Steam is the platform or launcher The most popular video game platform, with permission from Microsoft's proposal. 100% sure that it is the one that Linux users prefer to stay on Linux. The normal thing is to install the client and download games and applications from it, but you can also add apps and titles from outside if you want to launch them in their Big Picture mode or pull proton. The problem is that it won't look pretty, or not at first.
The previous image is not normal when we add a non-Steam application. It shows an application, Nested Desktop, with which we can access the desktop from the game mode, Big Picture if we are not on the Steam Deck. To achieve this effect you have to do it manually, and here we are going to explain the easiest way to do it.
Customize apps and games outside of Steam
The Big Picture/game mode is a blast, but it doesn't have as many options as the client in its window. Put an image and a banner, and also a logo if we wish, is obtained in that window, and the steps to follow, valid for the Steam Deck, would look like this:
- We open the Steam client.
- We click on “Library”, then on the game we want to add an image to, and then select the same game on the right with the secondary click. It is important that we do this, because it is at this point that the option to add an image will appear. With the right click at this point we can put it — grid — vertically.
- Now we click on the game, go to its information, then click on the gear and then on "Properties".
- In the next window, we click on the square and choose the image, which would be the game icon — I put the cover back in the day, but you have to put the icon.
- We go back and now we are going to choose the hero and the logo, if we wish. For both elements you have to right click on the banner, which by default will be empty.
NOTE: : the text will be different, since in the example I already have images included. Nor will there be images, logically, appearing something generic.
- The last image, the horizontal grid image, does not appear until we open the game or app and it is the last thing we have opened. In the library, being the last one, the larger horizontal one will appear, and we must do the same as in step 2.
And that would be all.
As a recommendation, it is worth looking for the images in steamgriddb.com, a website where we will find several options for each game or app and also in its size.
Grids, heroes, logos and icons: what they are
There are up to five images to choose from and use:
- Grid (x2): These are the vertical and landscape covers. The first one is seen in the library, and the last one only appears if it is the last game we have opened.
- Background or hero: is the image that appears in the background, and is rectangular in landscape.
- Logo: The logo is another image, the one that appears above the hero and in the options that appear when you press the Steam button.
- Icon: This is what appears in the general list of the Steam library or in Steam multitasking in game mode if we press the steam button.
And this is how we can customize the images of non-Steam applications and games. There are other tools that do this, such as the plugin SteamGridDB, but I don't recommend using these things for tasks that can be done manually without many complications; you never know when something can go wrong.