Making it work on Linux (Steam Deck)

Configuring for linux

Before we get started

I'm not a Linux wizard, I made this guide because as I was looking to get this game running on my own deck i ran into mixed and confusing/wrong information. Below links are where the majority of the information i found was located:

https://www.protondb.com/app/271260 (keep in mind most posts are old and have outdated information)
https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/waiujt/how_to_increase_the_swap_on_the_deck/

Getting it working

Without any tweaks we are currently able to get to the launcher, but it cannot find the game executable (graying out the Play button). To remedy this we can create symlinks within the game folder.

Navigate to where you have installed Star Control .../steamapps/common/Star Control - Origins
Then go into "Game" Folder

UI method:

• Create New > "Link to File or Directory"
  
• Click select file button > Select "Directory"
  
• Select the "Game" Folder
  
• Click "OK"
  
• Repeat for "AdventureStudio", and "Assets" Folder (Unsure if this is necessary i haven't tried without doing so)

Terminal Method: (reminder in "Game" Folder)

• Right Click > "Open Terminal" (Shift+F4)
  
• Paste:
  • ln -s ../AdventureStudio/
    
  • ln -s ../Assets/
    
  • ln -s . Game

QOL Improvements

Once you have launched the game once successfully i suggest you append /nolauncher within Steam's launch options

(Steam Deck Only) When you launch the game it will tell you that your page file is small, this is due to SteamOS shipping with a 1GB Swap File (I played for about 20 hours and it works fine this way), you can increase the Swap File size by opening the console and inputting these commands (Note: This will obviously use some of your disk space):

• passwd # Create a root password for example "deck"
  
• sudo steamos-readonly disable # Disable the read only FS
  
• cd /home # There is a "swapfile" located here we'll reuse it
  
• sudo swapoff -a # Stop swap process
  
• sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1G count=8 # Increase swap to 8gb
  
• sudo mkswap swapfile # swap ready file again
  
• sudo swapon swapfile # Activate swap

(I recommend doing this anyways as other games may require it)

[Toremous]

as tomasz_exe pointed out below you may just need to opt into the v1.50

[MisterWooster]

Any idea why it still wouldn't be working after I follow these steps? I got through the launcher (fixed the greyed out button) and increased the swapfile, but it crashes out immediately every time I try to launch. Does the swapfile increase need to be done on the SD card if that's where the game is installed? (I didn't think that made a difference/was possible to do on the SD card...)

[tomasz_exe]

Good conclusive guide! I am definitely gonna setup that bigger Swap File thing
However if possible I would add to use the "lopt-in - Launcher Opt-In for v1.50"
This fixed the issue for me not being able to launch the game through the launcher on my Steam Deck and in general just improves the game with much better performance and visuals.