wush!
Way to completely miss the message. Which include how user interfaces need to be usable on the small screen, and to make optimizations for lower end hardware and not just focus on mid range and high end.
The exception being that if you make a very high end complex game, it may be better to not support Steam Deck at all, because if it doesn't play well, it shouldn't pretend to work.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 234d
That ... that's the hard work.
Buffalox@lemmy.world · -7 pts · 234d
No it's not the hard work, it is about working differently.
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus · 7 pts · 234d
Buffalox@lemmy.world · -7 pts · 234d
It's a moronic oversimplification, and making a different approach is not the same as harder.
And just saying working harder says nothing about the ways that are described in the article, and provides zero additional info.
Sad that such low energy effort without reading the article first is even upvoted. Lowest denominator rules here. 🤮
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 234d
Please believe it when a seasoned professional informs you that ingesting user feedback, implementing good UIs, and optimization are all hard work.
Buffalox@lemmy.world · -4 pts · 234d
Of course it is, but it's just the focus on how the UI is made that has changed, that does not inherently make it harder. It just changes some of the design goals.
I have fucking made UI's from scratch in assembly on a pixel basis, that were better than a lot of the crap we see today.
Butterpaderp@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 234d
Just about nobody out there is focusing on making a steam deck optimized game right out the gate. They build a full game, then they go through and try to optimize/update ui for smaller screens. That's additional work, on top of an already hard task of making a good game.
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 234d
Sounds pretty stupid if you don't know which platforms you want to target from the beginning.
If development really is that random and poorly planned, they are making extra work for themselves due to poor planning more than because they chose to support the Steam deck.
toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 37 pts · 235d
Chiming in to say that witchfire is a great game and I think a rather unique singleplayer extraction shooter with bloodborne style dodging and you should play it (on the steam deck)
LaserTurboShark69@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 235d
It's a super impressive game, and also very punishing. There are so many times where I get hit with crazy difficulty spikes and lose a ton of loot I spent several hours collecting. I had a particularly bad loss deep in the castle level that made me drop the game until 1.0.
I'll be back
QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 234d
Is this the one that’s like 3D Hexen
Damage@feddit.it · 2 pts · 233d
Hey Hexen was 3D!
sleepmode@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 234d
I dont normally go for this genre but they nailed the atmosphere and all out weirdness. The mystery keeps me coming back. It never beats you over the head with details or rams how you’re supposed to feel down your throat. Very clever design.
network_switch@lemmy.ml · 23 pts · 235d
It sets a baseline performance target that is really low. It's an integrated GPU laptop that's not close to high end integrated GPUs anymore. Makes your potential audience pretty much the whole of the steam userbase rather than the like RTX 3060+ userbase
yermaw@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 234d
Thats really good all around. I'm always surprised by how much my laptop can do, but I dont even look at the latest AAA super-shiny games because I don't want the disappointment when it doesnt work well or at all.
PearOfJudes@lemmy.ml · 14 pts · 234d
I bought a steamdeck new with free shipping and taxes for $320 USD on black friday. I mean at a price like that I doubt there making much of a profit but I still say I support Valve & the open source community.
DupaCycki@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 234d
Textbook example of accessibility benefitting everyone and not just the ones who need it.
As mentioned in the article, supporting the Steam Deck greatly helps with UI/UX, but also potentially with optimization. Especially in 2025, with all bigger releases requiring workstation CPUs, 64GB of RAM and GPUs from fhe future, this is very much needed.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 234d
One good thing (and likely the only good thing) about the current RAM shortage is that people are probably not going to be buying games that "require" 64GB of RAM anymore, forcing those devs to optimize
Static_Rocket@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 235d
Well, that's the last excuse I needed. Time to finally buy Witchfire.
WraithGear@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 234d
that game is brutal
chaoticnumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 234d
And glorious. Been playing for a few months. Wild stuff.
PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 234d
I was looking at the 1tb 32gb ram Legion Go 2. $1300. I couldn’t believe the price. Does the 700$ steamdeck have 32gb ram?
drmoose@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 234d
Why would you need 32gb of ram tho
optissima@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 234d
zramctl -f -s 16Gfor shits and giggles?M33@sharkey.world · 2 pts · 234d
@optissima@lemmy.ml @drmoose@lemmy.world zram is even better than dowloading more ram 🫢
optissima@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 234d
Yeah you can then set it to your swap file for more drive space!
Tattorack@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 234d
No, it has 16.
kadu@scribe.disroot.org · 10 pts · 234d
Worth noting that you can mod 32 GBs of RAM, and a few people did the mod, finding literally zero performance benefit.
Tattorack@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 234d
Yeah, I know. If I remember correctly, the Steam Deck uses a pretty standard RAM type.
But the system is well designed and doesn't have any real bottlenecks that aren't game-specific. So the Deck can't even run anything that would benefit from 32 GB of system RAM.
Verdorrterpunkt@feddit.org · 2 pts · 234d
Got my legion go 1 used for like (converted) 400 usd, consider your usecase and look if one of the older ones still work for you. Because 400 for that thing was a steal.