One of my frustrations is, if I want to try some dozen games on Itch.io, they all come down as EXEs and it’s not clear how I could quickly set them up for Proton. I understand the 20-clicks method of setting up one game off of Steam, and Lutris helps with well-known launchers like Ubi Connect. But for independent authors, needing to do setup for every EXE is a heavy dealbreaker.
The “should” in that sentence is why I keep Windows 11 laptop around. Approximately 100% of the EXEs on there work vs with Photon where it starts up, but I get a bug and then I wonder if that’s a problem with the game, or if I have some setting right.
Now when I want to game, I just game. No more fiddling. The Windows 11 laptop sits quietly in a bag until I want to play a game, I use it for that, and then put it back away until I want to have fun. My workflow has 0% dependency on Windows and that’s how I like it now.
When I review itch games I always advocate for native Linux support. If the devs see it, they will do it. The ones I talk to who haven’t don’t want to put in the effort to learn how to compile it for Linux if barely anyone would use the port.
I only played very few games via itch so far, however using Lutris for them seems to be most straight-forward. Once you connect your account anything you have in your collections should show up and be installable straight through the Lutris client. At least for “Manic Miners” it figured everything out on its own, worked like a charm.
One of my frustrations is, if I want to try some dozen games on Itch.io, they all come down as EXEs and it’s not clear how I could quickly set them up for Proton. I understand the 20-clicks method of setting up one game off of Steam, and Lutris helps with well-known launchers like Ubi Connect. But for independent authors, needing to do setup for every EXE is a heavy dealbreaker.
Have you tried using Bottles? Has a default Bottle for “games”. Run the .exe file in the Bottle and it should work.
I was just going to suggest this. Most small indy games from places like itch.io I play using Bottles and it works very well.
The “should” in that sentence is why I keep Windows 11 laptop around. Approximately 100% of the EXEs on there work vs with Photon where it starts up, but I get a bug and then I wonder if that’s a problem with the game, or if I have some setting right.
Now when I want to game, I just game. No more fiddling. The Windows 11 laptop sits quietly in a bag until I want to play a game, I use it for that, and then put it back away until I want to have fun. My workflow has 0% dependency on Windows and that’s how I like it now.
When I review itch games I always advocate for native Linux support. If the devs see it, they will do it. The ones I talk to who haven’t don’t want to put in the effort to learn how to compile it for Linux if barely anyone would use the port.
I only played very few games via itch so far, however using Lutris for them seems to be most straight-forward. Once you connect your account anything you have in your collections should show up and be installable straight through the Lutris client. At least for “Manic Miners” it figured everything out on its own, worked like a charm.