Garden Paws demo is a cute crafting, trading and exploration game where you play as a small animal in a beautiful relaxing toon world. Explore to find seeds, plants, rocks, wood and many other items to craft and sell to other characters. The full version boasts multi-player, fishing and many more features.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Garden Paws in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Itch.io version of Garden Paws. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 19 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.3.4
Wine: 4.0

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"



Look for the Wine Version: 4.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right



Click Next

Downloading Wine



Extracting

Installed



Click (amd64) Tab
Select 4.0
Click the arrow pointing to the right



Downloading Wine 64-bit



Installed



Wine 4.0 32-bit and 64-bit is installed, you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install



Click "Install a non-listed program"



Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next



Name the virtual drive: gardenpaws
Click Next



Check all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next



Select Wine 4.0
Click Next



Select "64 bits windows installation"
Click Next



Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7



Libraries Tab
Type the following:

• d3d10
• d3d10_1
• d3d10core
• d3d11
• dxgi

Select one at a time
Click Edit
Select "Native (Windows)"
Click Apply



Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Click OK



Note: You may have to enable "Emulate a virtual desktop" to prevent the mouse bug mentioned in the conclusion.

PlayOnLinux Packages (DLLs, Libraries, Components)

Check the Following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx10
• POL_Install_d3dx11
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next



Note: All packages should automatically download and install

Do not Click Browse
Garden Paws demo does not have an installer
Click Cancel



Download Garden Paws Demo
https://danielsnd.itch.io/garden-paws
Save to your Desktop

Open Garden Paws with your Archive Manager
Click Extract



Navigate to Program Files directory
Full Path

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/gardenpaws/drive_c/Program Files

Click the New Folder Button
Name the Folder: gardenpaws
Click Create
Click Extract



Click "Show the Files"


Download DXVK 1.2

Go to DXVK 1.2 URL
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.2
Download: dxvk-1.2.tar.gz
Save to your Desktop
Extract on your Desktop
Open x64 Directory
Copy all DLLs



Go back to the gardenpaws folder in Program Files
Full path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/gardenpaws/drive_c/Program Files/gardenpaws/

Paste all the DLLs



More information on setting up your system to work with DXVK
DXVK Setup in Linux

PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure



Select gardenpaws virtual drive (Left side)
General Tab
Click "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive"



Select "GardenPaws.exe"
Click Next



Name the Shortcut: Garden Paws
Click Next



Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next



General Tab
Wine version: 4.0



Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine.

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses



Close Configure

Select "Garden Paws"
Click Run



Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Unity Launcher
Select a resolution and graphics quality
Click Play



Conclusion:
Garden Paws ran perfectly on my GTX 1060 without any performance issues.
I did have a problem where the mouse will stop working in the menus which can prevent you from saving, crafting and interacting with NCPs. I found that experimenting with the Display Tab in Wine Configuration can help. Like enabling the virtual desktop and/or enabling "capture the mouse in full-screen windows". Or just play Garden Paws in windowed mode. Otherwise make sure to save by sleeping in-game otherwise you might loose a lot of progress because the only way to fix it is by killing the processes and starting over. The easiest way to resolve this is by playing in Windowed mode, but you won't get to play in a cinematic fullscreen view.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshots: