Community-Made Steam Deck Controller Shown For First Time

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Last month, I saw that Kamp (@KampCreates) posted on Twitter/X about creating his own controller based on the Steam Deck's gamepad. He showed it off as a 3D model, and it would have all of the inputs that the Steam Deck has, including the back buttons, and would function largely the same. It looked like the dream controller I had always wanted ever since I got the Deck, and not too long ago, Kamp posted some updates showing the first real look at the controller in the flesh.

With a new Steam Controller seemingly being teased by Valve, with a model of "Project Ibex" being found in SteamVR's drivers, Kamp decided to show off his version of the controller, which finally has a physical model! It looks almost identical to what I would think a Steam Deck gamepad would look like if they just took a Deck and removed the screen.

For a first run, this is an awesome controller. It has all the necessary inputs that I would want, with two back buttons on each side, and it is cool that this is made purely with actual Steam Deck materials. The biggest issue I see right now is how big the controller is. It makes me think of an original Xbox controller when seeing the picture of this controller side by side with the Xbox One controller:

This is still very early on, so there is still time for the controller and specifics to change, but I am actually more optimistic than not. I like the placement of the inputs, and while I would love to see the controller be a little smaller, I am not sure how much smaller it could be made while keeping the trackpads and back buttons.

There is no timeline or decision on whether this will be made publicly available or sold to others, but I would love to have a controller like this to use for when my Steam Deck is docked!

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