ISLANDERS: New Shores is Steam Deck Verified – Try the Demo Now!

We’ve got some exciting news for handheld players – ISLANDERS: New Shores is officially Steam Deck Verified!

That means the full game (coming 10th July!) and the demo available now have been tested to make sure they run smoothly right out of the box on Steam Deck. And we’re happy to say it plays great – this chill, score-based city builder is right at home in your hands.

We wanted to share a few tips if you’re curious about performance, battery life, and settings. Of course, you don’t need to tweak anything if you don’t want to – the game runs beautifully on default settings – but for those of you who like to optimise, here’s what we’ve found during our own play sessions:

Default Experience

• High Graphics Preset

• 1280x800 resolution

• Capped at 60fps

• Smooth and responsive – perfect for on-the-go relaxing builds

• ~3.5+ hours battery life on our older Deck

Power Saver Option

• Low Graphics Preset

• TDP limit to 4W

• Manual GPU clock ~300MHz

• Refresh rate capped at 40Hz

• In-game v-sync set to 30fps

• ~5+ hours of play on a full charge

If you’re new to tinkering with Steam Deck settings, don’t worry – you don’t need to adjust a thing. But for those of you who love to fine-tune, there’s room to stretch battery life even further while keeping things running smooth.

And don’t forget – the demo is live right now! If you want to get a feel for how it plays before launch, it’s a great time to jump in and build your first island 🌴

If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to drop them in the comments. We’re always happy to help!

Team ISLANDERS