100 Steam Deck OLEDs will be given away during The Game Awards 2023

The Game Awards 2023 is approaching and just like last year, they will be hosting a giveaway so you can win! This time it's the Steam Deck OLED for 100 people! Specifically, it's the 1TB model too.

You need to be in a supported country to be in for a chance to win which includes: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States. You also need to be at least 18 years old.

When does the giveaway begin?

December 7th, 2023 - 4:30 PM PST / December 8th, 2023 - 12:30 AM UTC.

When does it end?

December 7th, 2023 - 8 PM PST / December 8th, 2023 - 4AM UTC.

Pretty terrible timing for those of us in the UK / EU.

See more on the official giveaway website.

Valve also have their own special The Game Awards 2023 page.

You'll be able to watch the full event via many different platforms like YouTube at the same starting time as the giveaway, see The Game Awards website for all the info.

• Narrative-focused expansion Astral Planes released for Stellaris
• Wine 8.21 brings High-DPI scaling and initial Vulkan support for Wayland
• Heroes of Might and Magic II game engine fheroes2 v1.0.10 released

dotAGE adds controller support - working towards Steam Deck Verified

dotAGE is a challenging turn-based village builder, one that will suck away a lot of your time. It's a genuinely great game and it only keeps getting better! Now it has controller support, as the dev works towards being Steam Deck Verified and it already has Native Linux support too.

"Dotage has deep worker placement mechanics inspired by board games. Build your village and assign your workers to their daily tasks, grow crops, herd animals, bury corpses, forge tools, upgrade buildings, train professionals, and produce dozens of resources. Each turn, the Domains, the forces that govern the world, will unleash increasingly powerful events on your village. From poison, to disease, to earthquakes, to kittens. Will you be able to survive them all and find out what is causing the apocalypse?"

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I actually missed writing it up when it released back in early October — woops! The developer did send over a key, and I've spent a number of hours with it recently and it has been quite hard to put down. You really do want just one more turn to see what it's going to throw at you next. Having proper controller support too, that's going to make staying away from it in bed with a Steam Deck quite difficult.

The controller support uses Steam Input, with official Xbox and Steam Deck layouts, and seamless switching between mouse/keyboard and controller along with plenty of UI improvements for controller players.

Other stuff that's new:

New Feature: Doomsday Mechanic

• Added new Doomsday mechanic. This allows snowballing runs to end sooner.
• Doomsday Tower building is unlocked if you research the whole tree, or if you complete a game
• Building the Doomsday Tower will trigger the Apocalypse immediately

New Feature: Mini-Apocalypses

• Added mini Apocalypse events!
• They work like Omens that do not increase threat level, and they come at a reduced strength (-2) compared to the current threat
• They have effects similar to Omens, and take from their pools
• They always happen 3 days before the corresponding Apocalypse

New Buildings

• Added new building, Doomsday Tower, tied to the Doomsday mechanic
• Added new building, Large Buoy, as an upgrade to Buoy
• Added new building, Stone Toolmaker, as an upgrade to Stone Workbench

New Score Formula

• Pips and Buildings now give 0 points for scoring
• Protected Events now give 200 points instead of 100
• Saved turns now give 300 points

UX

• Added glyphs to Tutorial
• Highscore tables are now separated per Elder
• Revised highscore screen to support new scoring
• Cycle pulsing now won't zoom anymore on creatures and will pulse only one at a time
• Added "minimum font size" setting
• Added a few controller-specific settings
• Added several new hotkeys
• Added hint for Doomsday Tower
• Added new UI and text for Mini-Apocalypses

Available to buy from:

Steam

• Valve reveals Steam Deck OLED for November 16th
• Wine 8.20 brings DirectMusic improvements and preparations for Wine 9.0
• Nexus Mods App is an in-development replacement for Vortex that will support Linux

Check out the demo for Planetiles, a chilled city-builder like Dorfromantik

Enjoy games like Dorfromantik that have you build tiles and expand while mostly just chilling? Then you're going to want to look at Planetiles. Just recently the developer emailed in to notify their new demo "is 100% perfectly playable and optimised for Steam Deck and Linux".

