{"id":111223,"date":"2022-08-15T17:23:52","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T09:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d27fq2mgp64qlg.cloudfront.net\/en\/?p=111223"},"modified":"2022-08-29T12:03:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T04:03:28","slug":"qoo-app-steam-deck-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d27fq2mgp64qlg.cloudfront.net\/en\/post\/111223\/qoo-app-steam-deck-interview","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview with The Steam Deck Team – Extending Gaming Beyond The Desktop PC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For as long as I’ve been gaming, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft were the three pillars of gaming in terms of hardware ever since Sega took their hat out of the ring. There was always the home PC, but nobody ever considered that to be a singular entity. Valve’s looking to change that however when earlier in 2022, it launched the Steam<\/strong><\/a> Deck, finally bringing in what seems to be new competition to the hardware game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valve isn’t exactly secretive with its intent on tackling hardware. We’ve seen this numerous times with the Steam Machine, Steam OS, Steam Controller, Steam VR, and even Steam Link to tackle cloud gaming. It seems Valve has created every kind of gaming peripheral they Valve could think of, with varying degrees of success. Now Valve seems to have found its winner with its portable powerhouse, the Steam Deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prospect of having a handheld gaming PC is an enticing one. One that has proved so popular with gamers that it has its own waiting list just to pre-order the thing, even with a price tag exceeding its console competitors. With Valve now looking to make a splash with The Steam Deck in Asia, QooApp was invited to visit Valve’s headquarters in Seattle to talk with designer Jay Shaw, and engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais, to get some insight into how they designed the Steam Deck, their current plans, what’s in store for its future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u258d<\/strong><\/span>The Culmination of 10 Years of Experience: The Steam Deck<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Q: Can you guys please Introduce yourselves and your role in Steam Deck’s development?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierre-Loup:<\/strong> So I\u2019m Pierre Loup, I\u2019m an engineer working on Steam Deck,  I\u2019ve been working on the OS, games compatibility, graphics driver, and all that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay: <\/strong>I\u2019m Jay Shaw, I\u2019m a designer working on Steam Deck, and I work on a lot of the UI and the Steam Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Steam
Left: Pierre-Loup Griffais, Right: Jay Shaw<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Q: So How did the Steam Deck come about?
<\/strong>
Pierre Loup:<\/strong> For us, the Steam Deck is about pushing Steam, and PC gaming in general to other form factors. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve been working on for quite a bit as part of various different hardware efforts. For the past 10 years at Valve, we’ve been trying to understand how Steam and PC gaming in general, could be instantiated in different forms and different use cases that aren\u2019t just sitting at a desk with a keyboard and mouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we tried expanding it to the living room with remote play and we did a bunch of different things with the idea and at some point came to the conclusion that something like the Steam Deck would be possible, which is kind of the ultimate destination for PC gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything you need to fully experience PC gaming and its entire catalog it has to offer in a single, all-in-one package without compromises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \"\"
    Steam Machine<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    Steam Link<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Q: So with Valve’s history of hardware development like the Steam Machine, Steam Link, and Steam Controller. As the successor how many features from these devices were integrated into the Steam Deck?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pierre-Loup: <\/strong>Pretty much everything that we\u2019ve learned through developing these pieces of hardware has been incorporated and even I would say, necessary for the Steam Deck to some extent. Like the input hardware of the controller, and also of the software technologies around Steam Input, the advanced remapping, rebinding layer, and all of that stuff has been a really strong component of how the Steam Deck has been compatible with a wide variety of genres for PC games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Steam remote play, which we developed alongside Steam Link, has been integrated into the Steam Deck and you can use it to play more demanding games from your PC remotely. Our experience with Steam Machine lead to the development of STEAM OS, Vulkan, and Proton which is an incredibly important component of the Steam Deck, and our experience working on Virtual Reality gave us a lot of experience with displays and audio, and just increasing our production capabilities as well which was very important for bringing Steam Deck to the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So I think it’s fair to say we couldn\u2019t have made the Steam Deck without the past 10 years of hardware development at Valve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • \"\"
      Valve’s Hardware Prototypes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
    • \"\"
      Steam VR<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Q: How should we describe the Steam Deck? Is it a portable PC, or a handheld game console?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jay<\/strong>: Portable gaming PC would be most appropriate, yeah.

