On some level ... because it often doesn't matter. Most people just buy the game and if it doesn't run well enough for them refund it under steam's 2 hour window. Even for Windows this is an issue because of the large variety of PC hardware; you might have a chip that's new but weak (kind of like buying a new Kia and expecting it to compete with a new Corvette).

On another level ... because you're using hardware that's over a decade old. What you really want for Linux gaming is either a Steam Deck or a desktop PC with an AMD GPU. If you have to go with a laptop, I'd probably look at the Framework 16; definitely no modern Macs because the ARM chips are pretty hostile to Linux and especially Linux gaming.

Neither of these systems are powerful, and they're also running Intel integrated GPUs which are frankly generally poor.

If you want to game with Proton, then the device still needs to be able run the game well if it had Windows installed.

As a general very rough rule, most games will work with proton if other games work with proton on your system. Its basically a compatibility layer between the game and your linux PC - if Proton can communicate well with your graphics card and CPU, and it has the right specs, it should just work - proton does the heavy lifting. But if no 3D games are running then most of them wont.

When it doesn't work, the first place to look is your drivers and hardware. There are then certainly lots of caveats for specific games which may behave peculiarly with certain hardware and needs adjusting but I find that is the exception rather than the norm. Start with your drivers and hardware.

It's is (usually) not so difficult, and this is no exception.

Look up the game's system requirements. Frostpunk's say this:

Minimum:

Processor: 3.2 GHz Dual Core Processor
Graphics: GeForce GTX 660, Radeon R7 370 or equivalent with 2 GB of video RAM

Looks plain as day to me. Your hardware doesn't meet the published requirements, or even come close.

Keep in mind that CPU-integrated GPUs like yours are not merely slower than the discrete GPUs listed as bare minimum; they sometimes also lack features that are present in the latter. Similarly, both of your CPUs are older/weaker than the minimum, and may lack some of the newer instructions that would be present in 3.2GHz+ models.

In cases like this, there's no reason to expect the game to run on your hardware. This is not because you're running Linux. It's because of target platform decisions made by the game's developers.

You might get lucky, or discover enough workarounds to get it running anyway with some effort, but it's unlikely to be a good experience. If I were going to try anyway, I would start by enabling as much logging as possible, and searching online for any error messages I found in the logs to see if I could find someone else who had encountered and solved them. Be aware that troubleshooting like this can take a long time even if you're an experienced software developer, and might not bear fruit.

because you are running integrated graphics that can barely run your OS's UI, much less a game.

it has nothing to do with steam, or proton, or frostpunk.

You don't meet the minimum system requirements.

Before you have a fit over another game, you ain't playing anything made in the last 20 years on either of those. Or anything with 3d graphics.

Only thing you're playing on those is old school games like original Fallout, and original baldurs gate, and those sort.

Ivy Bridge doesn't fully support vulkan

I've run it without issues, on a much newer system.

I don't know why it wouldn't run at all, but as you point out, you're running it on a pair of pretty low-end systems. One is from six years prior to the game's release without discrete video, and the other came out in the same year, but is a very low-end system with no discrete video card; those things aren't really aimed at playing 3d games. I don't think that you'd likely be happy with performance even if it ran.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190/Frostpunk/

Windows:

Minimum:
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce GTX 660, Radeon R7 370 or equivalent with 2 GB of video RAM

Recommended:
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 970, Radeon RX 580 or equivalent with 4GB of video RAM

Mac:

Minimum:
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: 4GB AMD Radeon Pro 5300M, Radeon Pro 560X or better

My experience is that minimum requirements tend to be kind of optimistic.

The minimum system requirements specify a discrete video card.

You've got an 8GB RAM Surface Go with a non-discrete GPU and no VRAM, and a 16GB RAM Macbook also with a non-discrete GPU that had been around for six years prior to the game's release.

I've never returned a game, but IIRC Steam does have a refund policy for a short period of time after purchase, so if you buy a game and it doesn't run, you can refund it.

goes looking

https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam—for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it.

It doesn't matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within the required return period, and, in the case of games, if the title has been played for less than two hours.

The Steam refund offer, within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime, applies to games and software applications on the Steam store.

EDIT: Here's a Passmark comparison of your two Intel integrated video things and the lowest-end video card they list in their system requirements, a Geforce GTX 660. This gives a score to give a rough idea of how they'd compare in relative terms:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/2152vs2vs3593/GeForce-GTX-660-vs-Intel-HD-4000-vs-Intel-HD-615

GeForce GTX 660: 4013
Intel HD 4000: 348
Intel HD 615: 705

I mean, you might get it running, but I'm skeptical that you'd have a good experience with it.

EDIT2:

Their "recommended" card is a GeForce GTX 970. Adding that:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/2152vs2vs3593vs2954/GeForce-GTX-660-vs-Intel-HD-4000-vs-Intel-HD-615-vs-GeForce-GTX-970

GeForce GTX 970: 9634

EDIT3: Hmm. I've never really thought about it, but you'd think that Valve could get minimum requirements plonked into a database, and then have the Steam client, which can see your hardware -- assuming that you're shopping from the Steam client -- warn you on the game page if your system doesn't meet them.

I'll preface this with the fact that I don't know the game, but looking at the system requirements on steam, both of those systems are below minimum spec.

