Do not delete the thread if this answers your question.

This is my method for GOG and other offline installers.

To run the installer, I use GE-Proton9-27. Something happened with Wine 10 and some installers completely freeze after a few seconds. Wine 9 still works well enough.

Create a directory for the game's prefix:

mkdir -p /path/to/game/prefix

Then run the installer with Proton (assuming you've installed GE-Proton into Steam's compatibilitytools.d directory):

WINEPREFIX=/path/to/game/prefix ~/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/GE-Proton9-27/files/bin/wine /path/to/setup.exe

Then install the games to the C: drive.

I like having my games installed outside the prefix (e.g. another directory mounted as the G: drive, or an absolute path in Z:), but for some reason, lettered drives other than C: are mounted as some kind of union filesystem where changes are only written into memory. If you want to have a game outside the prefix, you'll still have to install it to C: and move the directory afterwards.

You'll then have to set up a launcher to manage and launch the actual game. I recommend Faugus Launcher, but Heroic and Lutris are also options. The two most important fields to set are the prefix and the executable path. In Faugus and Lutris, you can set those paths when you add the game. Heroic creates a separate prefix by default, but you can set the prefix math manually in some sub-menu.

You can select the latest Proton (or GE-Proton) to run the games, downgrading to Wine 9 was only necessary for the installer.

That girl you know's installer doesn't play nice on Linux. There are ways to get it working but the easiest way I've found is to install it on Windows and than copy it to my Linux machine. I'm guessing that isn't an option for you so try Lutris. I've only ever gotten them working with Lutris. It's still a crapshoot whether or not it works.

I just add as a non-steam game to steam and use proton. But this is mainly so my steam controller will work. But doesnt heroic have an "Add Game" button that has you sign into Epic or whatever and you pick from a list?

I use faugus launcher. Either add the game to it so you can tweak it later (custom wineprefix/ wine-version etc...) or just click on the .exe to launch with the default prefix/settings.

Simplest launcher that I know.

I’ve found Bottles works better than Lutris almost always.

Try johncena141 repacks (recommended) for linux or DODI repacks if the first one did not make a repack for the game yet. Fitgirl repacks have never worked in my experience while DODI's have always worked. For johncena141: https://gitlab.com/jc141x/setup For DODI: just execute the setup.exe with wine and install the game in the folder you prefer.

I use the native heroic.

I just click add game, then have to select wine 9 for installation. Choose a prefix path to your liking, click run installer. Take note of all redistributables wanted, but deselect them. Install the game wherever you want.

Afterwards, go into the games settings, select GE-Proton-latest instead of 9-27, and if the game wanted to install any redistributables except DirectX, click winetricks. Visual C is called vcrunxxxx, where xxxx is the latest year, dotnet is called dotnetxx, where xx is the version. Most of the time you are fine with installing only the latest visual c runtime wanted by the game. Older games might need different things - look them up on protondb.

I went for native Heroic because I had issues getting heroic, gamescope and the performance overlay to play nicely with each other.

The girl that who?

When you add a new game to heroic there's a "run installer" button that you can use. Then you look for the executable in the prefix to put it on heroic.

is this because no steam account or wanting to launch something without the steam account using it as the login?

First off, Fitgirl repacks often fail to unpack properly on Linux through WINE/Proton. I prefer naked game folders compressed into an archive instead of a stupid setup.exe that's just an over glorified 7z decompressor anyways behind the scenes. You posted this on .world instead of a piracy friendly community unfortunately so you'd have to DM me for linux friendly filesharing sources if you care to.

My non-Steam workflow is basically this. I use Faugus Launcher instead of Heroic: https://github.com/Faugus/faugus-launcher but with the other comments here you'll realise the same steps apply to any of this stuff. Lutris, Heroic, Faugus, whatever. Just different GUI.

Scenario 1: I find ready to go compressed game folder archive and avoid an annoying installer.

1. Extract archive, add game exe to Faugus Launcher.

2. Hit play. If it doesn't work, try a different proton variant like GE. Proton-GE especially good for non-Steam indie or very old games. If it pops an error about C++ redist missing or whatever, right click the game in Faugus and run winetricks to install that to the prefix. If it still doesn't work, look up on Protondb for launch argument fixes. If it still doesn't work, cry myself to sleep. https://www.protondb.com/

Or:

Scenario 2: I can't find anything without having to run a Windows setup program first.

1. Add setup exe to Faugus, rename prefix to what the game is called before clicking ok.

2. Hopefully install the game without setup hanging, thus wasting much time and bandwidth.

3. Go back to Faugus and right click the prefix I added earlier to run setup exe. Change path to installed game exe. Prefix doesn't change, uses same folder the setup exe did.

4. Play game, refer to step 2 in previous scenario for troubleshooting.

Oh and:

https://github.com/ChrisDKN/Amethyst-Mod-Manager

Extremely competent new mod manager.

Lutris has an option to install something from an .exe, and you say what game it is, and it pulls all the meta data correctly.