Your shitty guide to running games on Arch Linux

So your shitty friends say that Linux is shit because you cannot run games on it? You want to run games on Linux and shove it in their faces? Well, you’re in the right place.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for bricked systems, lost data, or any other catastrophes that may arise from you following this shitty guide. Should your system spontaneously combust, your cat declare war on your keyboard, or your significant other question your life choices because your gaming setup failed, please understand that you follow this shitty guide of your own accord. In the unlikely event of thermonuclear war, total CPU obliteration, or any other calamity, rest assured that I will not be held responsible. In fact, I’ll probably be too busy laughing at the absurdity of it all.

Step 1: Embrace the Chaos - Acceptance is Key

Alright, let’s get real for a moment. If you’re diving into the world of gaming on Linux, you’ve already shown that you’re not afraid to dance on the wild side of tech. Embrace it! Embrace the chaos like it’s your long-lost shitty best friend who always brings chaos wherever they go but somehow manages to make your shitty life way more interesting. Take a deep breath, channel your inner shit, and let’s dive into the chaos together, because where’s the fun in playing it safe, right?

Step 2: Pay Homage to the Linux Gods - Offering Sacrifices to the Dependency Demons

Now is the time to make your offerings to the Linux gods in the hopes of appeasing the mighty dependency demons. Sacrifice a USB drive, recite a bash script backwards, or perhaps just update your system for the nth time. Whatever it takes to please the Linux gods because trust me, you’re gonna need their shitty blessings.

Step 3: Installing Lutris - A Walk in the Park (Maybe)

Now, installing Lutris on Archlinux should be as straightforward as shitting after sipping your morning coffee, right? Well, in theory, yes. But this is Arch we’re talking about, where even the simplest tasks can sometimes turn into an epic shitty saga. Fear not though, because I’m defintely not here to help you.

Open your terminal and execute the following commands:

sudo pacman -S lutris

With any luck, Lutris should now be gracing your system with its shitty presence. If not, do panic! Take a deep shit, consult the Arch Wiki, and prepare for battle. Remember, every dependency conquered is a shitty victory in itself.

Step 4: Sip, Swirl, Install Wine - Because Linux Can Have a Taste of Windows Too!

Alright, time to get fancy! We’re talking about wine, the tech wizardry that lets your Linux system strut around in Windows’ shoes. Installing wine is like teaching your old shitty penguin some new shitty tricks – it’s a bit finicky, a tad unpredictable, but oh-so-rewarding when it finally cooperates. Remember, Wine is not an emulator!

Open your terminal and execute the following commands:

yay -S wine-ge-custom

I recommend using the wine-ge-custom package instead of the wine package because it works better for me. Your shitty mileaage may vary so you’re free to try other versions of wine. You can even install wine from Lutris itself. Also, different games work better with different wine versions. So go ahead and do some shitty experiments.

Step 5: You need games. Duh!

I’m not telling you where to get your shitty games. If you’re here, you probably already know. If not, you probably shouldn’t be here. I don’t care wherever you get your shitty games from. I hope it’s legal but we all know you’re broke. Let’s move on…

Step 7: You got the games. Now what?

Well, you’re in luck. You got the games. Now what? Let’s see:

You got an installer

Open Lutris
Click the + icon on the top left
Click “Install a Windows game from an executable”
Enter the name of the game and don’t change any other settings on this page unless you know what you’re doing. (You don’t know what you’re doing or you wouldn’t be here in the first place.)
Click “Install”
Click “Install” in front of “Setup file”
Select an installation directory.This is where the wine prefix will be created. Don’t know what a wine prefix is, go google it. I’m not telling you shit.
Select the “Setup file” and click “Install”
Now it will run the setup. Make sure to only install game files and nothing else like directX or visual c++ or something.
It will most probably chosse the default installation path as “Z:\”. Now, this is just a link to the root of the OS. So, naturally, it won’t fucking work. Just set it to some folder in your home directory and should be good to go.
Once installation is complete, Lutris will try to autodetect the executable for the game. It won’t be able to though and say that installation did not complete successfully. Just fucking ignore it.
Now, right-click on the game in Lutris and select configure.
In the Game options tab, set the executable of the game.
Click “Save”.
Run the shitty game. It works! Obviously? Moving on…

You’ve got a portable copy of the game

Open Lutris
Click the + icon on the top left
Click “Add a locally installed game”
Enter the name of the game, set the runner as wine and don’t change any other settings on this page unless you know what you’re doing. (You don’t know what you’re doing or you wouldn’t be here in the first place.)
In the Game options tab, set the executable of the game and set a path to the wine prefix. If a wine rpefix doesn’t exist on the specified path, it will be created. I recommend having a seperate wine prefix for each game.
Click “Save”.
Run the shitty game. It works! Obviously? Moving on…

Step 8: You’re all set. Enjoy!

Good Bye and have a nice shitty day.

Step 9: You’re the rich kid in your group and have no idea what to do with your shitty game libraries.

Well, you’re the rich kid in your group. No one really likes you but hey, we can’t say it to your face right? Anyways, some shitty person somewhere thought about you folks and well, the result is the heroic games launcher. I’m not telling you how to set it up. Go here and figure shit out yourself.

Step 10: A god gifted piece of some really shitty performance upgrade

Some shitty person in some shitty part of the world created a shitty piece of software that does some shitty optimizations to run your shitty games better on your shitty Linux system.

Open your terminal and execute the following commands:

sudo pacman -S gamemode lib32-gamemode

Lutris should handle the rest for you. Just make sure feral gamemode is enabled in system settings of Lutris and/or the game.

Step 11: Good bye! For real this time!

Bye bye!

Happy Shitting!

I do not condone piracy in any form. Please get your games legally and support the shitty developers.