Linux: 32-bit Game on 64-bit OS

Background

The game engine I used (and I won't mention GameMaker: Studio by name) skimped on releasing a build feature for 64-bit Linux even though they were clearly testing it. Their target platform is Ubuntu 14.04 (well into the 64-bit versions) and their dev env instructions assume you are building a 32-bit game on 64-bit Linux. YoYo Games miserly withheld 64-bit Linux for their next GM:S version -- which costs $$$$$$ to upgrade to for very little that is new.

Anyhow, I slogged through maybe 80 hours of work, nailing down all the needed libs, to [hopefully] get this to install and run without much issue on most Linux boxes. (This part was regardless of the bits and more a factor of Linuxicityness vs the laziness of YoYo.)

Tested on:

• 32-bit Ubuntu 14.04
• 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04
• 64-bit Mint 19.2 (Ubuntu 18.04)

Install notes

If running 64-bit Linux, you need to install multi-architecture (multiarch) support for i386... if it didn't come built into your flavor of Linux. It's hard (impossible) to find authoritative sites on how to do this... so, basically (and at your own risk of course), for Ubuntu 14+ and GM:S games:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libc6-i386
sudo apt install libstdc++6:i386

If wanting more help, this page came the closest: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/12956/how-do-i-run-32-bit-programs-on-a...

You will also need to install i386 support for Mesa/OpenGL/X11 (whatever you want to call it) if your graphics drivers didn't install it/these already. Again, I found no authoritative source for this. (Hint: libgl1:i386 is all you may need.)

After that, I provide the rest of the libs in the game folder... I hope... all 46 of them! You shouldn't have to install a bunch of stoopid junk just to run a stoopider game. How many GM:S 1.4 games make it that easy on you? (The gory details on how I did this are found in my blog post here.)