The game must first be installed before we can configure it, so go ahead and do that like normal. You will need to use this guide in Desktop Mode on your Deck to open the links and to move files around. Preview of result:

1. Go into Desktop Mode.
   
   
2. Choose Proton 8.0-5 for the game. This fixes the camera spinning issue and allows analogue joystick control. (Game Page > Cog Icon > Properties > Compatibility. Check the box and select Proton 8.0-5 from the drop-down).
   
   
   
   
3. Add this launch option (Game Page > Cog Icon > Properties > General) without the first and last quotes: "WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%". This is for the widescreen patch coming up.
   
   
   
   
4. Change the control scheme to this community layout: wamel's Steam Deck Tweaks. You can get straight to it by pasting this into Konsole ("System" tab in the Start menu) without quotes: "steam steam://controllerconfig/3830/3373856364". It will take a second to load, then press X to apply the layout.
   
   
   
   
5. Download the button textures [mega.nz]
   
   
6. Extract the files to this folder: ".../steamapps/common/Psychonauts/WorkResource/Textures/Icons/UI_Icons". If any folders don't exist, simply create them yourself, minding capitalisation. You can get here faster from the game's library page on Steam (Game Page > Cog Icon > Manage > Browse local files).
   
   
   
   
7. Download the Psychonauts Widescreen Fix [github.com]
   
   
8. Extract the files to your base game directory: ".../steamapps/common/Psychonauts".
   
   
9. Open "Psychonauts.WidescreenFix.ini" inside the "scripts" folder and change the value of "WidescreenHudOffset" to 111.111. This scales the UI properly for 16:10.
   
   

Everything outside the game is now done. You can return to Gaming Mode and launch the game.

Once in-game, the controls must be bound manually, but:

If this is your first time playing the game and you have not created a profile in-game yet, you will end up on the profile creation screen after the opening cinematics, and will have to go through a few extra steps. If you've already created a profile, you should end up on the title screen instead, and should skip to section B below.

Quick tip: Press Select to skip the opening cinematics if you don't want to watch them. If it's your first time playing, you should definitely watch them! After binding the controls, you'll be able to skip these with B next time, a more logical button.


For some reason it is impossible to pause and rebind your controls here, so you will have to go through this next short section of the game as-is until you can pause.

1. Choose one of the three bunks available with the Left Joystick. You might be prompted to press P on the keyboard to confirm, but you can just press A. Press Select to close popup dialogs.
   
   
2. Choose a name for the profile. This doesn't affect the game at all; it can be your own name if you want. Steam + X to bring up the virtual keyboard. Hit Enter or close the keyboard and press A to confirm when done. It's okay to leave it as "Raz" if you want.
   
   
3. Go through the "look around" tutorial; the Right Joystick should be working.
   
   
4. After this, you will finally be in-game, with a brief cutscene of a bunch of kids running past Raz as he exits the cabin. At this point, you are able to press Select to pause. Instead of binding your controls just yet, exit to the title screen and exit and restart the game (Select and then use the Right Trackpad). This is because there is some bugginess when trying to bind your controls. It must be done on the title screen on a fresh instance of the game.

After restarting the game, you should end up on the title screen after the opening cinematics this time, and can continue to section B below. Read the notice before touching anything!


Note: You must not move the Left or Right Joysticks until it's time to bind them! There is some extremely weird behaviour where the left trigger stops being recognised as its assigned keyboard key after the game receives controller input (the joysticks are mapped as joysticks, not keyboard keys), gets seen as Enter (A) instead, and thus cannot be bound. Make sure to bind the joysticks only after you do L2 - by doing L2 first or just doing the joysticks last. You mustn't move them even outside of the controls screen before this. See the first known issue in the next section if this gets messed up.

1. Press Select to pause, and use the Right Trackpad to navigate the menu (warning, it's clunky), and click the trackpad for a Left Click.
   
   
2. Go to Options > Controls > Bindings and hit "Defaults" at the bottom to reset everything.
   
   
3. You are now free to assign your controls as you like. The labels provided in the Steam Input control scheme match the default gamepad bindings, but they are only suggestions. For instance, I like Use on L1 and PSI Power 3 on Y.
   
   In order to get the game to display the button prompts correctly, it's a bit finnicky. You need to bind everything to the right-hand column, and make sure the left column is clear. The best way to do this is to bind each control twice - left column first, then right, leaving the left column empty by the end. Don't forget to do L2 first, and then don't try to rebind it after moving the joysticks.

• The joystick directional bindings are paired by axis. This is why you'll only have one "JoyY" and one "JoyX" once you've done them all. It's normal. Again though, do these (and the stick clicks) last.
  
  
• For the Right Joystick, the keyboard keys F1 and F2 are incorrectly shown as the bindings for "Look Left/Right" and "Look Up/Down" respectively. It's in this menu only; everything still works like normal.
  
  
• You need to click the up and down arrows on the top and bottom left to get to the other bindings. There is no scrolling.
  
  
• Select is bound to Escape in order to pause for the first time. It is not needed afterwards, but it also cannot be bound to anything in-game, since pressing Escape while the game is waiting for an input will cancel the bind, not assign it. If you really want to use it for something, rebind Select from Escape to the Home key (Numpad tab) within Steam Input, then bind it in-game. This will ensure the proper texture for the button shows up.
  
  
• Similarly, DPad Up and Down are not used by the game by default, but if you really want to use them, bind DPad Up to "Keypad /", and DPad Down to "Keypad -" within Steam Input (also Numpad tab) to make sure the correct textures show up, and then bind them in-game.

• Bugginess occurs if you try to bind L2 at any point after moving the joysticks. It gets recognised as Enter and shows up as A, and A subsequently becomes unbound upon returning to the title screen, requiring you to rebind both controls. If this gets messed up, restart the game first, then rebind (without touching the joysticks). It's probably a good idea to find the controls you like and then never touch them again.
  
  
• The controls tend to get reset if you choose to load a saved game from the title screen (as opposed to continuing), as well as in some other scenarios. If you want to load a particular save, load it first, then once in-game, create a new save (So that it's your most recent, and will be selected when you next continue from the title screen), then restart the game, rebind everything, and choose to continue.
  
  
• The joysticks and DPad are supposed to be animated in the in-game control tutorials, but I don't know how to fix them. They do at least show up correctly, just not animated.

That's it! Enjoy the game.

Thank you to polocatfan for putting in the work on the original Steam Deck guide which sadly got removed.