Steam Deck gyro controls recommended to developers by Valve

Steam Deck gyro aiming will be one control option supported for the handheld gaming PC, and Valve recommends developers try it out for all kinds of games.

Valve recently shared a big list of new, developer-centric Steam Deck FAQs, discussing topics such as dev kits, specific hardware concerns, and input for Steam Deck games. The latter topic is a big one, since the device includes joysticks, face buttons, trigger buttons, trackpads, a touch screen, and gyro controls, and Valve doesn't expect there to be a one-size-fits-all solution for every game. However, it does think gyro controls, "when combined with the joystick or the trackpad, are ideal for a large class of games and something many players will want to use.

"They offer finer precision for people that are used to gamepad inputs, but also take the mouse paradigm from the desktop into a portable form factor. We recommend trying out this style of input for anyone shipping a game that has player control of a camera or a cursor and seeing if it makes sense for your game."

Gyro aiming has become more common in console games in recent years, allowing players to do bigger camera movements with their joysticks and then tilt their controller for finer aim. It still isn't nearly as common as the vanilla twin-stick input approach, but this push from Valve to take full advantage of Steam Deck's input options may help raise its profile. Now we just have to wait until February for the first Steam Deck systems to start rolling out.

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.