Alex0007It will be a thread of various demos I've tried on the SteamDeck recently
Shotgun Cop Man
High precision action-platformer. The gimmick is: you are jumping by shooting. Very fluid and enjoyable gameplay. Surprisingly controls are well-adjusted for gamepads.
90 FPS with reasonable TDP limit on the SteamDeck makes it a great game for the device.
RKGK / Rakugaki
Linear 3D platformer with isolated levels and some hub where you return to. Cool soundtrack, movement mechanics are okay-ish. But level design is bad/frustrating. Characters / dialogues are boring.
45 FPS with native resolution or 50-60 FPS with AMD FSR scaling. Optimization isn't great
Olija
Great pixel art and fluid combat with a grounded feel. I picked it up at an 80% discount.
RUBATO
Awesome platformer with it's own style and great humor!
Denshattack!
You are riding train and doing crazy tricks! Hard to master, but feels so great. People will def like it when released. Smooth 60 FPS on Deck, but eats up battery quite fast
Hypogea
Robot with a hook traversing megastructure. 90 FPS on the Deck with reasonable TDP. Movement mechanics haven't evolved during the whole demo sequence, so I'm afraid it will be like this in full game. Vibes and atmosphere are great, but game not hooked me at the place where demo has ended
Babushka's Glitch Dungeon
Cute game, but on the Deck it cannot hold even 60 FPS consistently for some reason (while from the art-style you probably would expect 90 FPS on 10W TDP). Default keybindings are weird. No way to change game language from the settings. But the game definitely worth checking!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1876850/Babushkas_Glitch_Dungeon/
Dome Keeper
Boring gameplay loop with no meaning in everything happening in the run with 0 actual "gameplay". Aka tower defence Vampire Survivors clone. Didn't enjoyed this one at all
The Eternal Life of Goldman
The backgrounds are incredibly beautiful, though the visual complexity can make the levels difficult to read. If you are playing the demo on a Steam Deck, I recommend turning HDR off, as the current implementation is broken. Performance: 90 FPS at a 13W TDP. I am not yet sure about the story (UPD.: the story is there and is interesting), but the game is worth checking out simply for its visuals.
Candidate for 10/10 game for sure
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2254950/The_Eternal_Life_of_Goldman/
Chants of Sennaar
Puzzle game where you interpret glyphs into words, interesting concept. Puzzle lovers should enjoy it (I'm not a puzzle lover). Demo ended suddenly without plot hooks or mechanics progress, so I wasn't hooked, because all glyphs I faced were too easy.
Game is leaning more toward keyboard controls, though it played just fine on gamepad (and has a built-in input mechanism to add notes to glyphs).
Optimisation for the Deck is insane. ~5 hours on 9W TDP
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1931770/Chants_of_Sennaar/
MULLET MADJACK
Feels and plays great on the Deck. 6+ difficulty settings, so should be accessible for everyone. Really enjoyed this one
