I was hoping that would be a card deck games making jam

I was hoping it was a new game you play with porch builders who build porches for the poor held together with nothing but raspberry jam.

It’s even better, it’s totally unrelated and non-restricted to running on a singular piece of hardware. A “Steam Deck game jam” would be a Linux game jam. Leave the proprietary hardware out of it.

I don't think it's better or worse. Restrictive hardware targets are a perfectly valid game jam. I am amazed to see NES game jams, Gameboy jams, Playdate, etc.

A Steam Deck game jam would not be simply a Linux game jam. The form factor and capabilities of the device could have creative uses. The device includes unusual rear buttons (R4, R5, L4, L5), touch-sensitive joysticks, dual trackpads which are also clickable, etc. -- it's not really fair to say that targetting a game for this piece of hardware is simply targetting Linux, just because the device runs Linux.

But the software would probably still run on Linux even if you didn’t run it on a deck. All of that is control mapping and nothing the deck provides is specifically unique. The game would be developed on not-a-Steam-Deck most likely.

Gameboy games aren't typically developed on Gameboy (though NES games used to be!) and most consoles will run on linux via emulation or ("simulation" in the case of Playdate).

The steam deck has some unique features. And regardless, it's just about sparking creativity. But I am curious if anyone has gotten Aperture Desk Job (Steam Deck exclusive) to run on another device.

Yes you can play Aperture Desk Job on your PC. Steam even provides mapping support for software if you couldn’t. Gyroscopic features can be mapped to a mouse movement.

isn't it a low-fi slideshow presentation jam? how is that better

How is it worse?

This is the trouble with namespace collision. It's like making an "Apple Game Jam" that's actually only about fruit. People are going to reach for the most immediate correlation they can get, and when you read "Deck" and "Game" in the same sentence most people will probably think Valve. Heck, I don't even own a Deck and when I saw "Decker" my mind skipped the Hypercard correlation and thought it was a new name Deck owners called themselves. I'd forgive people that came in with maligned expectations :p

Especially if you can’t be bothered to click the link before commenting and assume that only corporations can own a word. When I read Decker I thought it might be related to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and be side stories about Deckard.

Given that "Decker" is not a real word, I'm not quite sure what you're expecting out of people here. The title is about as ambiguous as it can be and doesn't communicate anything about itself besides "Deck" and "Decker". When you leave that much to the imagination, people will be confused. Even people like me, who had seen Decker before and know about Hypercard enthusiasts.

What is the value of not reading the article and playing Schrödinger's game jam?