Game devs don't seem convinced on the Steam Deck from the GDC 2022 survey

My knowledge of game development is pathetic, so it's always been easy for me to imagine that Proton meant more money for game devs and more games for Linux gamers because devs making Windows games could "simply" make them with an eye towards Proton compatibility and add the Linux market to their profits. Maybe this is already the case. I don't know.

I see it, then, as following that Valve would also benefit by working with devs to make their games to be "platinum" level Proton compatible, much the way Microsoft --- and Gabe Newell himself --- did to get devs to leave MSDOS for DirectX back in the mid-nineties:

To get more developers on board DirectX, Microsoft approached id Software's John Carmack and offered to port Doom and Doom 2 from MS-DOS to DirectX, free of charge, with id retaining all publishing rights to the game. Carmack agreed, and Microsoft's Gabe Newell led the porting project. The first game was released as Doom 95 in August 1996, the first published DirectX game. Microsoft promoted the game heavily with Bill Gates appearing in ads for the title.

"Direct X," note 5

The upcoming release of the Steam Deck" has me wondering once again why Valve aren't doing something like this for Proton? (Or maybe they have and I'm just unaware of it?) Surely, Valve would do if it would work, wouldn't they? Is there a Proton API or SDK or thingamabob already?


Last edited by Nanobang on 21 January 2022 at 3:44 pm UTC

You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't right click on a NFT jpeg an save as

Heh. If I could right-click on a Tesla and duplicate it, I would be driving a Tesla right now.

To me, the appeal of the steam deck is having a portable "console" whose game catalog doesn't have to be built from scratch every time a new device is released. When you buy the steam deck you already have all your games, when Steam deck 2 is released you'll have an even bigger catalog, etc. I'm sold on it! Shut up and take my money!

I'd really like to see/know who those devs even are. 40% are developing for Oculus? No way this is representative.

Worked in maintenance and construction company as maintenance worker. Time to time we get surveys/questionnaires and all (most) of it about desk/office work... 15-20 personnel teams work outside to 1-2 in office. Not surprised if most of ~2700 surveyed "dev" just work in/with dev/publishing companies.

With no raw data to look in... BS?

Valve or any other company on this planet can't use Wine to compete with Microsoft. Wine developers will always fall behind Windows developers, and you can't change it.

That strikes me as the core of your point, that a lot of the rest depends on. And you know, this has been a common viewpoint for a long time. And it happened to be true for a long time.
But as far as I can tell, that's just because there weren't very many Wine developers and maybe the project was not approached in a way that made for speed of development. Well, and Vulkan didn't exist. Clearly it's not a necessary truth--say for instance there were ten times as many Wine developers as Windows developers, obviously they'd be able to keep up. But even without going absurd, there are constraints on how fast Windows developers can change Windows. The target can't actually move that fast, or software developers will abandon it, backwards compatibility will be lost and so on. Plus, the codebase is huge and at this point a lot of it is pretty old. Making changes without breaking everything has to be pretty hard. So I think there is a certain critical mass of Wine development, which has actually been reached (for games at least), at which Wine advances faster than Windows changes.
In fact, I think it's clear that for the last couple of years, Wine (plus DXVK et al) have been chasing those taillights a LOT faster than they've been receding. They started well back, and are much closer than they were. That progress is probably gonna slow a bit, because they're moving from big wins to corner cases. On the other hand, I'm really not seeing signs of Windows shifting much as a target lately--no signs of a DX13 coming down the pipe, for instance.

So really, I think your pessimism is unwarranted. It's just a product of a long period where the lack of a strong enough development team to do the job made it feel like the job was impossible.

All this optimistic talk is just about games, mind you. As far as I know there is no similar push happening with productivity software, and the two have different issues; Adobe Acrobat probably doesn't care about DX12.

I'm really not seeing signs of Windows shifting much as a target lately--no signs of a DX13 coming down the pipe, for instance.

Just a tought of mine, but even if there was a "DX13" announcement, before it gained traction in games, the DXVK/VKD3D/Proton team would have a lot of time to catchup. Remember when DXVK was first created? They had to chase DX9 to DX12 compatibility... If it's just a potential DX13, the manpower would be a lot more focused, because not spread accross many different APIs... My two cents.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 21 January 2022 at 5:57 pm UTC

You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't right click on a NFT jpeg an save as

Showing your age (and possibly your Britishness) there!

Genuinely not sure if "you wouldn't steal a car" was shown outside of British cinemas?

Edit - so, uh, it wasn't shown on cinemas, it was DVDs mainly that featured this tripe. Early 2000's though, so at least I had that right.

I remember this from DVDs in Norway too. Futurama also made a fun spoof of the campaign:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OWPfcEOr2Yg

I'm beginning to think that in their rush to appeal to end users, Valve might have forgotten to put as much effort into appealing to developers.

