Well, I thought there had once been that issue alt-tabbing in Windows, but I installed the game on Parallels on my Mac and it appears that there isn't any such issue with the menu. Options highlight correctly and I can select anything.

I did try to assign alt+tab to one of the buttons to no luck. As I brainstorm ideas and options I'll reply here.

Edit: I tried streaming from the mac and... it technically worked? But I don't knot that it proved anything.

Follow-up: In case others need the information, a helpful redditor found a workaround. It turns out you can still multitask in Game Mode (as opposed to Desktop Mode). Press the Steam button, select Library, and start a different game, preferably something lightweight in memory. Once it's started fully and music/controls are functional, press the Steam button again, navigate to the new game, and select 'exit game'. Focus will switch to Fallen Enchantress and just like the old alt-tab method, the game will now be properly focused and the main menu will highlight and be usable as normal.

And a follow-up to the follow-up: In the end I couldn't configure my way past display issues. Text doesn't appear correctly, some sound glitches. I tried using Proton Experimental as well as Proton GE to see if either compatibility layer would work and no luck, unfortunately.

A resolution to all issues. Gamenaut over in the FE discussion forum on Steam had this to say:

On Linux desktop, the solution is to Alt-Tab out of the game and get back to it, then it works (not sure how to do that on the Deck, though). The only way for the game to run without this workaround is by running it on Proton 4.11-13. Also, it's needed to delete the SDNXLFonts.dll file in the game's folder; otherwise some texts won't show up.

It's worth mentioning that there's a bug going on for a while (in some Windows installs and Linux with newer Proton) in which the game crashes on loading a save, but there's a workaround for that in this thread. By running the game on Proton 4.11-13, you won't have this issue, but the performance there is quite poor (it uses OpenGL instead of Vulkan, which the newer Protons uses).

Summary for the best experience and performance on Linux:

* Delete the SDNXLFonts.dll file
* Run the game on Proton Experimental (Alt-Tab needed after boot)
* When loading a previous save, start a new game, go back to the menu and load it

After that it's a smooth sail. I know it seems like a lot of work, but it's worth it. The game runs much smoother than on Windows after that.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/228260/discussions/0/3363650131504895524/

I've verified that this works as well and that the current versions of Proton Experimental and GE Proton still retain the bug. I simply moved the font file to a backup folder and the text correctly displays. Using Proton 4.11-13, the game can now be played normally from within the Deck interface.

Is there any shot of a Stardock dev getting enough time budget to work through this issue to make the game playable by default, possibly upgrading the game's verified status to "playable"?