Dressmaker on Steam Deck: controls, zoom and saves

Valve rates Dressmaker Playable on the Steam Deck. Valve's notes say the default controls work through the whole game, and it runs well on the default settings. They also say the game shows keyboard and mouse pictures, not the Deck's buttons, some text is hard to read on the Deck's screen, and the picture has small display problems that don't stop you playing.

The controls page shows the same test, with the date Valve's result was read.

Dressmaker comes for Windows and Mac, with no Linux version. So a Steam Deck plays the Windows game through Proton, Steam's tool for running Windows games.

You don't need to set anything up for that. Steam picks Proton by itself when you press Play.

• CTRLZoom
• CTRLWSADOrbit Camera

On the mannequin screen, point at the spot you want to see and tap Z, or press the mouse wheel down like a button. Keep it quick: a press longer than 0.25 seconds won't zoom.

So a button you map for zoom has to be tapped, not held. Holding it is how you look around once you're zoomed in.

• Rolling the mouse wheel turns the mannequin around. Hold Ctrl as you roll, and it zooms instead. While the pointer is on a menu, the wheel leaves the mannequin alone.
• In the cutting room, roll the mouse wheel to turn the selected piece, 9 degrees at a time.

• Finish Placement
• Remove Item
• Send to inventory

• SpaceSew
• WSChange Speed (at the sewing machine)
• ADRotate (at the sewing machine)
• QERotate
• SHIFTPlace Multiple

The tip players share most: map middle mouse click, or the Z key, to a back button. One player uses R4, the top right back button, for middle click. Out of the box, L1 and R1 act as the mouse wheel, so they turn the mannequin instead of zooming. Holding Ctrl while you roll the wheel zooms, though, so a button mapped to Ctrl turns them into a smooth zoom.

Steam and L1 together open the Deck's own screen magnifier. That's a Steam feature, not the game's zoom.

One player shared this layout for the whole game:

• R2 is left click and L2 is right click.
• L1 and R1 are the mouse wheel, to turn the mannequin.
• R4 is middle click, to zoom.
• The D-pad is W, A, S and D.
• The left stick is Q and E, to turn an accessory while you place it.
• Clicking the left stick is Shift, to place several accessories in a row.
• The right stick moves the pointer, and the right trackpad points with more care.

You can also search the community layouts in Steam's controller settings. Some players load one of those instead of making their own.

A player says the touchscreen helps a lot when placing accessories: tap where you want the pointer instead of steering it there.

Your save sits in the Windows save folder inside the game's Proton files. In Desktop Mode, open Dolphin, show hidden files (Ctrl and H), and go to ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/4019220/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/LocalLow/Cozy Lives/Dressmaker. If the game is on a microSD card, look in the steamapps folder on the card.

• There are three save slots, and each one is a single file: player.json, player1.json and player2.json.

The game's debug mode can export a save on one device and import it on another. The saves guide has the steps. You need the left Ctrl and left Shift keys plus C, so plug in a keyboard, or set one Deck button to press all three in Steam's controller settings.

Back up both save folders before you import. Import Save always writes over the first slot.