Comment by jabroni_salad
25 days ago
So to me the things I want from a game launcher are pretty simple:
- Download and all the gamefiles that I am entitled to, and keep them updated.
- Show me a pretty interface to launch games from, including recent news and patch notes about that game's updates.
- Keep track of my save files, synchronize them to other devices, and make sure they never get lost.
- (linux) have some kind of per-game startup command manager because even a platinum rated proton game might need a --force-grab-cursor or something.
If native software was routinely available, launchers might not feel necessary.
But I sure as hell don't want to invest howevermany weekend days figuring out how to make games from other platforms as easy to play as Steam games on SteamOS.
I imagine this is that - give me "download" and "play" buttons that let me run GOG games on Linux, even if the binaries were authored for Windows.
Cloud saves and achievements and all that are nice (and expected from something like GOG), but even just a normal launcher feels essential on Linux.
> If native software was routinely available, launchers might not feel necessary.
> But I sure as hell don't want to invest howevermany weekend days figuring out how to make games from other platforms as easy to play as Steam games on SteamOS.
For games that are licensed under terms that allow it, Debian's Game Data Packager has already automated that work. And- as your comment suggests- a native port is much better than running on a wine shim, which will always be second-rate.
https://wiki.debian.org/Games/GameDataPackager
List of games supported by Game Data Packager:
https://game-data-packager.debian.net/available.html
That link is hard to follow.
Does that effectively replace the .exe parts of a Proton game with an equivalent Linux engine, while letting Steam et. al. manage the artwork/levels/etc?
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