During a talk from Steam Dev Days, Valve's Eric Hope detailed how the developer conceptualized, experimented with and created its Steam Controller.
According to Hope, the controller had to be capable of supporting play for everything in the Steam catalogue and comfortable enough for the living room. That meant creating a controller that could emulate both a keyboard and a mouse.
"We wanted to embody everything that made Steam and PC gaming in general great inside of a controller," Hope said.
To accomplish its goal, Valve experimented with several ideas, including motion controls and track balls. However, supporting these features would have resulted in a controller that was too heavy or expensive. From there, Valve moved on to trackpads.
You can watch the full talk above; presentations and panels from the event are now available online. Steam Dev Days took place in Seattle, Wash., from Jan. 15-16.
For more on the Steam controller and our hands-on impressions, check out our write-up from CES 2014.