      Pierre-Loup:<\/strong> It’s a PC right, there are no two ways about it. It’s much closer to a PC than a console I think, and there are a couple of things we’ve done with it to streamline the default experience with Steam OS like adding deck verification, which is like an extra service on top of what we usually do to advertise the best experiences. That means that some people might choose to experience it closer to a console, where they don\u2019t want to tinker or tweak anything to get a good experience, and we try to provide them the tools for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But at the end of the day, if you want to peel off these layers and use it like a PC, you\u2019re more than welcome to and I think most of the users so far have been using some sort of PC functionality to get more out of the deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jay:<\/strong> Yeah we\u2019ve seen so many use cases creatively where people are using it as a music workstation or a kind of portable creation device. People even make games on it which is really neat so it is cool to see that some users are almost abandoning the gaming aspect of it and instead are more interested in the creative side of the Steam Deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"
      The Steam Deck running Steam, Blender, Discord, and Youtube simultaneously.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      \u258d<\/strong><\/span>We Want Players to Play With This Anywhere<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Q: So we saw on the packaging of the Steam Deck box a lot of different languages describing the system and where you can use it. What kind of scenarios or places did the Steam Deck team want players to use it in?
      <\/strong>
      Jay: At first we thought it\u2019d be funny just to have the inside of the packaging show you all the places you can play. And then we realized we really do want players to be able to play anywhere and everywhere, and as we started to come up with those, we then worked with the localization team to translate it to different languages and places that would be appropriate in those regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So to make it as inclusive as possible because we want to communicate that the Steam Deck is for everybody, we tried to include as many languages as we could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Q: For players who already have a gaming PC at home, how can the Steam Deck help them expand their gaming experience?<\/strong>

      Jay:<\/strong> Oh yeah, that was kind of one of our biggest goals. For players that already have a Steam library and already use a PC at home, this truly extends gaming well past wherever their PC is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So you can take that Steam library now to the couch, go outside with it, bring it to work, on your commute, on a plane, or traveling, and the idea is that these players are already invested in PC gaming and Steam, so we really wanted to give them the opportunity to take these games everywhere, and that\u2019s how I use it and that\u2019s how a lot of us do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Pierre-Loup:<\/strong> Yeah, even without going out of the house like, not being tethered to your desktop can be pretty useful to reconnect with other people in your house, you know as opposed to having to go to another room while playing your game, you can be hanging out on the coach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      And I think it will also help expand the types of games you play, you know maybe there are games they\u2019d prefer to play on their normal setup or some games they would otherwise not play like smaller games or games that you just play for a couple of minutes at a time, you can now experience them on the Steam Deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So I think it\u2019s really about the situation and expanding the types of games they play as well. That\u2019s really what we were thinking of going in, and then as we were in the middle of Steam Deck development, the 2020 pandemic happened. So that was interesting as well because a lot of people started working from home and we had people telling us \u201cI\u2019ve been working for 8 or 10 hours on my PC at home, I normally want to play games on my PC but instead I want to disconnect and hang out somewhere else\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So we got a lot of feedback at that point that the Steam Deck prototypes were important for these people because they can change where they want to play games and disconnect themselves from work which was very interesting to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jay:<\/strong> I also found that my son and I played a lot of games together, and both of us have a Steam Deck so we play OUTRIDERS or any of these multiplayer together in the same room we\u2019d be kind of hanging out on the couch comfortably playing a game together and I’m able to yell at him \u201cGo over there and get that thing, go run down there and do this!\u201d and it was so neat to be able to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"
      Steam Deck’s packaging<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      Q: So at the moment it requires basically two systems to run a multiplayer game together. Is the Steam Deck going to be able to handle split screen or other multiplayer games on the same device?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jay:<\/strong> Oh yeah, it\u2019s a PC so any game that allows for couch coop, you can do that. You can hook up a couple of controllers if you\u2019d like to, you can use that as a display with the controllers,  plug it into an external display like a TV or anything else and use this as a PC and have everyone else playing together I\u2019ve been doing that a lot with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, which is great with six player coop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Q: Will we have Steam Deck Exclusive games in the future?
      <\/strong>
      Jay:<\/strong> We\u2019re not interested in exclusive games. I mean if the game is made for PC, we believe it should be playable on all PCs, including the Steam Deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u258d<\/strong><\/span>Steam Deck: If We’ve Done Our Job Right, You Won’t Even Know<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Q: One feature that I love about the Steam Deck, is the Haptic feedback from the Trackpad that makes movement and aiming to feel very accurate compared to a controller. So what was the thought process behind adding LRA motors to the Trackpads?<\/strong>

