Update Blogs + Steam Deck
In the coming weeks, we plan to highlight some of the most interesting and fun aspects of our upcoming update in our blog posts!
(For info on the original update announcement, see this post here!)
Make sure to follow us on Discord or Twitter to be notified when these blogs are released.
Steam Deck Support
I love the steam deck, it’s just great to be able to bring all kinds of new experiences on the go. So, we would love it if more people could enjoy Cloudbuilt on the go too!
On a first test we were pleasantly surprised to find that the game was already quite playable on the Steam Deck, but we still needed some improvements to make it actually good. Most of which will also benefit the game on the PC too.
Button Icons
First we have the gamepad button icons. Previously, we only had icons for the Xbox 360 controller (wow Cloudbuilt is old). We've now fixed it so we can detect the controller you're using and automatically select an appropriate icon set for you. (We've also included the option to override this selection in the settings). In addition to the original Xbox icon set, we've added a modern Xbox set, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and, of course, we've also added a set specifically for the Steam Deck. Some of these sets even come with greyscale, and colored variants.
Colored PS5 button icons on the left, Steam Deck icons on the right.
Mouse + Gamepad
We also improved the ability to use simultaneous mouse and gamepad input. This was a cool feature for the first Steam controller, and also for the Steam Deck. As it can be nice to use the gamepad's analogue input for movement, while also being able to aim more precisely with a mouse or touchpad.
However, this can be a bit tricky to implement in a game where you automatically switch between different menu and button icons depending on the input device being used. It’s not just that, but also whether to display the mouse cursor in menus or not. You might want to hide it when using the mouse as a part of a gamepad scheme, but you absolutely want it on when playing with the mouse and keyboard. After some reworks, we think we've found a solution that works pretty seamlessly. But if you find any issues, be sure to let us know!
Text and Resolutions
In addition to these features, we also spent some time improving support for lower game resolutions, especially on the small screen of the Steam Deck.
Some areas with a lot of text, like some popup menus options, can be particularly difficult to read on small screens. We've done our best to make these areas more readable, but it's only so much that can be done without a complete redesign. We tested the game more properly at higher resolutions too, like 4K, and made adjustments to improve readability there too. It led to reevaluation of pretty much all text rendering in the game. A bit bigger task than we initially anticipated!
In our next blog post, we'll be covering a pretty substantial update to gamepad controls that we've had in mind for quite a long time – we're excited to share it with you soon! Make sure to follow us on Discord or Twitter to be notified when it's released.
Thanks for reading!
