Let me be upfront with you: controller support at launch is going to be partial. Here's why, and what the plan looks like going forward.
Why?
Endless Corridors was built, from the ground up, around keyboard and mouse input. Every UI interaction, every menu, every in-game mechanic - all designed with a cursor in mind. For a long time, that was fine. Horror games on PC have always leaned into that control scheme, and frankly, the mouse gives you a precision that works well with the game's tense, deliberate pacing.
Controller support wasn't part of the original design. It was something I decided to add later, and that decision - while I still think it's the right one - has consequences.
The Steam Deck changes things
The real motivator behind committing to full controller support is the Steam Deck. I want Endless Corridors to be playable on it, and Valve has a clear compatibility checklist to hit the verified status. Full controller support isn't optional if you want to play properly on Linux handheld hardware - it's a requirement.
Playing a survival horror game on a Steam Deck actually sounds like a great experience to me. Huddled in the dark, headphones in, something hunting you through a maze that never ends. That's worth getting right. But getting it right takes time.
The refactoring problem
Here's where I'll be honest about the unglamorous side of solo development. When a game is designed around one input method and you bolt on another, you don't just add a few bindings. You have to go through UI systems, inventory interactions, menus, prompts, context actions - basically everything that assumes a mouse cursor exists - and rethink how it works without one.
Navigation that feels natural with a cursor can feel completely broken with a thumbstick. D-pad selection on menus that were built for point-and-click requires restructuring how focus and selection work. Some of it is a relatively clean swap; other parts require pulling apart systems that have been working fine for years.
As a single developer, that kind of refactoring is time-consuming. It's also, to be blunt, not the most exciting work. Hunting through UI code to fix focus traversal is a very different feeling from working on the parts of the game that actually end up in screenshots and trailers.
Why release before it's finished
The core game - the corridors, the survival, the atmosphere - is what matters most right now. I'd rather get that into your hands in a playable state than delay everything waiting for perfect controller parity.
Partial support at launch means you can use a controller for the core gameplay, but some parts of the UI and menus may still expect keyboard and mouse. I'll be clear about what works and what doesn't when the time comes.
After launch, I can focus specifically on improving controller support without it blocking everything else. Updates are much easier to scope when the game is already out, and I can prioritise the roughest edges first based on how people are actually playing.
The roadmap (rough)
My plan post-launch is to chip away at this in chunks:
- In-game controls — movement, interaction, will be in the first release.
- Inventory and management UI — this will need the most work and is the piece I expect to take the longest.
- Full menu navigation — complete cursor-free UI traversal throughout the whole game.
- Steam Deck verified — once all of that is solid, the goal is to hit Valve's full verified status.
I'll post updates as each stage lands. If you're planning to play on Steam Deck specifically, I'd recommend checking back after the first few post-launch patches.
Thanks for bearing with the reality of small-team development. The game will get there - it just won't all be there on day one.
— Lorcan