4 ms·

Why has the ratio of verified dropped?

by lom 3y ago

ekianjo 3y ago
Because the ratio of verified was too optimistic in the beginning - and potentially the current ratio is closer to the reality, with a minority of games released on PC actually made to work well on a smaller screen. Note that requiring a launcher, or keyboard input also make the games land in playable territory even though it works perfectly otherwise.
TazeTSchnitzel 3y ago
They probably have put the most effort into making popular games work, but as time as gone one, they've tried to “verify” more and more less popular games. I'm assuming here that there is a missing “not previously reviewed” segment in the graph, i.e. there are less games at the start than at the end.
blamazon 3y ago
There's a finite amount of validation effort available and presumably in the early days there was a focus on highlighting the games that best demonstrated the Deck's selling points. It stands to reason that as time goes by and the low hanging fruit has been picked, validation effort instead goes into more and more obscure or less obviously Deck friendly games.
Zekio 3y ago
considering the amount of new games each day on steam, it doesn't surprise me
izacus 3y ago
The long tail of Steam (PC) games aren't really made for small screens and controllers. For a game to be "verified", it needs to fully support controllers, have readable text on a 8" 1280x800 screen and run well on Deck's hardware using Proton. As more older Steam games went through the process, less % of games actually fulfill those conditions (main reason I'm personally seeing is either "small text" or a launcher that requires use of mouse to click "Play" before the game starts).
- fendy3002 3y ago
  Even witcher 3 that's verified have small text. Not too bad but I prefer it to be slightly larger.
  - kibwen 3y ago
    It seems like a lot of games that would be green/verified are classed as yellow/playable solely because of small text, which is equivalent to being verified if you use your docked Steam Deck as a cheap gaming PC first and a handheld second.
    - fendy3002 3y ago
      Yeah but the situation isn't limited to deck, though deck makes it worse since the screen is smaller than average monitor. Modern games without a big ass high res monitor will have text that's too small to be enjoyable.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  I believe too they don't even waste time verifying indie games that have too few sales. My game was written for the Steam Deck but I don't hope to ever get my title "verified". I inly sold maybe 200 copies, ha ha.
  - MiddleEndian 3y ago
    What is the dev experience like? Did you do your development on the Steam Deck itself?
    - JKCalhoun 3y ago
      I did for the Linux port (using CLion and CMake files). But as I've said, I ended up dropping it before shipping since Proton on Steam Deck ran my Windows port so well. In the end, perhaps sadly, the Steam Deck was for testing only. I rarely boot into the Desktop any longer. CMake, BTW, was a great way for someone like me who does not know Visual Studio to get something working on Windows. (Xcode is familiar to me so I didn't bother trying to generate the Xcode project from CMake.) SDL2 is the amazing framework I found for cross-platform development. Just the right level of abstraction for my code-it-in-C game projects.
esjeon 3y ago
My theories: (1) Steam got a lot of new games. (2) Compatibility issues found deep inside games. (3) No compat issues, but issues with Steam Deck specifically.
bravetraveler 3y ago
1. Hardware requirements increase with time while the platform being verified against remains the same. They may run... just not well due to hardware limitations 2. Varies depending on how many games implement incompatible things like certain anti-cheats. Admittedly, this may only account for a small amount. They come/go in waves -- eg: looter/shooter trend 3. Steam Deck verified is a more strict qualification than Linux in general; tiny screen/resolution, gamepads, etc. 4. Finally, inconsistency between the rate-of-verification and rate-of-addition - these are not locked Probably more, these are what immediately come to mind

Why has the ratio of verified dropped?

by lom 3y ago

Why has the ratio of verified dropped?

Because the ratio of verified was too optimistic in the beginning - and potentially the current ratio is closer to the reality, with a minority of games released on PC actually made to work well on a smaller screen. Note that requiring a launcher, or keyboard input also make the games land in playable territory even though it works perfectly otherwise.

TazeTSchnitzel 3y ago

They probably have put the most effort into making popular games work, but as time as gone one, they've tried to “verify” more and more less popular games. I'm assuming here that there is a missing “not previously reviewed” segment in the graph, i.e. there are less games at the start than at the end.

blamazon 3y ago

There's a finite amount of validation effort available and presumably in the early days there was a focus on highlighting the games that best demonstrated the Deck's selling points. It stands to reason that as time goes by and the low hanging fruit has been picked, validation effort instead goes into more and more obscure or less obviously Deck friendly games.

Zekio 3y ago

considering the amount of new games each day on steam, it doesn't surprise me

izacus 3y ago

The long tail of Steam (PC) games aren't really made for small screens and controllers. For a game to be "verified", it needs to fully support controllers, have readable text on a 8" 1280x800 screen and run well on Deck's hardware using Proton. As more older Steam games went through the process, less % of games actually fulfill those conditions (main reason I'm personally seeing is either "small text" or a launcher that requires use of mouse to click "Play" before the game starts).

fendy3002 3y ago
Even witcher 3 that's verified have small text. Not too bad but I prefer it to be slightly larger.
- kibwen 3y ago
  It seems like a lot of games that would be green/verified are classed as yellow/playable solely because of small text, which is equivalent to being verified if you use your docked Steam Deck as a cheap gaming PC first and a handheld second.
  - fendy3002 3y ago
    Yeah but the situation isn't limited to deck, though deck makes it worse since the screen is smaller than average monitor. Modern games without a big ass high res monitor will have text that's too small to be enjoyable.
JKCalhoun 3y ago
I believe too they don't even waste time verifying indie games that have too few sales. My game was written for the Steam Deck but I don't hope to ever get my title "verified". I inly sold maybe 200 copies, ha ha.
- MiddleEndian 3y ago
  What is the dev experience like? Did you do your development on the Steam Deck itself?
  - JKCalhoun 3y ago
    I did for the Linux port (using CLion and CMake files). But as I've said, I ended up dropping it before shipping since Proton on Steam Deck ran my Windows port so well. In the end, perhaps sadly, the Steam Deck was for testing only. I rarely boot into the Desktop any longer. CMake, BTW, was a great way for someone like me who does not know Visual Studio to get something working on Windows. (Xcode is familiar to me so I didn't bother trying to generate the Xcode project from CMake.) SDL2 is the amazing framework I found for cross-platform development. Just the right level of abstraction for my code-it-in-C game projects.

esjeon 3y ago

My theories: (1) Steam got a lot of new games. (2) Compatibility issues found deep inside games. (3) No compat issues, but issues with Steam Deck specifically.

bravetraveler 3y ago

1. Hardware requirements increase with time while the platform being verified against remains the same. They may run... just not well due to hardware limitations 2. Varies depending on how many games implement incompatible things like certain anti-cheats. Admittedly, this may only account for a small amount. They come/go in waves -- eg: looter/shooter trend 3. Steam Deck verified is a more strict qualification than Linux in general; tiny screen/resolution, gamepads, etc. 4. Finally, inconsistency between the rate-of-verification and rate-of-addition - these are not locked Probably more, these are what immediately come to mind