Steam Controller took "easily hundreds" of attempts to get its layout right, but did Valve nail it?

The Steam Controller was first envisioned almost as soon as the Steam Deck landed, and, according to Valve product designers Lawrence Yang and Steve Cardinali, those early stages of its development involved "easily hundreds" of initial prototypes. Wanting to create a product that harnessed the brilliance of the dual-trackpad controller design of the Steam Deck, the team set to work finding the perfect accompaniment to its handheld that would allow the Steam Deck's full functionality to be used while docked, while unlocking a new way of interacting with your gaming PC.

Speaking to PCGamesN in the run-up to the Steam Controller launch, Yang and Cardinali spoke at length about how a small team of just four Valve employees started work on the Steam Controller back in early 2023, and how those early stages were all about ultra-rapid iteration with designs worked on "multiple times a day." Using in-house 3D printing, the team worked through hundreds of different static layout options before focusing in on the design I tested in my Steam Controller review.

The design process involved many different non-functioning prototypes being created, initially just to get a sense of the ergonomics of the device, testing for overall shape, grip contours, button placements, and, of course, how to integrate two trackpads along with all the other controls you get on the Steam Controller. This initial process involved "easily hundreds of different layouts," according to Cardinali, including over 20 different orientations for those trackpads.

With this initial stage out of the way, Cardinali told me that the next stage was working on 20-30 functional prototypes. These incorporated the controls now seen in the final unit, but with slightly different layouts or configurations of the actual functioning parts.

Along the way, the team identified the opportunity to improve the ergonomics of the Steam Deck's inputs by increasing the size of the face buttons and trackpads, improving the feel of the thumbstick grips, and enhancing the responsiveness of the Dpad, particularly to diagonal inputs. The latter included the company "[working] with some" fighting game professionals to gauge how the D-pad of the Steam Deck could be improved.

The result is the Steam Controller that we now all know, and which of course sold out within minutes, leading to Steam Controller stock appearing on every reseller site. Such is the way with tech scalpers.

Still, even if you can't get hold of a Steam Controller just yet, you can at least grab a funky-looking dbrand skin (via this link) to protect your controller when it does arrive. I'm a particular fan of the glow in the dark circuit variant myself.

Is there any one aspect of the Steam Controller design that you wish Valve had done differently? Why not let us know your thoughts over on our Discord server, or, of course, let us and Valve know via our social channels.