About
Castlevania: Simon's Destiny is a non-commercial first-person fan game built on GZDoom by developer Batandy that faithfully recreates the NES original Castlevania in 3D. It features six levels mirroring the classic stages, Simon Belmont's iconic whip, a full roster of classic enemies, and original visual and audio work designed to evoke the 1986 game. Completely standalone and free, it requires no Doom or Castlevania files. Batandy has released several other GZDoom fangames including GZ PT (a GZDoom recreation of P.T.) using the same standalone pk3 approach.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- flatpak
- Options
- run org.zdoom.GZDoom -iwad ~/.var/app/org.zdoom.GZDoom/.config/gzdoom/Castlevania.ipk3
- Needs files
-
- Castlevania.ipk3
Runtime
- Runs as
- Native Linux
- Proton
- not needed
⚙ Setup notes
Overview: Non-commercial Castlevania fangame in first-person GZDoom by Batandy (Andrea Gori) — completely standalone, free on itch.io (batandy.itch.io/simonsdestiny). No Doom or Castlevania files needed; the download (currently V1.4) ships a self-contained IWAD, Castlevania.ipk3.
Install: Install the GZDoom Flatpak (org.zdoom.GZDoom) via Discover in Desktop Mode. Download Simon's Destiny from itch.io, extract it, and place Castlevania.ipk3 in ~/.var/app/org.zdoom.GZDoom/.config/gzdoom/.
Launch: Because Castlevania.ipk3 is a standalone IWAD, launch it with -iwad ~/.var/app/org.zdoom.GZDoom/.config/gzdoom/Castlevania.ipk3 (or just pick "Castlevania: Simon's Destiny" from the GZDoom IWAD picker on first run). Add as a non-Steam shortcut with those launch options. Set the renderer to Hardware (OpenGL).
Content: Six levels recreating the NES Castlevania in 3D with Simon's whip and all classic enemies.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Free on itch.io (batandy.itch.io/simonsdestiny). No Doom or Castlevania files needed.
Non-commercial: Fan game — no Konami affiliation.
Install: Install the GZDoom Flatpak (org.zdoom.GZDoom) via Discover, extract the itch.io download, place Castlevania.ipk3 in ~/.var/app/org.zdoom.GZDoom/.config/gzdoom/, and add as a non-Steam shortcut with launch options: run org.zdoom.GZDoom -iwad ~/.var/app/org.zdoom.GZDoom/.config/gzdoom/Castlevania.ipk3. It is a standalone IWAD, so you can also just select "Castlevania: Simon's Destiny" from the GZDoom launcher's IWAD list.
Note: Batandy's other GZDoom games (GZ PT, etc.) use the same pattern. deckport links nothing.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.