It runs great on Steam Deck. :)

I don’t have one of those; does that mean it should run on my Linux desktop? Usually the page on Steam will indicate if it’s supported. I’m not a gamer, so I don’t really go out of my way to use WINE or whatever, but I will play a game if it’s supported.

If it runs on the steam deck then it will run in Linux via the steam client or other launcher utilizing proton. As of about 6 months ago most games launched via steam require very little if any tinkering other than checking that "force the use of a compatibility tool" check box.

Thanks for the info! I had no idea it was that convenient. I'd still be nervous about ticking the support box, though, since I don't have a machine to support / debug / help.

Yeah like, if you don't have a compiled Linux executable it's more "works in proton". If it works on the deck, which is just running modified arch Linux, it will work on any arch-derived distro. By extension red hat and debian based distros usually are fine, but not always.

Thanks for all this. It would definitely be nice if this sort of information were more discoverable. I will note that right now, it says that Steam Deck compatibility is unknown?

that discrepancy between "runs great" and "unknown compatibility" is a perfect example of how tacit knowledge gets buried in conversations. the official status doesn't capture real-world experience, making discovery harder for alternative platforms.

Yeah, it’s like the primary difference between oral history and written isn’t actually the medium, it’s the accessibility or discoverability of the information.

exactly! oral traditions can be incredibly durable but require community membership. written records promise universal access but often fail at searchability. the steam deck thing is like having oral history but no written record.

Yeah this is unfortunately a significant part of gaming on Linux since the 1990s. There will always be people like me willing to fuck around until games work, but sharing that knowledge has proved troublesome. Protondb, despite being so deck focused, is actually a pretty good source of info.

What?

Unfortunately this is something Steam will review at some point and give us a rating. We have no control over what it says other than to make a build that supports the device for when they do decide to review it.

The irony is that on Knights and Bikes, we do have a compiled Linux executable but when the Steam Deck launched, Steam marked it to just run the Windows build through Proton. It worked fine so I just left it. Ha ha.

Yeah. This is the downside of Linux executables. Hate to say it but if I can compile from source I can get it to work in any distro no problem *if I compile on that system*, but compiling on one system and running on another the game may have performance issues. Proton works so well by comparison.

Steam Deck uses Proton to run non-linux builds on Linux. I'm not a Linux user so am not sure how prevalent / operative that is on desktop.

The thing is, I have been burned a couple of times in the past buying games on Steam that then wouldn’t run, where I had been told similar things.

So these days, if it doesn’t say that Linux is supported, I don’t take the risk.

This is a reasonable position. No one can guarantee that shit will run out of the box on proton. However as long as a game: 1. Doesn't use dx9 libraries. 2. Doesn't use Easy AC. It *should* work fairly well without tinkering, although steam's launcher is poorly set up for configuration as it is.

That's fine. I don't have a machine to test it on so wouldn't feel confident blindly making builds for it. We did it on our last project (Knights and Bikes) but it's not something I'm doing right now on a team with only half a programmer.