About
Shrine and Shrine II are short, intensely atmospheric Lovecraftian horror first-person shooters built on the GZDoom engine by solo developer scumhead. Both ship as standalone games with their own assets — no commercial Doom WAD is required — and both have native Linux builds that bundle GZDoom. The games are defined by a suffocating alien aesthetic, grotesque enemy designs, and oppressive environmental storytelling. Both are free / pay-what-you-want on itch.io. Each runs about one to two hours and is among the most distinctive standalone GZDoom releases.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- gzdoom
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Runtime
- Runs as
- Native Linux
- Proton
- not needed
⚙ Setup notes
Engine: Dark Lovecraftian horror games built on GZDoom that ship their own assets — no commercial Doom WAD required.
Native Linux builds (recommended): scumhead publishes self-contained Linux ports of both games on itch.io. Each download (e.g. Shrine_Linux.tar.xz for Shrine, the "shrine2 Linux Port" zip for Shrine II) bundles its own GZDoom binary plus the game assets — no separate GZDoom install and no file shuffling. Extract the archive, then add the bundled gzdoom executable inside the extracted folder as a non-Steam shortcut. Set Start In to that folder so it finds its assets.
Steam Deck note: add --no-sandbox to the launch options when running the bundled GZDoom through Steam, otherwise Steam can hang on launch.
Alternative (system GZDoom): you can also run the Windows .ipk3/.pk3 assets through a separately installed GZDoom Flatpak (org.zdoom.GZDoom) loaded with -file, but the native Linux build is simpler and is the intended path on Deck.
Two separate games: Shrine and Shrine II are distinct downloads — add each as its own non-Steam shortcut.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Two separate free games. Download Shrine from itch.io (scumhead.itch.io/shrine) and Shrine II from itch.io (scumhead.itch.io/shrine-ii); both are free / pay-what-you-want. A Shrine II 1.5 standalone is also mirrored on ModDB. deckport links nothing for download.
Native Linux is the easy path: Grab the Linux build of each (the itch.io desktop client sometimes hides the Linux files — download them from the game page in a browser if so). Extract, then add the bundled gzdoom binary inside the extracted folder as a non-Steam shortcut, with Start In set to that folder.
Steam Deck: add --no-sandbox to the launch options so Steam doesn't hang when launching the bundled GZDoom.
No Doom II needed for either game — the assets ship in the download.
Length: Very short but highly atmospheric — each runs about 1-2 hours.
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.