UPDATE: The game should now work out of the box! It literally uses the same fix as what is described in this article, it's just included in the game now.
Let me know if you have any other issues getting the game to work!
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Heya,
I meant to post this a lot sooner, but here's everything I know about making the game work on Steam Deck and other Linux-based systems. I'll continue to edit this article as the situation develops (unless I forget, in which case please do remind me).
How to get the game running
The game fails to launch as it can't properly access parts of ucrtbase.dll, a Windows system C++ redistributable file.
Fortunately this is a pretty easy process to fix, here are two options for ya.
Quick manual fix
Find a copy of ucrtbase.dll, and put it in the game folder (i.e. next to the .exe; common/Quantum Loop/ucrtbase.dll).
Whilst there are downloads for the file online, but I won't be providing any specifc link to download it, as Microsoft doesn't appear to provide an official download for it, and I'm not 100% confident what third-party sources are safe to use.
If you want to be completely safe, you can get it from a Windows PC's Windows\\System32\\ucrtbase.dll.
Alternatively, you can also use Winetricks or Protontricks to load the DLL into the game, which you can have some level of trust won't be using dodgy DLL files.
Using Protontricks
First you'll need to install Protontricks, which I won't go into heaps of detail about here.
On Steam Deck though, you'll just need to switch to desktop mode, and search for it in SteamOS's Discover thingie.
Once you've got it though:
Select Quantum Loop in Protontricks
Choose to use the default wineprefix
Choose to install a Windows DLL
In the massive list that appears, find ucrtbase2019 and tick it, then press OK.
After this, hopefully you should be able to run the game with no issues!
Long-term plans
Long-term I do intend to make the game work on Steam Deck without any tweaking.
None of the easy fixes I've tried have worked so far, but I'll be continuing to chip away at it when I can.
This being a small solo project without the resources to do extensive multi-platform testing every update, getting it to work through Proton would be an absolute godsend to ensure compatibility. However, if I just can't find a way to get it to work out-of-the-box, I may start building Linux-native binaries.
Thanks for your patience with this issue!
I hope the above guide helps you have a great time with Quantum Loop! :)