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Welcome to Elk readies up for the Steam Deck and Proton

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A biographical adventure set on an island like no other, Welcome to Elk from developer Triple Topping has a new update available that aims to make the experience on Linux with Steam Play Proton and the Steam Deck better.

Something a lot of developers will likely have to do is fix up text scaling for the Steam Deck, since the resolution and smaller screen can end up making certain games unreadable. This is one of the major changes in Welcome to Elk with text scaling added throughout the whole game, that you can tweak in the options menu. The developer has also enabled Steam Cloud save syncing, performance improvements, an icon when saving, and a few bug fixes like videos not playing through Proton on Linux.

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About the game:

You play as Frigg, a young carpenter traveling to Elk for an apprenticeship. She is used to an outgoing and hectic lifestyle in the city. How will she handle the isolated life on Elk with only few young people around her and no internet?

On Elk, Frigg and you will meet the weird and wonderful characters – people whom the world has either ignored or forgotten. Follow their ups and downs, their odd drinking rituals and their unique ways of tackling whatever life throws at them. Here it’s known that humour, love and death go hand in hand. Life may seem hard sometimes, but it is always followed by laughter.

We value the importance of storytellers, those who carry the tales of others and share them. That’s why, in Elk, you will also meet the living storytellers who inspired us to make this game.

Game Features:

  • A narrative game based on tales of real stories told by real people.
  • Mini games that are deeply connected to the game and story.
  • An endearing and lovable cast of characters to explore.
  • Humorous and beautiful hand drawn artstyle.

You can buy it on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Solitary Feb 14, 2022
They claim they added Linux support (but it means using Proton), so the wording and the actual support are little bit questionable. SteamDB shows that the game has Linux support, and the Windows build depot shows both windows and linux as target platform, which is something I haven't seen yet. But it is unclear what is actually supported and mostly what kind of support it implies.
tuubi Feb 14, 2022
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Quoting: SolitaryThey claim they added Linux support (but it means using Proton), so the wording and the actual support are little bit questionable. SteamDB shows that the game has Linux support, and the Windows build depot shows both windows and linux as target platform, which is something I haven't seen yet. But it is unclear what is actually supported and mostly what kind of support it implies.
I suppose it implies the same level of support they offer their non-Linux customers. For many developers, that doesn't amount to much, but at least they won't be able to reject your support request for not playing on a supported platform. And we should be able to expect them (or their testers) to at least launch new versions of the game on Linux/Proton as part of their QA process.
Liam Dawe Feb 14, 2022
Quoting: SolitaryThey claim they added Linux support (but it means using Proton), so the wording and the actual support are little bit questionable. SteamDB shows that the game has Linux support, and the Windows build depot shows both windows and linux as target platform, which is something I haven't seen yet. But it is unclear what is actually supported and mostly what kind of support it implies.
Well, support doesn't imply a native build, just that it's being tested working and issues are being fixed. In this case, they're clearly supporting Linux through Proton.
Solitary Feb 14, 2022
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: SolitaryThey claim they added Linux support (but it means using Proton), so the wording and the actual support are little bit questionable. SteamDB shows that the game has Linux support, and the Windows build depot shows both windows and linux as target platform, which is something I haven't seen yet. But it is unclear what is actually supported and mostly what kind of support it implies.
Well, support doesn't imply a native build, just that it's being tested working and issues are being fixed. In this case, they're clearly supporting Linux through Proton.
Nowhere I am mentioning native build, it never meant that, clearly this is about Proton, you are putting words in my mouth. I am just trying to get objective information. You saying it's clear and that they are testing is something you actually know and haven't mentioned in the article, or are you just guessing?

They are making release that makes it work on Proton better, but is Proton now part of their testing and release process? What kind of level of support? Maybe they fixed the most obvious issues and now they expect that Valve will make it work. I am also trying to understand if what SteamDB says has any potential deeper implications, is that a way how Valve intends to let devs mark their support of Proton? So far that did mean native build (or rather specific Linux depot), so my question is... what does it mean now? What are the minimal responsibilities that dev has to support and are there any? Is it all just ethical? Not even No Man's Sky has that and they are known to be fixing stuff for Proton.


Last edited by Solitary on 14 February 2022 at 8:18 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Feb 14, 2022
Quoting: SolitaryNowhere I am mentioning native build, it never meant that, clearly this is about Proton, you are putting words in my mouth.
There was really no need to be so defensive.

I don't know the exact specifics of what they're doing, no, because they haven't given that out. My point was more that if they've announced Linux support with Proton (which they have), along with fixing issues with Proton and Steam Deck (which they have) - that is support. I don't see a need to debate the specific level of support, when they're already making it work well.

