Big Ambitions – How to Run on Steam Deck

Guide to Run the Game

Note: Credit goes to KJ

Some people are already using it, so it might work with low graphics settings. It’s not supported however. Official support is planned later.

How to Run the Game

I’ve been enjoying playing Big Ambitions fully handheld on my Steam Deck the past couple of days. I figured I’d share my setup here in case people are struggling to get it working smoothly!

I’ve had no crashes with the following settings:

• Game Settings on Steam Deck -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Force use of a specific compatibility tool -> Proton 6.3-8
• Big Ambitions Option UI -> GFX Quality -> Low
• Big Ambitions Option UI -> Anti Aliasing -> Low

For my controller layout, I’ve modified the topmost layout by Nckyi to have a few handy features like right joystick camera controls, an alt key toggle so you can see all items and place items off grid easily, a keybinding for rotating items, and slider control via the bumpers which is nice for sleeping without using mouse input since Confirm is R5.

I highly recommend inverting rotation, turning on auto run, and rebinding in the game’s Control UI the steering controls to use the right joystick for steering left/right instead of keeping throttle, brakes, and steering all on the left joystick by default (WASD)!

Steering on the Steam Deck is really awful without rebinding to use both joysticks for control. I also recommend binding handbrake to a control which will help you come to a complete stop without reversing as easy, I use R5 as my handbrake and have some fun trying to drift with it when I’m in a rush.

Here’s a link to my layout, “Ambitious Layout for Big Ambitions V2” if you’d like to try it, it’s fully labeled with Big Ambition specific controls:

steam://controllerconfig/1331550/2949892922