This month’s visual overhaul to our Steam library is a welcome change, especially when it comes to organizing and categorizing our collections. But Steam isn’t the only game in town in town when it comes to our Linux game libraries. This week I stumbled across a terrific little app called GameHub, and if you find yourself with a large collection of games across services like GOG, Humble Bundle and Steam, you’re going to want this!
GameHub: A unified library and launcher for your game collection
GameHub is best described as a unified library and launcher for all of your – even if they’re not native Linux titles, and even if they’ve been installed with other nifty Linux gaming solutions like Lutris or PlayOnLinux.
That’s because it includes built-in support for Wine, Proton, DOSBox, RetroArch and ScummVM.
When you first launch GameHub, you’ll have the option to log in to your Steam, Humble Bundle and GOG accounts. Within seconds you’ll see your entire game collection represented.
The app is clean and intuitive enough to simply dive right in and start installing and playing, but it also packs some seriously cool features under its hood for power users.
In this window you can customize many aspects of your game, including artwork, icons, preset and ... [+]
Here’s a mere sampling of features you can utilize:
- Add games to GameHub from any executable or directory
- Add custom game artwork or icons
- Filter your library with tags like Backlog, Completed, or Play Next. Or create your own custom tags like “Final Fantasy” or “Couch Co-op Games”
- Sort your library by Time Played or Last Launched
- Choose between multiple versions of Proton and Wine – and even choose between MacOS or Windows installers for non-native games
- Launch games instantly from GameHub or inside a Terminal window
- WineWrap support for select supported titles
Click "Details" and you can see your playtime, detailed descriptions, the game trailer, genre, and ... [+]
How To Install GameHub
First and foremost, major props to System76 for including GameHub – and Lutris for that matter – in the Pop OS software center. If you’re running Pop OS, simply install it and you’re done.
Ubuntu-Based Systems: Add the GameHub PPA to your system, or install the latest .deb package from the releases page
Arch-Based Systems: As you’d probably expect, GameHub is available in the AUR (Arch User Repository).
Other Methods: GameHub is also available to build from source or install as a FlatPak, and various other methods and solutions are available here.
I’ve only used GameHub for a short time, but it has jumped to the top of my must-have Linux apps list on every system I own. The more advanced features are worthy of further exploration, but so far I’m impressed with how intuitive GameHub is right out of the box.
Happy gaming!
I also discuss GameHub in the latest episode of Linux For Everyone:
