> I've found that nearly every game in my embarrassingly-large Steam library works fine on Linux.
I have on occasion been scared off of buying a package from Humble Bundle when the games are available on Steam but not explicitly marked as linux. (Some of the games are marked with linux and some are not.) Are you saying I am being unnecessarily cautious?
For example, there is a "momcore" bundle at the moment where some games claim linux support and others do not, if you want to see what I'm talking about.
> Are you saying I am being unnecessarily cautious?
Yes.
If a game is marked with Linux, that means it has a native Linux port. However, Proton has gotten so good in recent years that some of the native Linux ports actually perform _worse_ than just downloading the Windows exe and running it with the compatibility layer.
The investment in Proton makes sense in retrospect, since SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, and most of these games you mention should run just fine on a Steam Deck.
Check protondb.com. Current protondb status for Lake, Calico, We should talk, Beasts of Maravilla Island: Platinum, Apico: Gold, Kana Quest, Bombfest, Where the Bees Make Honey: Uknown, Onsen Master: Uknown (but has native build), Beans: The Coffee Shop Simulator: Playable.
> Are you saying I am being unnecessarily cautious?
Yeah, definitely. Given enough time, you absolutely will find games that don't work under Linux, but I expect that such games will be few and far between. Though, games with extremely invasive anticheat (such as Valorant) will almost certainly never, ever work on Linux. Games that use less-invasive anticheat like Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) (such as Elden Ring or Hunt: Showdown) work. [0]
I have just shy of 500 games in my Steam library. Maybe three or five of them have Linux builds. I've run into only a handful of games that don't work correctly on Linux. [1]
As others have said, you can check ProtonDB to get an idea of whether a game will work for you. But:
1) ProtonDB is not always accurate. For instance, sometimes it says that a bunch of workarounds are needed, but everything works just fine with Proton in Steam. Other times, it says a game works, but it doesn't. On my computer, HighFleet is an example of a game that's said to work, but doesn't.
2) In my experience, games just work. For the very rare ones that don't, I go look around to see if there are easy workarounds, and -so far- there always have been.
[0] Though, specifically for EAC, if you have more than something like 28 CPUs, you need to limit the number of CPUs that Proton will tell EAC about, or it will fail with an unhelpful error. You'd do that by setting WINE_CPU_TOPOLOGY like this: <https://www.protondb.com/app/1245620#4SzWJRl8sv>, altering the string in the obvious way if claiming you only have 28 CPUs doesn't work and you need to claim you have fewer.
[1] I've also run into one (Ruiner) that has a Linux build that's far, far worse than the Windows build. It turns out that you can force a game that has both Windows and Linux builds to run the Windows version by going to the Compatibility tab in the game's properties and force the use of one of the Proton versions. My go-to is 'Proton Experimental', as that seems to be the Steam default.
I have on occasion been scared off of buying a package from Humble Bundle when the games are available on Steam but not explicitly marked as linux. (Some of the games are marked with linux and some are not.) Are you saying I am being unnecessarily cautious?
For example, there is a "momcore" bundle at the moment where some games claim linux support and others do not, if you want to see what I'm talking about.