You build natural habitats on remote planets to satisfy quests, and earn bonuses with strategic placement. You get various planet sizes, unlockables and the landscape changes and evolves with your choices. As you progress you'll also uncover special structures thanks to your clever tile placement choices, which can give you some special actions. So you get to turn a few trees into a big forest, and create distinct biomes. There's also no end-game, so you can keep planet hopping and building up until you want to take a break.

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Looks like another wonderful chilled game to keep an eye on! It really does sound like Dorfromantik and Tiny Atolls in space.

Go check it out on Steam.

• Proton Experimental fixes controls in Starfield and supports Assassin's Creed Mirage
• Valve detail their plans to combat Steam Deck OLED scalpers
• EmulationStation Desktop Edition v2.2 brings huge additions

The incredibly weird psychedelic physics game Juice Galaxy got a Steam release

A game I checked out back in 2021, Juice Galaxy (formerly Juice World), is a thoroughly odd game that is terribly hard to actually describe.

It's a very colourful and quirky open-world psychedelic physics game, where nothing really makes any sense. Look, I'm trying real hard to make any sense out of this one and I'm just stumped. Even the developer can't really describe it as they say "Juice Galaxy is a happy place to fly around and smack things and drink juice. And explore things. And just, flip around doing stuff. Use any of a multitude of weapons to clobber and devour the local wildlife. Gather juice to increase your power and take on more powerful enemies".

Take a look at the trailer:

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That is indeed…a video game.

It has Native Linux support and is now available on Steam in Early Access.

• Cute space-cat survival game MewnBase 1.0 is out now
• Valve detail their plans to combat Steam Deck OLED scalpers
• An Amazing Wizard is a bland name for a game but it looks like great chaos

Check out some midweek Steam Deck Verified picks

Keeping up with all the latest games going through verification for Steam Deck, here's another set of picks for you to take a look at. All of the games listed below are Steam Deck Verified and gain the status only recently, so they should work without any issues. I'll also list any ProtonDB rating for you too.

Sea of Survivors

"In Sea of Survivors, you can sail your ship in any direction but you can never stop moving. Evade and destroy hordes of pirates and sea monsters to gain experience, level up and choose upgrades for your ship. Discover mysterious curses, unlock unique treasures and fight for survival."

Battle Shapers

"Battle Shapers is a blazing-fast, sci-fi FPS roguelite in which you shoot and smash your way through swarms of corrupt robots. Wield powerful weapons, abilities and game-changing new powers stolen from ruthless Overlords."

GUNHEAD

"Gunhead is a fast paced strategic roguelike FPS where you take the role of a pirate mech with a gun for a head, looting derelict spaceships filled with monstrous drones made out of bone and steel. Sequel to the 2d roguelite Cryptark."

Disgaea PC (ProtonDB Gold)

"The hotheaded Laharl seeks to be the next big Overlord in the Netherworld...and will destroy anyone that gets in his way! With his devious vassal Etna and the angel trainee Flonne as his unlikely allies, he must battle his way to supremacy and retake the throne in this over-the-top RPG adventure!"

Kona II: Brume (Native Linux)

"Northern Québec, 1970. A bizarre mist —the Brume— is disconnecting a rural mining village from its quiet reality. Step into the shoes of Detective Carl Faubert as he unfolds the mysteries haunting the region while battling for his own survival."

Wargroove 2 (ProtonDB Gold)

"Trouble stirs on the shores of Aurania. An ambitious new faction has unearthed forbidden relics capable of catastrophic consequences. But how far will they go to achieve glory? Take to the battlefield, sea, and sky with a cast of new Commanders, using your wits to wage turn-based war!"

Kingdoms and Castles (Native Linux)

"Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated."

Don't forget to check out what games were popular on Steam Deck in November 2023. Be sure to check out the Steam Deck tag for dedicated news too!

• Humble brings back the WB: 100 Play the Legends Bundle - still a really good deal
• Wine 8.21 brings High-DPI scaling and initial Vulkan support for Wayland
• Bzzzt is a gorgeous looking jump-dash-run retro platformer out now