tldr: non-steam game runs on steam deck but doesn't run on desktop, is there any way to like trick it into thinking I'm on a steam deck and if not is there anything else I can try?

Hi I'm trying to run Infinity Nikki on my machine, but in the launcher the install button just says "Game Update" and when pressed it shows progress at 0% for awhile then just goes back to "Game Update"

Looking online for a solution I found that pretty much everyone trying on linux is running into this issue, usually given that the game has kernel level anticheat I'd just give up on getting it to run but the weird thing is that it seemingly can be installed and ran on steam deck just fine.

I saw a game named "Forspoken" had a similar issue which got fixed by adding a launch option in steam, this did not work in this game (I'm running the launcher through steam). Is there any other way I can get it to work like it does on steam deck? or do I just need to dual-boot for now?

Happy to post any logs requested (sorry I don't really know which logs would be relevant here)

So I've been considering switching to Linux for quite a while now and finally I got a new laptop and thought I'd make the jump. The only thing keeping me hesitant is Infinty Nikki, since it's basically the only game I actually play regularly right now.

I've seen that someone managed to make it work in a post in this subreddit (will link it below), but it was made around 5 months ago and I was worried the new updates might have impacted it.

Could anyone tell me if the game is working? Maybe if there are any problems I should expect?

The post I was talking about above:https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1l74wuk/psa_infiniti_nikki_works/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Mit der Steam-Veröffentlichung von Infinity Nikki war ich aufgeregt über die Möglichkeit, das Spiel endlich zum ersten Mal zu spielen. Aber leider war es wegen des ACE Anti-Cheat nicht möglich.

Gibt es einen Ort, an dem ich den Entwicklern/dem Unternehmen Feedback zur Whitelisting von Linux-Desktops geben kann? Kannst du mir sagen, wo?

I would like to know if anyone has played it on Linux and how the game runs. All my games run on Linux, and I don’t want to switch to Windows just to play it.

References

I used the same method used by this youtuber to install Genshin, you can use the video to help give guide you through the process as it is very similar to what I did to install Infinity Nikki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGZ2LToUHds&t=296s&ab_channel=dustyflyguy

How to install infinity Nikki on Steam deck:

1. Open your steam deck and go to desktop mode

2. Download Infinity Nikki launcher from the website by clicking on “windows download” (https://infinitynikki.infoldgames.com/en/home)

3. open steam (still in desktop mode) and click on the plus icon and add “non-steam game”

4. Click on browse and select your installer in the downloads folder and “add selected programs. Steam will make a Game page for the launcher.

5. on the game page make sure to click the Settings cog icon > properties > Compatibility and enable proton experimental

6. Press play and launch the install launcher and follow instructions to download the game

7. After download is complete - close launcher and go back to the game page for the installer and click on the cog again > properties>shortcut

8. You can change the name here to “Infinity Nikki”

9. Go to Dolphin and locate the “launcher.exe” you will need to find out which PFX folder steam created but an example path would look like this “/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compactdata/#########/pfx/drive_c/program files/infinityNikkiGlobal Launcher/launcher.exe” - The ####### will be a unique number that will differ from person to person

10. Once you have located the launcher file in the infinityNikkiGlobal Launcher folder - right click (hover mouse and LT) and ‘Copy location’

11. Go back to steam and paste this into the “TARGET” text input - This should look something like this “/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compactdata/#########/pfx/drive_c/program files/infinityNikkiGlobal Launcher/launcher.exe” - make sure to add “quotation” marks at the start and end of the path

12. Now we need to paste the same link into the “START IN” text input however this time we are removing the “launcher.exe” from the end of the path. This should look something like this “"/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compactdata/#########/pfx/drive_c/program files/infinityNikkiGlobal Launcher" making sure that they have quotations as well

13. And that should work!

—

Requirements:

You need to have Dolphin file manager and make sure you can see hidden files

You’ll need Proton installed as well 

There are heaps of videos on  YouTube for these

Note: 

You need to make sure you’ve established your file location before installing the launcher as you wont be able to change the download location after the launcher as installed. 

If you’re struggling with the launcher saying you have no space when you do, follow this video as your very first step: https://youtu.be/cA6h5JH2hCk?si=kTthtS_GDncAa5NN

This is just how I installed the game, we still don't know if it is going to be playable when the servers go live.

Good Luck!

Hey y’all!

So I noticed a few sparse threads about people trying to get Nikki up and running on Linux (apparently it does work on Steam Deck but not Bazzite or any other Linux distro). I’m hoping we might all work together and post here the things we’ve tried that haven’t worked? That way maybe we can figure it out together!

I have the option of playing on my iPhone but it doesn’t do the game justice. I wanna see my adorable outfits in HD 😇

Thus far I think the most we’ve been able to do is get the launcher installed and then we get the dreaded “Update Game” button that doesn’t work.

Thoughts? Ideas? Let me know 😇❤️