Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale – Steam Deck Setup Guide (Audio Fix, Fan Noise Reduction)

Explains how to get audio working on Steam Deck.

Introduction

I’ve seen several posts about audio issues when playing Recettear on a Steam Deck in the Discussions for the game, so I figured it might be nice to have a guide to help with setting up the game for the best experience on the Steam Deck.

If all is well, this guide should help with setting up Recettear for an enjoyable experience on Steam Deck. However, if there are any questions or comments about the contents of this guide, please let me know! I’ll do my best to keep it updated if there is anything major I’ve missed.

Note on audio delay:

I haven’t tested this, but I suspect that either having an older Proton GE version (than the one I mentioned in the audio fix sections) and/or setting the Watts in the Performance sidebar menu too low (mentioned in the performance tweaks section) introduces the audio delay that I’ve seen mentioned in several of Recettear’s Discussions related to the Steam Deck. If you are noticing an audio delay compared to playing on PC, please let me know which Proton GE version and which Watts setting you use so I can investigate this particular issue.

Switching Over to Desktop Mode (for Steam Deck Beginners)

Before following the step-by-step guide below, make sure your Steam Deck is turned on and has no games or other software running in Gaming Mode.

• Press the Steam button on the Steam Deck.
• In the sidebar menu that opens, click on the Power option (at the very bottom).
• In the newly opened pop-up menu, click on Switch to Desktop Mode (one option above the very bottom option).

[Audio Fix] Setting Up ProtonUp-Qt in Desktop Mode

Part 1: ProtonUp-Qt Installation

• Open the Discover app. (You can find it in the Application Launcher, which is basically the Start menu. Open it by clicking on the Steam Deck logo on the far left side of the taskbar and find it in the System category.)
• Without opening any of the categories, click on the Search field at the top-right corner of the Discover app and type in “Proton”. This should either give you a list of applications or pull up the ProtonUp-Qt app.
• Click on the Install button for ProtonUp-Qt.

After a successful installation, ProtonUp-Qt can be found in the Utilities category within the Application Launcher.

Part 2: ProtonUp-Qt setup

• Launch ProtonUp-Qt.
• In the Install For field, make sure Steam is selected. (It should be by default.)
• Click the Add Version button.
• In the Compatibility Tool field, select GE-Proton.
• In the Version field, select the top one. (If the top one gives you issues, the version I’ve been using is GE-Proton7-37, but newer versions might give even better compability/performance/etc. I do not notice an audio delay in-game with this version, but your mileage may differ.)
• Click Install.

Whenever a new Proton GE version is available, it can be installed using the ProtonUp-Qt app, provided it has been kept up to date using the Discover app. Be sure to check for updates once in a while or when you’re having issues!

[Audio Fix] Selecting a Custom Proton Version in Gaming Mode

Note: You can use ProtonUp-Qt to set up a Proton version per installed Steam game, but I personally prefer to do these things in Gaming Mode as it allows for easier input using the physical Steam Deck buttons.

For the following steps, make sure the Steam Deck is in Gaming Mode. (If you’re still in Desktop Mode, hide/close all open windows and click the Return to Gaming Mode icon in the top-left corner of the desktop.) Also, if you haven’t already, install Recettear. The Steam Deck will throw up a compatibility warning, but you can just ignore that and proceed with the installation.

• Click on Recettear to open its game page.
• Click on the Gear icon, then on Properties….
• Go to the Compatibility tab, then check the checkbox that says Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
• In the new drop-down box that appears, select the Proton GE version you’ve installed using ProtonUp-Qt in Desktop Mode. (For me, installed Proton GE versions appear at the top of the list.)
• Close out of the window and try playing the game to see whether the sound works.

[General Tweak] Performance Settings

I’ve noticed that my Steam Deck tends to make a lot of fan noise whenever I play using the default performance settings, so I tried seeing what I could do to reduce it.

• Launch Recettear first.
• Press the physical … button on the deck (below the right trackpad, bottom-right corner of the front).
• Select the Battery icon in the right sidebar menu. This opens up the Performance submenu.
• Click on the Advanced View button below the Performance Overlay Level slider.

In the Performance menu, I have these settings set up:

• Use per-game profile: On
• Framerate Limit: 60
• Refresh Rate: 60
• Half Rate Shading: On
• Thermal Power (TDP) Limit: On
• Watts: 6
• Manual GPU Clock Control: Off
• Scaling Filter: Linear
• Show Perf Overlay in Steam: Off (“Perf Overlay” refers to the performance overlay you can activate by moving the Performance Overlay Level slider.)

Note: The Use per-game profile option does not appear if you don’t have Recettear launched, meaning you are changing the default settings for every game on the Steam Deck, which might affect performance in other games.

I find that having 6 watts considerably reduces the Steam Deck’s fan noise, while not severely hampering performance. You can increase or decrease this number as desired, but be mindful that going very low will reduce responsiveness and load times, while going very high will activate the fans to help cool the increase in temperature and it will drain your Steam Deck’s battery faster.