I run Void Linux, which I have to say, its not the easiest distro to run, so there were definitely a couple of caveats I had to work around to get gaming with Steam.
For some reason, installing Steam does not install all of the required dependencies, I had to go to check the deprecated wiki and read some kind of hidden README (I mean, they are in /usr/share/doc/*, but still not ideal) files to check all of the required 32bit dependencies and drivers I had to install too.
At first I missed some, and there were some errors making mention of gLX and other graphical things I can’t bother explaining. As soon as I installed all the extra packages, Steam ran fine.
I was finally able to install some things. During these holidays, I finally decided to buy some stuff, I decided to get Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight and CrossCode. The first two are pretty well known games of the Metroidvania genre, and the 3rd one was chosen because I saw it on Linus Tech Tips and it looked like the kind of game I would really enjoy, I am going blind just read the description and looked kinda dope, so I hope I have a good tame with it.
I also installed Splitgate, which had native support (all of the games did) and looked to be quite fun, since I saw it featured in many places such as the Destination Linux podcast.
I have played a few native games before available in my distro’s repositories, Super Tux Kart is awesome, Cave Story is available and runs perfectly, and 0AD is tempting me more and more, so I might install it soon too.
Anyways, back to Steam, I decided to run Axiom Verge, since it looked like the simplest one to run, and well, it worked just fine, no hiccups, sound working, keyboard working, I don’t really have a controller but I wanna think it would have worked too.
Then I ran Hollow Knight, and I was a little disappointed. The game started, but it just closed itself after a few seconds, no splash screen, nothing.
I tried CrossCode, and it crashed too after showing the starting menu. I ran it again, and it crashed even faster.
So, no luck, I go ahead into #voidlinux IRC channel and get some answers, I reboot my laptop, I delete some files, sadly, nothing was working.
In the end, I decided to go ahead and try the Flatpak version of Steam. I did not think it would work since the comments on it were mixed. Thankfully, it worked just fine for me, the install went flawlessly. I had to reinstall everything, but Hollow Knight worked first try, as well as Axiom Verge. I am still not done installing all the games I had, but that’s OK, since I will be able to have some fun in the mean time.
If games start failing again, I might have to consider switching away from Void again, but maybe I will be able to keep it up, unless of course, some teacher makes me install some random Windows software that doesn’t run on Wine.
On a side note, I use Backloggd to keep track of games I am playing, is like Anilist of Letterboxd, but for games, so if you want to keep track of the titles you’ve played, you might want to try it out and also check my profile!,
This has been day 75 of #100DaysToOffload.
