I know I’d need wine and proton but some more details would be nice on how it should work using bazzite with kde plasma if it help edit: tried heroic and it works, lutris got balatro working through it still not sure how but that’s future me problem but for now it works
Easiest way is to add the game to be launched through Steam, and then you can use Proton.
As others have suggested Lutris, Heroic, or Bottles can make the process easier. I use Lutris personally.
I’ll walk you through exactly how I install a pirated game using Lutris since you mentioned you’re new to Linux and using WINE/Proton.
- Download and extract your desired game.
- Create a new folder wherever you store your games. This folder will be the WINE prefix for the game you are installing, so I usually name it the name of the game (don’t use spaces in the name of the folder, for some reason, even if you wrap the path in quotes, Lutris gets unhappy, use Game-Name instead of Game Name). You should always install games in their own independent prefix.
- Click the plus (+) icon in the top left of Lutris, then click on Add locally installed game.
- Fill out the name field, and select Wine in the Runner dropdown.
- Switch to the runners tab and select the version of WINE you would like to use in the Wine version dropdown.
- Switch to the Game options tab and click Browse next to the Wine prefix field. Navigate to the folder you created earlier. Click Save in the top right of the window.
- Navigate to the game in your library and click play, this will create the WINE prefix. Once the error message saying something about a missing executable comes up, just dismiss it.
- Copy the game to
/path/to/prefix/drive_c/ - Right click the game in your library and click configure. Switch to the Game options tab and click Browse next to the Executable field. Navigate to and select the game installer. Click Save in the top right of the Window.
- Launch the game from your Lutris library and proceed with the installer as you normally would.
- With the game installed right click the game in your library, and click configure again. Switch to Game options and click on Browse near the Executable field again. Navigate to the installed directory and select the exe that launches the game. Click save in the top right of the window.
And we’re finally done lol. Now when you launch the game it should open up like normal. Once you get the hang of the flow it just takes a couple minutes.
I’ve heard some people mention they have had issues with Fitgirl installers, I’ve never had any problems personally so I guess it’s luck of the draw on games. I’ve also never had any issues with the GOG installer, Razor1911’s, or clean Steam files cracked with Mr. Goldberg etc. If you have issues with one source, but the game is verified to work on ProtonDB or something, it’s best to just try another source.
Some games may require you to install one or more additional dependencies, dotnet is one you will probably need to install frequently. Here’s some info on that.
If you run into any issues let me know and I’d be glad to help if I can.
Why not use the “Install a Windows game from an executable” option in that same + menu?
Side note though, this would make games downloaded from SteamRIP easier to install under lutris for me, as they aren’t installers, and I’ve been using bottles to generate the prefix for me.
May I ask, which wine runner do you use? I found that the system’s wine (wine.wow.WaylandFull on nixos) and the wine-ge seemed to works (sometimes only one of the two works, other times both). Did you get it to work with umu by any chance?
Also for some reason I couldnt get Lutris to properly run, but somehow Bottles works for me🤷
Btw, about dependencies, I found the Depots tab of games listed on steamdb.info to be really helpful to decide which one to install.
For a while I was using the latest Lutris-GE-Proton, then when they discontinued that branch I started using Wine-GE.
Yeah I’ve heard that some people can run into issues like that with Lutris. I’ve used it for a few years without issue. I’m glad Bottles is working for you.
Thanks for the tip on the depots page! I’ll probably be using that a lot now.
I personally use bottles installed through flatpak for non-steam game needs. Especially if you’re pirating, you can use flatseal to disable things like internet access for bottles (and games that you run through bottles) and inter-process communication, making it just a bit safer if you have trust issues.
Setting bottles up is a bit of a pain, but once you do that you can pretty much run anything through it easily
if everything else fails, you could try making virtual machine running with windows
Like everyone else, I suggest Lutris or Heroic Games Launcher for most games. Lutris has a relatively straightforward interface to walk you through what it offers. It can even help you install EA and Ubisoft games. Heroic launcher allows you to install games from the Epic and GOG stores. Minecraft has multiple launchers available. Plus, there’s RetroArch and DOSBox for most retro stuff. There are system-specific emulators like Dolphin for GameCube. There are even some fun, free games like “Super Tux Kart” and “Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.”
Everything I just mentioned is available for download using the “Discover” app in desktop mode of Bazzite. If you have questions about specific games, I might be able to help.
