One download, a couple of taps, and Classic World shows up in your Steam library with controls that work. Takes about five minutes plus the game download.
Open this page on your Deck in Desktop Mode: type the address into the Deck's browser, or scan this code with your phone to send yourself the link.
You are reading this in Steam's Gaming Mode browser, which cannot download or run files. Press the Steam button, choose Power, then Switch to Desktop. Open this page again from the desktop browser.
You are in the right place. Follow the steps below.
Everything happens in Desktop Mode. You will be back in Gaming Mode at the end.
Press the Steam button, choose Power, then Switch to Desktop. The Deck restarts into a normal desktop. The trackpads move the mouse. Steam + X opens a keyboard whenever you need one.
If you have no browser yet, open Discover from the taskbar and install Firefox. Then come back to this page.
A small launcher file. It opens a terminal window and runs the install script from this site. You can read the script before you run it. Prefer to paste a command instead? Open Konsole and run:
curl -fsSL https://maplesteamdeck.com/install.sh | bash
Open the Downloads folder (the folder icon in the taskbar, then Downloads) and double tap Install MapleStory Classic World. If the Deck asks whether to run it, choose Continue or Execute.
A window explains what will happen. Tap Install. A progress bar shows each step: downloading Proton (about 500 MB, once), downloading the Nexon Launcher from Nexon, setting up the game folder, adding the game to Steam. Steam closes and reopens once. Five minutes on a decent connection.
The last window offers Return to Gaming Mode. Tap it. MapleStory Classic World is now in your library under Non-Steam.
The first time takes a little longer. The launcher has to download the game.
The Nexon Launcher opens. It is a normal window, so the right trackpad is your mouse and R2 clicks.
Press Steam + X for the keyboard. Signing in with Google or another account opens a browser page; log in there and come back to the launcher.
About 1.2 GB. Pick MapleStory Classic World in the launcher if it is not already selected and tap Install. Then tap Play.
The game runs at 1280x720 full screen with thin bars above and below. That is the closest size the game offers to the Deck's screen, and it is set for you. The controls below are already active.
Already logged in once? Next time it is just launch, Play. The launcher remembers you.
This layout is installed for you and matches the game's default keys. Change anything you like in Steam's controller settings; your changes are kept when you update.
| Input | Key | In game |
|---|---|---|
| D-pad, left stick | Arrows | Move, climb, enter portals |
| A | Alt | Jump |
| X | Ctrl | Attack. Hold it and it keeps attacking. |
| B | Z | Pick up |
| Y | Space | Talk to NPCs, harvest |
| L1, R1 | Insert, Home | Skill slots |
| L4, L5, R4, R5 (back grips) | Page Up, Page Down, Delete, End | Skill slots |
| Right trackpad | Mouse | Cursor. R2 left clicks, L2 right clicks and slows the cursor for small targets. |
| Left trackpad | Touch menu | Inventory, Equipment, Skills, Quests, World Map, Minimap, Stats, Chat |
| Menu button | Esc | Close windows, game menu |
| View button | Enter | Chat |
| Steam + X | On screen keyboard, for typing in chat or the launcher |
Assigning skills: open Skills from the touch menu, then drag a skill onto one of the six key slots shown on the keyboard window (Insert, Home, Page Up, Page Down, Delete, End). The right trackpad and R2 do the dragging.
The usual snags, and what to do about them.
Right click (hold with L2 or tap with two fingers on the trackpad) the file in Downloads and choose Run, or Open with Konsole. Or skip the file and paste the command from step 3 into Konsole.
The installer was started while Steam's Gaming Mode was running. It only works from the desktop. Steam button, Power, Switch to Desktop, then run it again.
The installer waits 90 seconds for Steam to close. If a download or an update was running, Steam may take longer. Close Steam yourself from its menu and run the installer again. It carries on from where it was.
Steam fell back to its gamepad template instead of the installed layout. With the launcher open, press the Steam button, open Controller Settings, and pick the MapleStory Classic World (Deck) layout. Then run the installer again and choose Update so it stays.
The key repeat wrapper is not running. Make sure you launch the game from the MapleStory Classic World entry in Steam, not from a shortcut inside the launcher. Running the installer again and choosing Repair rewrites the Steam entry.
Log in once in Desktop Mode instead of Gaming Mode. Launch the game from Steam while still on the desktop, finish the login there, close the launcher, then return to Gaming Mode. The launcher remembers the session.
The installer writes a log to ~/.local/share/maplesteamdeck/install.log. Post in r/MSClassicWorld with the last 40 lines along with your SteamOS version (Settings, System).
MapleStory stopped working on GE-Proton11-4 and later at the time of writing. The installer pins 11-3 and verifies its checksum. It installs alongside whatever Proton you already have and does not change your other games. When a newer release works again, an update to the installer will move the pin.
Yes, with native Steam. The same command works on Arch, Manjaro, Ubuntu, Fedora, Bazzite and friends. The controller layout is Deck specific and is simply not used on a PC. Steam installed as a Flatpak is not supported yet.
This installer downloads Nexon's own launcher from Nexon's own server and runs it, the same way you would by hand. It does not modify any game file, touch the anti-cheat, or automate anything in the game. Playing on Linux is not officially supported by Nexon, so you play at your own risk, as every Linux and Deck player of this game already does.
Run the installer again. When the game is already installed it offers Update, Repair and Uninstall.
~/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d if you want it gone.By hand instead: remove the game from Steam (right click, Manage, Remove non-Steam game), then delete the folder ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/ followed by the number shown in ~/.local/share/maplesteamdeck/state, and delete ~/.local/share/maplesteamdeck.