Also, it would probably help if the macbook actually was on fedora 41, it reads 40 in the screenshot - so maybe try upgrading that one, since the game runs on the system with actual fedora 41?

Frostpunk minimum requirements page says you need a dedicated GPU with 2 GB VRAM. So an Intel HD Graphics GPU won't cut it. You can only do light gaming with it.

I'm sure there are gaming benchmark videos for it, or for at least CPU+GPU combination. You can get idea about what you should expect. Even Age of Empires II DE would have a hard time with it.

For Linux gaming, you need a relatively new system with a dedicated GPU. For example you can still do low to mid end gaming with GTX 1060 3GB, with a relatively new CPU.

Though for Linux gaming, AMD systems are suggested for more seamless experience. You can also get a Steam Deck if you live in one of those countries.

Edit: Also apparently Intel HD Graphics 4000 doesn't support Vulkan, so'll you need this launch option for every non-native game: PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

There's only so much you can do with a 13 year old MacBook. You note "upgraded", but that doesn't mean much at that vintage.

If you're trying to run current games, assume they won't work.

As the other user said, better off getting a SteamDeck.

Although, TBH, if your prime concern is PlayStation going discless, that may be an unwarranted worry.

https://www.ign.com/articles/former-playstation-boss-shawn-layden-says-sony-cant-get-away-with-making-ps6-disc-less

PlayStation is ahead in too many territories that don't have the infrastructure to support a discless console.

I buy it on steam. If it does not work, i refund it.

You're trying to use a laptop from a billion years ago. Of course it doesn't work. Frostpunk is older, but not that old.

How do you know if a game is gonna run on your machine?

Read the system requirements. If you meet or exceed them, and Proton DB says silver or above, it will probably work.

Buy it and get a refund if it doesn't

It may be a good idea to launch the game through the terminal for troubleshooting when it doesn't launch through the UI. More often than not on Linux, the terminal carries very useful info, of which often you can find solutions online once you spot a suspicious line. And for Steam games specifically, to not change the test environment too much, the command for starting a given game is steam steam steam://rungameid/[game_id], where [game_id] is the number that appears in a given game's page on Steam, e.g. 211820 for Starbound, making the command steam steam://rungameid/211820.

the 2008 Mirror's Edge might run with 30 fps

Hmm, maybe your setup is just too different from what the masses use. If you scroll through the comments on ProtonDB, you'll find most people with a Intel GPU (like you) are also reporting issues. At least in the more recent comments. And the System Requirements on the Steam page for MacOS say something about unsupported Intel Macs. So I'd say it's probably some issue with Intel GPUs. And since the majority of people use other GPUs, you'll get an overall score that doesn't match your situation. You can filter reviews on ProtonDB btw.

Left a comment as a reply to one of yours about the laptops themselves.

The way I can tell if a game does/should run on my PC is kind of a multi-prong approach

• System requirements page
• DigitalFoundry does really good performance analysis videos on new games (REALLY good if you have a rough idea of how your components compare to others)
• Determining what console my PC compares to in terms of performance and going off that. Specific examples:
  • First laptop had an i7 3610HQ and a GT 740M - a bit more powerful than PS3/Xbox 360. If a game runs on those consoles (720p with inconsistent 30FPS) I should be able to run it on this laptop at slightly lower (trash port) or slightly better (good port) resolution or fps.
  • Second laptop had an i5 7300HQ and a GTX 1050Ti - performance between a PS4 and PS4 Pro
    • If it gets 30FPS on base PS4, this laptop can easily run it at 45 unless it's a bad port (FPS can be higher if I lower settings)
    • It's also comparable to a desktop GTX 970 (although 970 is still a bit better) so If I see 970 as the minimum, I know I can tweak stuff to get it running.
  • Current laptop has an i7 11800HQ with a GTX 3070 - quite a bit better than PS5, not sure how it compares to PS5 Pro yet. It's new enough and supports DLSS so I expect a locked 60FPS at 1440p on everything with some tweaking. Right now, until a new console generation comes out, if I can't lock 60 on a game, it's probably really poorly made and not worth my time.
• Once you've seen how different games run on your hardware, you sorta get a sense of how certain types of graphics should perform

And then check protondb to see if it can run on linux (most likely will)

Integrated graphics may have some gotchas but the general rule I follow is "if it came out within a console generation, it can't run that console's games. Last gen can be serviceable. 2 generations back run pretty well."

I have used proton DB to help me trouble shoot other games that were rated silver and above. I basically try to find reviews (using the filter search function) with my specs and see what input they have to offer (sometimes solutions to issues that are exactly like mine). If I don't find anything, then I start looking up solutions from other peoples' setups.

Sometimes, it could just be that your hardware isn't strong enough for the game. Sadly I can't offer anything more specific than that.

these computers with linux are good as lightweight servers, not really for gaming

Also if it crashes on video playback that's a good indicator that you might need proton GE as the video is wanting a weird windows codec that reg proton doesn't want to install in vanilla proton for good reason.

Linux support for steam games has come a long way and I find the section on the steam page that says what works on the steam deck is pretty bang on for my debian based Linux gaming.

That said I feel your pain. You are running Linux on a MacBook and that is a very small fringe group in a little larger fringe group. If you want to play games on pc you need to get something with more gaming centered hardware. Gaming on a Macbook is never going to be a great process at this stage of the game. A 10 year old PC running linux with a 1050ti would provide a better experience than a MacBook.