Steam Deck might be the best way to play Disney Dreamlight Valley (with some tweaks)

The recently released multiplatform life simulation, dream light valleyis a bit animal crossinga little bit Stardew Valley, and lots of Disney. It’s also the kind of game you might want to play while watching a TV show and multitasking with a handheld console. But even though it came out on Switch, this version isn’t great. Happily, dream light valley Runs great on Steam Deck with a few tweaks. Just be prepared to charge your Steam deck before playing.

Don’t worry about what Steam says, it works

Steam is currently listing dream light valleyCompatibility with Steam Deck as “Unknown”, which is not surprising. This means that the game has yet to be verified by Valve for compatibility. Well, a question mark and lack of a verified tick might put you off, but don’t worry. After playing dream light valley For a few hours on Valve’s beautiful portable PC, I’ve found the experience to be on par with most other playable and verified titles.

However, you may need to change your library filters to actually find and install them. Just change the filter with the X button and toggle it to show all games, even unknown and unsupported ones. Then you should be able to see dream light valleyassuming you own it.

With a few tweaks, this is a great way to play

dream light valley on Steam Deck is a good experience from the start, but with a few tweaks you can greatly improve the way you play. Before any changes, the game runs at a stable 60 fps. It’s playable, sure, but can be improved.

First change the resolution to 1280 x 720 (dream light does not support the deck’s native 1280×800). Leave it at 60 Hz and reduce all graphics settings to medium. Don’t mess with the display mode setting because when I did this the game got locked on the Steam deck every time. But with these settings, you’ll notice a nice improvement in framerate stability. You can also lower the texture quality from the default to low, as the deck’s small screen hides the drop in quality well. But in my time with the game, it wasn’t a necessary tweak.

Continue reading: 27 things I wish I knew before I played Disney Dreamlight Valley

as soon as you have dream light valley If you’re doing well on the Steam deck, you can also take advantage of the touch screen, which allows you to easily move items around in your inventory and chests. If you’re like me and love reorganizing those rooms frequently, playing on Steam Deck is awesome compared to using a console controller. I find the game’s inventory management on a gamepad time-consuming and clunky, especially compared to a mouse or the deck’s touchscreen.

If you’re just logging in to check out the store, do some mining, and grow more crops, the Steam deck is perfect. Lately I’ve been spending an hour every night playing a little dream light valley while watching teacher or random YouTube videos.

Thoroughly charge your steam deck first

In my testing of battery draining games on the Steam deck, dream light valley is not the worst offender, not even close. But it drains the deck quicker than I expected. I guess all this Disney magic doesn’t come for free, right?

Using the settings I shared earlier and not tweaking the system’s battery settings, a fully charged Steam Deck seems to play for around two and a half to three hours depending on what you’re doing in game. Of course, changing the settings can affect battery life, but don’t expect much more than three hours.

In short, with a few small changes, dream light valley is great on deck. In fact, it might be the best way to play this new slice of life game, especially if you’re someone who likes to multitask or prefers to laze outside on the patio while playing. Just make sure you charge up your deck first.