Ah, see, you misheard.
That wasn't the free game of the week, it was the FREEZE game of the week.
this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Oh in that case, perfect game experience, 5/7!
For reals though, there aren’t many Proton DB entries for this one, but one Deck user reported they used GE-Proton 9-16. So I’d download that version of GE Proton if you haven’t and give that a go.
Unfortunately I already did, wrote that in my post. If this is all because it comes via the epic store I could probably stop trying I guess, so I am still hoping someone got it running and has any insights. Might be I am doing something different wrong, no idea what.
Never mind, I got it running!
So, I realized that I hadn't tried it in native Desktop mode, and it can be important, it works a little differently to Gaming mode in the background. And that was it.
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Go to Desktop Mode (native Desktop mode using the power menu option, not Nested Desktop)
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Right click Steam icon on the taskbar > Library
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Find Heroic Games launcher on your library list and run it
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Just launch the game in Heroic like you normally do. My Heroic launcher knew to use a recent version of GE Proton automatically, I didn't have to tell it.
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Worked like a charm.
Super cute game btw lol
EDIT: I can't remember if Heroic is naturally Steam launchable or not. If not, just add it as non-steam game. You might not even have to launch Heroic from steam, I do it for convenience, but if that was part of the magic formula then that's how you do it.
When Heroic adds a game to Steam, it's actually telling Steam to run heroic with a game://gameid argument. So, any such game is already running under the "heroic environment". Running the Steam entry for the game shouldn't be much different from running Heroic and then picking the game from Heroic's list.
I think the thing you really needed was to just give the game one good run in Desktop mode. A lot of times, games use their first (successful) run to install various runtimes, and those installers need to make pop up windows (which Game Mode is not very good at). Running Heroic in Desktop mode to install the game, and doing your first run in Desktop mode is usually enough, and you can run the game just fine in Game mode after that.
Yeah I've found as well that it's good practice to first launch games in desktop mode with heroic. Like all of them. Then you can run from gaming mode after.
So, wait... You are launching Heroic launcher from inside Steam and then you launch this game from the Heroic launcher inside Steam? Wow, surprised that even works. Will try when I have the time.
Yes, but crucially, in Desktop mode, not Gaming mode. It didn't work when I tried it from Gaming mode!
Oh what, good you said it again, I missed that detail. Thanks!
You're welcome! Have fun!
This one doesn't seem like it's my normal cup of tea but I might have to give it a go further than the first ten minutes, I really like the aesthetic lol
OK, I tried. Even uninstalled it again and installed in Desktop mode, via Heroic launcher started via Steam. Started with selection of latest GE Proton. As I write this it is stuck again, frozen loading screen after starting a new game. Waited 10 minutes so far, but not really willing to leave this for an hour just in case.
Sorry if I am asking this, but you actually got in the game? Or just the start menu? Because the menu works fine me for. Starting a new game just freezes during loading.
I did get into the game, I was playing it for almost half an hour the other day.
Did you run Heroic using Proton? Because if so you definitely don't want to do that, Heroic itself should be run without compatibility tools.
Let me give it another go today, I haven't changed anything since I ran it over the weekend.
Edit: So in the end, I was able to load it up and play it again. There are some stutters here and there, and loading screens take a bit (not sure if this a native property of the game, or that we're running it with Proton).
Also I did an additional test where I installed and ran the game off of an SD card (since I had to reinstall anyway), and that was not stable, the game kept crashing. So if you're trying to run it off an SD card, you should probably try to put it on your native SSD.
The weirdest thing is that it kept going into an unresolvable update loop when I first started trying to play it today. It would try to update, stop, try again, stop, on and on, but never finished. I had to uninstall and reinstall (tried SD card first, then moved it to the SSD where it worked fine). That felt like something going on with Epic honestly.
Thanks for all your efforts but somehow it isn't the same for me. You did mention you have a SSD, that isn't standard in the Steam Deck or is it? I got an unmodified Steam Deck, so maybe that's the deciding factor?
I also got the update and it made me hopefully, but no change. I made sure Heroic isn't running through proton as you said.
There seems to be a "low spec" version available via Steam beta program that could resolve this: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1985960/discussions/2/4516632045452106751/
However this is not available on Epic Games as far as I can tell. I tried setting graphics to low to see if that is it, but also no change. I give up for now but maybe a future update will make it work.
All Steam Decks come with an SSD of varying sizes for their base storage, so you definitely have one. If I remember correctly the original 64GB LCD model had a slower nvme SSD, but all the other models should be similar performance SSD-wise.
Maybe if you have an LCD Deck, and I have an OLED, that was the difference? I know they don't function much differently in most ways, but I have heard that there are some slight background tech differences between them that have them perform differently in some scenarios.
Can't say we didn't try though!
Maybe Proton GE will work
Tried latest one installed via Heroic as well. I think that one also didn't even start.
Unfortunately common issue with a lot of Epic store games, many don't work or have issues when compared to the steam version. The protonDB reports are all 6months+ in age as well, so it's possible something has changed with the game in that time. Found this discussion on reddit, where it sounds like it runs for most people but with terrible performance.
I know some Epic games take a really long time at first load. The Epic version of gloomhaven could take 1-2 hours to load the first time if I recall right, but after that first really long load time it would work fine. I'm assuming it's compiling shaders or something the first time.
Doesn't bode well then, but the other person replying seems to have it running and I'll try that soon.