Because they don't really have to, I don't think. This isn't some new console where they need developers to make games or no one will buy it; when the Steam Deck finally gets in people's hands it's going to have more games working on it Day 1 than any console launch in history (probably by an order of magnitude or two). Thousands of games will "just work" (either by being native or working fine in Proton). It'd be nice to get more developers on board to expand the selection that works, but Valve probably doesn't feel the need to prioritize it as much. (Whether that's the right attitude or not remains to be seen, as we'll have to see how much lack of <Popular Game X> is actually a factor in people buying the Deck or not.)

The poll reads like developers are just unsure of how the Steam Deck will play out, rather than being negative towards it.

To me, the appeal of the steam deck is having a portable "console" whose game catalog doesn't have to be built from scratch every time a new device is released. When you buy the steam deck you already have all your games, when Steam deck 2 is released you'll have an even bigger catalog, etc. I'm sold on it! Shut up and take my money!

I hadn't thought about that aspect. Quite true, although it might take a little while for people to start realizing it.

The poll reads like developers are just unsure of how the Steam Deck will play out, rather than being negative towards it.

Which is fair enough, really. Still early days to be declaring it a success, much less an enduring one.

When it comes to what platform developers are most interested in, Linux sat at 7%.

So not just interested in, but most interested in? As in, rating it above the other platforms? Really?
It's so I wonder if this either is misquoted or the question misunderstood...!

But if not, that's... pretty darn great!

Yes, most interested in but not above all others.

Well, one implies the other, doesn't it? If you are most interested in Linux that means you're not most interested in Windows or Mac. Else you would be most interested in one of those, and not Linux.


Last edited by Beamboom on 21 January 2022 at 8:35 pm UTC

When it comes to what platform developers are most interested in, Linux sat at 7%.

So not just interested in, but most interested in? As in, rating it above the other platforms? Really?
It's so I wonder if this either is misquoted or the question misunderstood...!

But if not, that's... pretty darn great!

Yes, most interested in but not above all others.

Well, one implies the other, doesn't it? If you are most interested in Linux that means you're not most interested in Windows or Mac. Else you would be most interested in one of those, and not Linux.

You would think so, but you missed the key bit of that quote:

The full question was "Which platform(s) most interest you as a developer right now? (Choose all that apply)" and Linux got 7% for that.

So, like, someone actually could have checked off Windows, Mac and Linux as platforms that "most" interest them. And, shockingly, many would not be held back by the niceties of grammar! I know, the thought depresses me too.

You would think so, but you missed the key bit of that quote:

Ah! You are right, I missed that last part. Thanks for not being snarky about it.


Last edited by Beamboom on 21 January 2022 at 9:30 pm UTC

Linux is what's not selling to dev's not the Steam Deck itself. There is a general resistance and hostility towards releasing or supporting games on Linux, uphill battle!

I still don't really get what the audience for the Steam Deck is. I kind of want to buy one, but then I remember I have no use for it. I can play games in bed with my laptop. I have 4 GNU/Linux computers already. If I'm outside, I don't want to play games, otherwise I wouldn't have gone outside.

I guess I don't really understand the portable gaming idea to begin with. I did play Pokemon a lot as a kid, but those days are long gone. I played a lot of mobile games when I was younger, too, but that was mostly the novelty of it rather than them being any good. I don't think that phase lasted very long.

I guess it doesn't help that a lot of the games I play involve using Textractor, copying text to the clipboard, looking it up in a J-J dictionary, and creating an Anki card. Not really the type of gaming suited for a small, portable device without a keyboard.

I just have no idea what to think, because I am clearly not the target audience for this.

NFT's are definitely scams but their not pyramid scams. I've heard some people say there Ponzi scams

You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't right click on a NFT jpeg an save as

Reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/ALZZx1xmAzg

I still don't really get what the audience for the Steam Deck is. I kind of want to buy one, but then I remember I have no use for it. I can play games in bed with my laptop. I have 4 GNU/Linux computers already. If I'm outside, I don't want to play games, otherwise I wouldn't have gone outside.

I guess I don't really understand the portable gaming idea to begin with. I did play Pokemon a lot as a kid, but those days are long gone. I played a lot of mobile games when I was younger, too, but that was mostly the novelty of it rather than them being any good. I don't think that phase lasted very long.

I guess it doesn't help that a lot of the games I play involve using Textractor, copying text to the clipboard, looking it up in a J-J dictionary, and creating an Anki card. Not really the type of gaming suited for a small, portable device without a keyboard.

I just have no idea what to think, because I am clearly not the target audience for this.

Well, there's obviously a target audience for mobile gaming. The target audience for Steam Deck is mainly the intersection of these with the Steam users. They already own (often lots of) games running on Steam Deck, and they can play games bought for mobile on their PC as well.

The appeal of mobile gaming? Well, I'm not into it either, but I can understand that a laptop is too big for bed for many. And back in the days, before Covid, I was using public transports for a 3/4 hour to work and a 3/4 hour back. Time for gaming, maybe?

Well, I've always been a sceptic on this but was and still am sincerely hoping to be wrong.
Not because of the handheld itself - who I quite frankly don't really care about at all - but for what it will mean for Linux gaming.


Last edited by Beamboom on 22 January 2022 at 12:56 pm UTC