Play Epic And GOG Games In Steam Deck Mode On Linux - No Command Line Needed
Someone asked a really good question after my last Gamescope video — how do you get games that aren't in Steam into a Gamescope session? If you've been buying games on Epic, GOG, or other platforms, they're sitting in Heroic Launcher, not S
Someone asked a really good question after my last Gamescope video — how do you get games that aren't in Steam into a Gamescope session? If you've been buying games on Epic, GOG, or other platforms, they're sitting in Heroic Launcher, not Steam. So when you switch into Steam Deck mode, they're nowhere to be found.
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I've written a script that fixes that. It ports your Heroic games into the Steam library so they appear inside your Gamescope session alongside everything else. One place for all your games. No separate launchers, no command lines, no messing around. Press Super+Shift+S on Omarchy, you're in gaming mode, and everything's there.
HOW IT WORKS
The script does several things. It installs Heroic Launcher if you haven't got it, pulls down the UMU launcher for compatibility, and if you've got any DOS games from GOG, it builds a custom branch of DOSBox that works inside the Gamescope session. Then it scans your Heroic library, detects your installed games, and writes launcher entries into Steam so they appear as non-Steam games both on the desktop and inside Gamescope mode.
THE PROCESS
There's a specific order to follow and it matters.
First, install and run the Heroic script. It'll set up Heroic Launcher and all the supporting bits. Then open Heroic, log into your Epic and GOG accounts, and download whatever games you want to play. Once they're downloaded, launch each game once inside Heroic itself. This is important — the first launch installs redistributables and dependencies that the game needs. If a game doesn't work in Heroic, it won't work in Gamescope either, so this is your test.
Once you've launched each game at least once in Heroic and confirmed it works, close Heroic completely and rerun the script. It'll detect your installed games, generate the launcher entries, and write everything into Steam. Next time you go Super+Shift+S into Gamescope mode, your Heroic games will be sitting in your Steam library under non-Steam games ready to play.
Every time you install new games in Heroic, just rerun the script and it'll pick them up.
GAMES TESTED
I tested with a mix of Epic and GOG titles. Solar Ash, The Eternal Cylinder, Kena Bridge of Spirits, and Ultimate Underworld from GOG running through DOSBox. Alan Wake also works. The older DOS games run beautifully inside the Gamescope session — Ultimate Underworld was hitting 120 FPS which is hilarious for a game I originally played on a 386.
EPIC SERVICES QUIRK
Games that need to connect to Epic online services have a specific behaviour. The first time you launch them in Gamescope, they'll go to a black screen because there's an Epic services agreement popup happening behind the scenes. Close the game, relaunch it, agree to the popup, and it'll go black again. Close and launch a third time and you're in properly. After that it's fine every time. The script passes through the Heroic authentication token into the Gamescope session so it stays connected.
Anti-cheat games like anything using BattlEye won't work — that's a limitation of the platform, not this script.
IMPORTANT NOTES
Always exit Steam properly on the desktop before switching to Gamescope mode. If Steam is still running in the background when you press Super+Shift+S, you'll get a black screen on login.
The DOSBox build only happens if you've got DOS games installed. If you're purely on modern Epic titles, that step is skipped and the script runs much faster.
This script is built for Omarchy. It won't work on other distros without modification. CachyOS and other versions may come later.
THE SCRIPTS
The Omarchy Gamescope launcher is in the video description as always. The Heroic-to-Steam bridge script is going into the members area first for testing, then will be released publicly once the members have had a chance to find edge cases.
WHAT'S NEXT
Lutris is the obvious next step for bringing in EA and other storefronts. I also need to build a Gamescope launcher for Fedora. Both are on the list.
I make videos about Linux gaming, Omarchy, distro tinkering, and making it dead simple to play games on Linux without touching a terminal. Subscribe if that's your thing.