      Pierre-Loup:<\/strong> This is something we had been designing and experimenting with as early as the Steam controller. In fact, it’s one of the first things we’ve done along with the hardware in 2012 or so and kept expanding on it since back then there weren\u2019t many devices that used LRA\u2019s (Linear Resonant Actuators) like that. I think we were actually one of the first companies to experiment with that and bring a solution to the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The idea behind using those for haptic feedback on the Trackpad is they accurately communicate pin-pointed ticks as opposed to diffused vibrations. So we use them for two things: One was for the Steam controller, to help give you accurate feedback on the distance you travel with the trackpad. When you have fixed sensitivity without acceleration and a one-to-one ratio of movement on the screen with the cursor or the camera, having that bit of extra feedback at fixed intervals, actually helps you react quicker, and lets you gauge the distance better. So it lets people be more proficient at aiming in the same distance every time because they feel the same amount of ticks, which is super important for fast-paced games and games needing a cursor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The other thing that was added this time around that didn’t used to exist, is back then our Trackpad had a physical click to it, like the Trackpad could be like a button. This time we’ve moved the click to be more virtual so instead of a pressure-sensitive Trackpad and we use the LRA to communicate a click feel when you pass the threshold where it would register as a click, and this means that now you can use the Trackpad for pressure-sensitive actions and also for very heavy actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So before you’d have this issue where using a Trackpad for a heavy FPS camera aiming you’d have to be gentle with the trackpad otherwise you’d accidentally register a click. Now you can tweak the sensitivity so that it requires higher pressures to say fire a weapon, or at lower sensitive pick up an item. But if you were just using it to say mirror a mouse on a desktop PC, you can also tweak the sensitivity to make regular clicking with a mouse not require too much pressure at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      Q: The community has mixed feelings about having 2 trackpads, with some liking it and others thinking it’s distracting. How do you feel about the community\u2019s reaction to the trackpads, do you think you will adjust that in future models?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jay:<\/strong> I think as far as the community is concerned, we’re always going to have a lot of decisions especially based on things like that where half of the community might feel one way and the other half will feel another way. I think so long as we’re providing a choice and everybody is able to use the device in some way that they want to. I think that is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If you are the type of player that only plays with a traditional controller setup and the trackpad is not useful to you, that\u2019s fine. You don’t need to use them and I think we’ve designed the ergonomics in a way that they shouldn’t be in the way of a traditional controller player, letting you ignore them if you prefer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"
      Pictured: Early Concept and reasoning behind placements of buttons.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      Q: Some of our team members and some players in Asia have reported they struggle with using the Steam Deck due to the console\u2019s size. How can we improve the experience for players with smaller hands?<\/strong>

      Pierre-Loup: <\/strong>When we designed the placement of the controls, we looked at a wide variety of hand sizes for a variety of populations and we think that we got to a pretty good result from the 5th to 95th percentile of the population. So definitely on the extremes of big hands or small hands, you’re going to have less of an optimal experience but it should still be perfectly playable. When you’re designing any type of controller you have to make trade-offs and try to be by accommodating for the largest possible set of people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      We’ve actually gotten quite a bit of good feedback from people with smaller hands saying that initially, it looks like it was going to be cumbersome but then after a little  bit of usage they actually got they were actually impressed with how well it works<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      With regards to things like the back buttons, they are similar to the trackpad in that they are considered to be additive and not something that you have to reshape your grip to take advantage of when you are playing so that when people only want to play with the normal control set can just ignore them. For that reason, one of the things that we’ve done is be very conscious of accidental presses because we don’t want people who don’t care about the back button to accidentally press them and then end up having a bad experience <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So we designed the back button so that when you squeeze the device you actually need a lot of pressure to squeeze buttons,  however, if you squeeze the back buttons closer to the edge – the grips of the device, it becomes easier to press. But it’s definitely something you need to get used to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But yeah those are the kind of trade-offs and things you have to take into account when making new inputs.  We really want someone that only cares about the normal controls to not have to modify their existing grip to use the device, and if that means some compromises in the pressure or accessibility in the new controls, we’re fine with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      There is a fine line and considerations that we have to consider with these new inputs, and ultimately we\u2019re pretty happy with where we ended up with the device where we think it’s pretty approachable for someone who wants to play games traditionally, while also offering options for players who want to play twitch shooters or strategy games of the sort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Q: Are there any functions or features you were surprised that the community hasn’t picked up on yet?<\/strong>

      Pierre-Loup:<\/strong> I think that there is definitely going to be a lot of time where more advanced use cases energy from the community, and they get baked into more configurations so more game developers will use them by default, and then we’ll see the full potential of the Steam Deck being reached. I think we can already see a community of enthusiasts already taking full advantage of all of its capabilities like binding multiple functions to different pressure levels to the triggers or the trackpads – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Jay:<\/strong> Or that the sticks are actually touch-sensitive. Once people discovered that, they tend to go \u201cOh! I didn\u2019t know these are touch sensitive\u201d, so yeah you can have the gyroscope do nothing until you put your thumb on the sticks, and then the gyroscope will work for precision aiming. That\u2019s one thing I wish everybody knew<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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