A handful of games in my Steam library don’t work with the Steam Deck default controller settings when I use a third-party, Bluetooth-based controller, such as PlayStation 4 controller. Specifically, using the controller’s D-pad or left analog stick to navigate a list of menu options within one of these games results in the game highlighting every other option, as if every D-pad press moves the selection by two items instead of the expected one item. In addition, some buttons on the controller might not function at all.

I believe that this happens when a game’s built-in controller support conflicts with Steam Input, the controller-support service that SteamOS applies by default to Steam Deck games. You can try to mitigate this conflict by disabling Steam Input for each affected game:

1. Connect the Bluetooth controller that you want to use with the game. When following the rest of these steps, use that controller, and not the Steam Deck’s built-in controller hardware.

2. From the Steam Deck home screen, click the game that you want to apply this fix to. The game’s detail screen opens.

3. Click the 🎮 (Controller-icon) button. The Controller Settings screen opens.

4. Click the ⚙️ (Gear-icon) button. The Layout Options pane appears.

5. Click Disable Steam Input.

6. Click Confirm.

7. Navigate back to the game detail screen.

8. To see if the controller works better now, click Play. Wait for the game to load, and then try to use its main menu normally.

If you ever want to revert to using Steam Input with this game, repeat the first two steps and then click Enable Steam Input.

I have successfully applied this fix to Luck be a Landlord and Slay the Princess, and I fully expect that it works with many other games. My thanks go out to Steam users AnguzBeef and Volks for their Steam Community posts that helped me investigate and confirm this solution.