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While they're now pretty late on it, Double Fine say that the Linux and macOS dedicated builds of Psychonauts 2 are still actually on the way.

Must admit, I'm quite surprised at this point. It was crowdfunded on Fig back in 2016, with a full launch in August 2021 and in their latest Fig update they said this under the rewards section:

- If you are getting a physical copy of the game, we need to know if you want it on PC, Mac, or Linux! Yes, those last two things are real and we have been working on them at the studio. We take their quality seriously and have been doing our utmost to make sure that Mac and Linux versions meet our personal standards. You do need specify a version though; the game is coming on a nifty flash drive and we can't fit all three versions on on stick unless it was a big, like... baseball bat sized USB. So definitely tell us which you want.

For the Steam Deck, Valve has actually put the game through Deck Verified already using the Windows version in Proton giving it a "Playable" rating noting some text needs a manual bring-up of the keyboard, and the gamepad doesn't work everywhere needing touch input. Hopefully Double Fine will also look to fix those issues while they're at it.

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Still fully expect this to be the last ever native Linux port of a Double Fine game, since they're now part of Xbox Game Studios.

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9 comments

soulsource Mar 15, 2022
I still haven't finished the first one... Might be fun on the Deck though.
ridge Mar 15, 2022
I still haven't finished the first one... Might be fun on the Deck though.


The Linux version of Psychonauts has been nothing but trouble and Windows version never worked properly with Wine for me, but recently I found a way to make it a bit better. If it doesn't work outta the box see if this helps:

If you do play it on the Deck, try swapping libSDL-1.2.so.0 in the game files for a 32-bit build of the sdl12-compat layer. Lets old SDL 1.2 software use 2.0
(Tip for anyone who needs it, build with these args: -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS="-m32" -DSDL12TESTS=0 -DSDL12DEVEL=1)

Just installed the game and did this myself, works so much better now. Before, with SDL 1.2, I couldn't even alt-tab.
You will still need to tweak the in-game settings and perhaps the .ini config file, but it's playable now!

Pardon the unprompted SDL advice, I just love Psychonauts to bits and couldn't resist trying to help someone make it run better on Linux


Last edited by ridge on 15 March 2022 at 11:58 am UTC
soulsource Mar 15, 2022
I still haven't finished the first one... Might be fun on the Deck though.


The Linux version of Psychonauts has been nothing but trouble and Windows version never worked properly with Wine for me, but recently I found a way to make it a bit better. If it doesn't work outta the box see if this helps:

If you do play it on the Deck, try swapping libSDL-1.2.so.0 in the game files for a 32-bit build of the sdl12-compat layer. Lets old SDL 1.2 software use 2.0
(Tip for anyone who needs it, build with these args: -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS="-m32" -DSDL12TESTS=0 -DSDL12DEVEL=1)

Just installed the game and did this myself, works so much better now. Before, with SDL 1.2, I couldn't even alt-tab.
You will still need to tweak the in-game settings and perhaps the .ini config file, but it's playable now!

Pardon the unprompted SDL advice, I just love Psychonauts to bits and couldn't resist trying to help someone make it run better on Linux

Thanks a lot, I hope I can still remember the tip once my deck arrives (probably some point in Q2...). I played the Linux build on the desktop some years ago, back when it was in Humble Indie Bundle 5. At that point it still worked out of the box, but distributions also still supported SDL 1 back then.
CFWhitman Mar 15, 2022
I played the Linux build on the desktop some years ago, back when it was in Humble Indie Bundle 5. At that point it still worked out of the box, but distributions also still supported SDL 1 back then.

Yes, I played it some back then as well, but ended up setting it aside without playing that far into it. I always intended to get back to it, but haven't so far. I was thinking of playing it on my AYA Neo, since I have no shot at a Steam deck before at least the fourth quarter (possibly next year). Even on a handheld, though, it is one among many games that I wanted to get to. It's unfortunate that it now requires tinkering, which seems to be a hazard of playing older Linux games. I remember the port was originally done by Ryan C. Gordon (a.k.a. Icculus), and worked pretty well as far as I played it.
F.Ultra Mar 15, 2022
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I still haven't finished the first one... Might be fun on the Deck though.

The last level on the first game is a real pain, many rage quits on that one.
Anza Mar 15, 2022
I still haven't finished the first one... Might be fun on the Deck though.

The last level on the first game is a real pain, many rage quits on that one.

I didn't even get that far. Before that there's tower you have to climb. I kept falling again and again and haven't resumed the game since.

Before that there are several memorable levels, so not all bad.
F.Ultra Mar 15, 2022
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I still haven't finished the first one... Might be fun on the Deck though.

The last level on the first game is a real pain, many rage quits on that one.

I didn't even get that far. Before that there's tower you have to climb. I kept falling again and again and haven't resumed the game since.

Before that there are several memorable levels, so not all bad.

The tower is nothing compared with the damn circus tent later. That one is pixel accuracy from hell. It's a great and fun game, just that I wish that they had toned down the pixel jumping in such a clunky 3d game.
Hamish Mar 15, 2022
I would say I should play through the first game again, but since I am still back to using the exact same graphics card that I was using when the Linux port first came out, it might be better to wait for when I can upgrade again.

I did make it through the Meat Circus but it was a struggle. And the PC version tones it down apparently.
PublicNuisance Mar 16, 2022
I'll be interested if they put it on GOG but will also be wary because the original had some terrible optimization on the Linux port if I remember.
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