Manage Your Linux Game Library With Lutris

Lutris is an open-source Linux game manager, but it’s more than that. It aims to provide a single unified way to handle gaming on Linux.

It brings together all aspects of Linux gaming into one place. Steam, Wine, HumbleBundle, GOG, and even a whole range of emulators are all brought together for a relatively seamless experience.

Lutris also provides methods for installing games. It integrates with Steam, and it provides installer scripts for even the trickiest Wine games.

Running Lutris

You can start Lutris from any other graphical application. The basic screen that you get when you don’t have any games installed is fairly plain. It just prompts you to create an account and add your games.

It’s best for you to create a Lutris account now. Your account is the way that the client can keep your game library synchronized. It also opens up the option to browse and install games from the platform’s website. You can register easily on the Lutris website.

Once you’ve set up your account, take a look at the client again. The middle button on the main screen will allow you to link your new account to the client. Click on it and enter in your username and password.

Adding Games and Runners

Lutris has a couple of ways of adding games. It uses other programs called runners to actually run games. This is more of a management platform than anything else. It organizes things but doesn’t do any heavy lifting.

To see the list of available runners, click on the icon at the top of your Lutris window. A window will open up with a list of runners. Many are emulators, but you’ll see Steam and Wine there, too. With the exception of Steam, you can install the runners through this window. You can even manage and install multiple versions of Wine. Lutris will keep track of them. It actually has custom scripts for Wine games that specify the best version of Wine to use.

Steam has to be installed separately through your distribution’s package manager, but Lutris will pick it up immediately once you have. In order to actually get your Steam games, you need to sign into your Lutris account in your web browser. Go to your profile and click on the “Sign in through Steam” button. This will link your Steam account so the client can display your games and other Steam features.

For many other games you can browse the selection on the Lutris website. There are tons on there, and more are constantly being added. Like with Steam, you can download games from the site, and the client will set them up for you.

If you have any other games that aren’t covered through Steam or the Lutris website, you can add them manually. The plus sign at the top of the client lets you create your own custom game launcher for games that are already installed on your computer.  The development team plans on adding support for GOG and HumbleBundle in the near future, but for now you can still add games that you purchase through either of these services manually.

Once you’ve added a library of games, you’ll see a nice tiled image layout of all of your games on the main screen of the Lutris client. You can now run all of your games through Lutris!

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