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Elgato's Stream Deck

· 4 min read
Patryk Golebiowski
Security Engineer

So... I’ve always wanted to have a Stream Deck but never really had a real need to buy one; I don’t stream, after all :D
Fortunately, I received the Stream Deck Neo as a gift from friends <3.

I played with it a little but found that it has limited use for a normal user like me. I figured that maybe I could at least automate some Steam functionality. There are a couple of plugins that manage to do that, but none of them really suited my needs.

So I decided to write my own plugin... {/* truncate */}

Available plugins​

Currently there are five plugins available:

  • Steam Switcher
    It should allow user to switch between logged in Steam accounts, but it does not really work.
    Plugin correctly finds the accounts, fetches avatars and names, but when you try to switch, it just opens Steam without switching the account.

  • Steam Status Update
    Allows user to set the Steam status to Online, Away, Invisible or Offline and to open Steam pages like Games (Library), Friends, Downloads and Settings.

  • Steamscroll
    Looks pretty cool, but I'm unable to test it with my Stream Deck Neo.

  • Steam Price Tracker
    Allows user to track prices of apps on Steam.
    It fetches the current price and the discount (if any) and displays it on the button.
    I really like it, works very well.

  • Steam Connect I think it's the most advanced plugin of them all.
    It allows to:

    • launch the app,
    • launch app's news page,
    • manage the Steam status (similarly to Steam Status Update),
    • manage the Steam's Big Picture mode,
    • manage Music (I didn't even know Steam had a music player :D),
    • navigate the Steam pages (like the Steam Status Update but with more options),
    • connect to specific server? I did not test it.

Honestly, I think the plugins are quite enough to manage Steam.
Buuuuut I think there is still room for improvement.

My ideas​

  • What would I like to do?
  • Glad you asked, I'm thinking of:

Launch app​

An action key that would allow to launch Steam's app, but it should automatically fetch installed applications and their icons.
It would be similar to the Steam Connect's Launch App action, but with a dynamic app selection.

I don't think anyone would want to install app via Stream Deck.

Manage status​

An action key that would allow to set the Steam status (like Steam Status Update and Steam Connect), but the icon would change according to the current status.

That might be a bit tricky, as the plugin would need to fetch the current status from Steam.

Big picture mode​

An action key that would allow to toggle the Big Picture mode (like Steam Connect), but the icon would change according to the current mode (on/off).

Launch account​

An action key that would allow to switch between Steam accounts (like Steam Switcher), but it would actually work.
The plugin would need to fetch the accounts from Steam and display them on the button.

I'd like it to use the account's avatar as the icon, not necesarily the static image that's stored on the PC, but the one fetched from Steam with animations etc.

Thoughts​

Hm... It does not really look like a lot of features, but it should be enough to create a good base for future features.