So to me the things I want from a game launcher are pretty simple:

- Download and all the gamefiles that I am entitled to, and keep them updated.

- Show me a pretty interface to launch games from, including recent news and patch notes about that game's updates.

- Keep track of my save files, synchronize them to other devices, and make sure they never get lost.

- (linux) have some kind of per-game startup command manager because even a platinum rated proton game might need a --force-grab-cursor or something.

If native software was routinely available, launchers might not feel necessary.

But I sure as hell don't want to invest howevermany weekend days figuring out how to make games from other platforms as easy to play as Steam games on SteamOS.

I imagine this is that - give me "download" and "play" buttons that let me run GOG games on Linux, even if the binaries were authored for Windows.

Cloud saves and achievements and all that are nice (and expected from something like GOG), but even just a normal launcher feels essential on Linux.

> If native software was routinely available, launchers might not feel necessary.

> But I sure as hell don't want to invest howevermany weekend days figuring out how to make games from other platforms as easy to play as Steam games on SteamOS.

For games that are licensed under terms that allow it, Debian's Game Data Packager has already automated that work. And- as your comment suggests- a native port is much better than running on a wine shim, which will always be second-rate.

https://wiki.debian.org/Games/GameDataPackager

List of games supported by Game Data Packager:

https://game-data-packager.debian.net/available.html

That link is hard to follow.

Does that effectively replace the .exe parts of a Proton game with an equivalent Linux engine, while letting Steam et. al. manage the artwork/levels/etc?

No, it packages open source game data (which can't be distributed because it is copyrighted) so that it can be installed and will work with the games that already have debian packages.

So in the case of quake (for example) it makes a .deb file, which when installed will create the directory structure in the correct place and put the .pak files, config files, etc. where debian's quake engine package(s)[0] will look for them. This .deb file for the quake game data won't do anything on its own. You need to also install a quake engine, which debian includes.

You can create the game data packages from the installation CD, from a working install directory, or from a Good Old Games installer.

[0] https://packages.debian.org/stable/games/quake

As far I'm aware as a casual user of Galaxy, you're correct. It's just a convenience application with some light social features.

I find it slightly more convenient when installing games on a new machine. I've never personally seen a game that required using it.

Convenience is 100% Steam’s most important feature. Finding games, installing them, updating, auto-login, cloud saves, probably more that I can’t think of right now.

Yeah, I'm remembering the time immediately before Steam launched, getting a computer set up with games for a LAN party or whatever, someone sharing a folder of installers/updates from their HDD so everyone could be on the same version and whatnot. .. and that was the best-case scenario. Sometimes you just don't play a certain game because half the people have a different version or whatever haha

It's just a convenience app, but it's a pretty nice one. When I moved my main PC from Windows to Linux, I was definitely sad to lose the ecosystem of nice launcher apps (GOG Galaxy but also others like Playnite, Launchbox, etc). The dream for me is to have all my games in one cohesive library, and that's what these sorts of apps offer. On Linux I use Lutris for this and it's fine enough, but I'll definitely be taking a look at Galaxy when it comes to Linux.

also I believe it helps you track save games. I have multiple Linux boxes I play GOG games on using Heroic launcher and save game tracking is a big issue (maybe there's a way to do this with Heroic, idk). But I think Galaxy would help here.

Galaxy is purely convenience. If you want to see all your games from all storefronts (Epic, Steam, GOG, etc) in one place, Galaxy lets you do that. (Along with the social stuff)

You can still play GOG games without any launcher, which is how it's intended to work.

Some people really like having a launcher to keep track of everything, so this isn't a nothing burger. It's one more convenience to help convince people to move over.

Ah, thank you very much!

People always say that Heroic or the other one (I forget the name) is seamless, but I needed to do troubleshooting with a few of the games I owned. In one case, the best solution was to install via steam as a non-steam game. So, I'm hoping for better support and compatibility.

There are games distributed by GOG which rely on the Galaxy client for multiplayer functions. For example, the GOG version of Grim Dawn needs the Galaxy client being loaded to enable multiplayer. Solo play works without Galaxy.

Gotcha. I don't play multiplayer games or want the other features that people here have mentioned, so my current understanding is that it's safe for me to ignore the Galaxy application.