An idiots guide to setting up Minecraft on Steam Deck / SteamOS with controller support

Minecraft (Java Edition) has supported Linux platforms for a long time, so getting it running on Steam Deck / SteamOS is easy. Here's your foolproof guide to getting it set up correctly and with controller support too.

Amazingly, Minecraft Java Edition in the year of 2025 still doesn't have controller support built-in. So you need to resort to modding the game. All simple to do though, thankfully, as Minecraft has a ridiculously huge community of people building incredible mods for it. So here's what you need to do.

Side-note: the start of this guide is exactly the same as another guide "How to install extra software, apps and games on SteamOS and Steam Deck", but diverges on the specific bits for the Minecraft setup. For any time you need an on-screen keyboard on Steam Deck you can press STEAM + X.

Firstly, get your Steam Deck / SteamOS machine booted into Desktop Mode. On a Steam Deck this is found in the Power menu like shown in the below shots.

You can also hold down the power button to bring up the menu below.

Note: in Desktop Mode, you'll have a shortcut on your Desktop named "Return to Gaming Mode" to go back to the main Steam Gaming Mode interface.

Once in Desktop Mode you're going to want to search for an app called Discover. Do this by tapping the bottom left button to open the menu on the desktop:

Discover may also show up on the bottom bar as a blue shopping bag icon.

Once you have Discover open, you can search for an app called Prism Launcher and install it.

It's a really easy to use free and open source Minecraft Launcher with built-in modding support.

Now launch the Prism Launcher and you'll be greeted with a language selection screen, launcher theme selection, and then you'll be asked to add your Microsoft Account. You can either do this via the browser on the SteamOS machine, or by scanning a QR code. This is so it will link your Microsoft Account to the Prism Launcher. You have to do this step to play it.

After you've linked your account, you're now ready to actually install Minecraft. You'll be presented with a blank Prism Launcher here ready to add in whatever you want.

Here, we're going to get Minecraft installed along with a mod called Controlify. This offers probably some of the best and most featured controller support available for Minecraft Java Edition.

To do this, click Add Instance in the top left of the Prism Launcher. For the purposes of this guide, we're just going to use plain Minecraft Java Edition version 1.21.4 (the latest at guide publishing time).

This will add it into the Prism Launcher, and then we want to select it and tap the Edit button over to the right of the launcher.

This next step is where we're going to add in the controller support.

When you hit Edit, you'll then be given the below settings screen.

Here we want to select Version on the left, then Install Loader on the right side of the screen. Mods need a mod loader to actually work so this is what we need to do first.

That will bring up the below mod loader installation screen.

Here you can select Fabric on the left, and the latest version of that should be fine and click Ok.

Once that's done, we can then select Mods on the left panel. Which will bring up the Mods screen.

Select Download Mods on the right side.

Make sure it's set to Modrinth, and then in the search bar type in Controlify. You'll need to then select it, hit the "Select mod for download" button which will then pop up a list of exactly what it will download, just click through Ok.

Once done, you'll be sent back to the Mods screen to show that it's all installed.

The first time you go to Launch, it will take a while, as it then needs to actually download Minecraft and initialise the mods. However, you do not want to launch it here. For the controller support to work properly, you want to go back into Gaming Mode.

Before we do that, we need to add it to Steam!

Tap the bottom left button on the desktop to open the desktop launcher, then go into Games and scroll to find Prism Launcher. Right click on it -> Add to Steam.

Then you can close everything and go back into Gaming Mode. To do so close everything, and in the top left of your desktop there's a shortcut to return to Gaming Mode.

In Gaming mode open your Steam Library, then go into the Non-Steam section and you'll find Prism Launcher to open.

Once open, you'll notice controller input doesn't work in the Prism Launcher.

If you hold down the STEAM button you can use the Right Thumbpad to use mouse input to select the Minecraft instance you installed and double click using the Right Trigger.

Give it a moment to actually load Minecraft in the background. When you launch, it will still show the launcher for a minute or two until Minecraft itself appears.

Initially you'll be greeted with a screen about downloading an extra helper library. You can again here hold down the STEAM button and use the Right Thumbpad + Right Trigger to hit Yes.

Then it will download and ask you to do controller calibration (same again on controls).

After that, controller support is fully enabled and you're good to go exploring. Now you'll have controller support and the correct icons on the screen as well making it really easy to play Minecraft on Steam Deck / SteamOS.