Edit: and to be clear, what Valve said before still stands - if there's a problem with a game they believe it's on them to fix with Proton. Outside of making things better specifically for the Steam Deck like input and text sizing, it's largely up to Valve. I'm happy to see developers jump in like this though, I think it's great to see more pay a bit of attention. So really on the subject of what level of support - no matter what it remains the same with Proton - bugs go to Valve and main support goes to Valve.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 14 February 2022 at 8:40 pm UTC
BloodScourge Feb 14, 2022
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Such a convoluted/confusing way though: mark the game as supported on Linux, label a Windows depot as both Windows/Linux (while there is absolutely no Linux specific file contrary to some Ren'Py games packing Windows/macOS/Linux versions together e.g.), launch the Windows executable on Linux and last but not least ask Linux users to enable Proton manually to play the game... I don't mind if they check their game against Proton from time to time or get their game as Steam Deck verified but this, is a bit borderline for me (the red line would be the SteamOS+Linux icon/requirements on store page).


Last edited by BloodScourge on 14 February 2022 at 10:23 pm UTC
CatKiller Feb 15, 2022
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Quoting: Liam DaweEdit: and to be clear, what Valve said before still stands - if there's a problem with a game they believe it's on them to fix with Proton. Outside of making things better specifically for the Steam Deck like input and text sizing, it's largely up to Valve. I'm happy to see developers jump in like this though, I think it's great to see more pay a bit of attention. So really on the subject of what level of support - no matter what it remains the same with Proton - bugs go to Valve and main support goes to Valve.

They've said that they'll fix bugs in Proton by fixing bugs in Proton. They aren't taking over all game support like they did with the whitelist. They expect developers to test their games in Proton and give instructions on how to do so.
Liam Dawe Feb 15, 2022
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: Liam DaweEdit: and to be clear, what Valve said before still stands - if there's a problem with a game they believe it's on them to fix with Proton. Outside of making things better specifically for the Steam Deck like input and text sizing, it's largely up to Valve. I'm happy to see developers jump in like this though, I think it's great to see more pay a bit of attention. So really on the subject of what level of support - no matter what it remains the same with Proton - bugs go to Valve and main support goes to Valve.

They've said that they'll fix bugs in Proton by fixing bugs in Proton. They aren't taking over all game support like they did with the whitelist. They expect developers to test their games in Proton and give instructions on how to do so.
They did say very clearly in an official video, that if something doesn't work they consider it a bug in Proton. Yes they do want devs to test as well of course, but Valve are still largely taking on the support burden.

Developer docs even tell developers to log bugs directly to Valve too FYI https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/proton under "Reporting Issues".


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 15 February 2022 at 7:32 am UTC
Liam Dawe Feb 15, 2022
Quoting: BloodScourgeSuch a convoluted/confusing way though: mark the game as supported on Linux, label a Windows depot as both Windows/Linux (while there is absolutely no Linux specific file contrary to some Ren'Py games packing Windows/macOS/Linux versions together e.g.), launch the Windows executable on Linux and last but not least ask Linux users to enable Proton manually to play the game... I don't mind if they check their game against Proton from time to time or get their game as Steam Deck verified but this, is a bit borderline for me (the red line would be the SteamOS+Linux icon/requirements on store page).
In this case I don't think they're doing it entirely right. For Steam Deck, verifing is up to Valve who then set what it uses, for desktop Linux, Proton has so far been opt-in by users outside the old whitelist that no longer exists. So far we've not really seen developers manually set it to run with Proton like this - will be interesting to see how Valve handle it.
CatKiller Feb 15, 2022
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Quoting: Liam DaweThey did say very clearly in an official video, that if something doesn't work they consider it a bug in Proton.


What they said was "something that we said earlier on is that we really want the entire library to work... and if it doesn't work we see that as a bug and we want to fix it."

Of course there aren't games that they don't want to work, and of course they want to fix Proton bugs.

QuoteDeveloper docs even tell developers to log bugs directly to Valve too FYI https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/proton under "Reporting Issues".

They want developers to test their games in Proton, and to report Proton bugs to Valve so they can be fixed. They'll take bug reports from the community, like they always have, and fix Proton bugs. They are not taking over support, and if a game hasn't been tested by the developer and breaks in Proton then Valve will (eventually) patch Proton (if they can), or redo the validation tests and take away its Validated status (and potentially issue refunds) and they absolutely don't want to have to that.

Valve aren't bothered if a game is native or runs through Proton, but it's the developer that needs to test and support it, not Valve. Valve's customer support is for the sales - "we think it works enough for you to buy it" - and their developer support is providing tools to make it easier and a communications channel.
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