"Without Getting in Your Way": Inside Minigalaxy, the GOG Gaming Launcher for Linux
Minigalaxy is a free, open source launcher that allows players to manage their GOG libraries from Linux!
When Wouter Wijsman, also known as sharkwouter, began work on Minigalaxy, he wasn’t setting out to replace anything. He just wanted something simple.
“I wrote Minigalaxy at a time where Lutris was the only other option, but it wasn’t as easy to use as I’d like,” he explains. “I also wanted to do a project using Python, since that language was still quite new to me.”
That modest beginning — a personal side project to streamline his GOG library on Linux, would quietly grow into something far bigger. Now, six years later, Minigalaxy has become a widely used, community-backed alternative to GOG's own GOG Galaxy, especially for Linux users frustrated with GOG’s increasingly stagnant official software.
“The idea was to have my own easy-to-use GOG-specific launcher,” he says. “The initial version was a bit rough and still saw some crashes, but it got better over time.”
One Platform, One Purpose
While many open-source launchers aim for multi-platform support, Minigalaxy stays firmly rooted in its GOG-only focus, and that’s by design.
“I really like that Minigalaxy is so focused specifically on GOG,” Wijsman says. “That gives it its own niche and allows us to offer a level of uniformity while still providing a lot of specific info from GOG. For example, filtering on genre would be hard if you’re dealing with multiple platforms.”
Despite working on other open source projects, like the PSPDEV SDK for PlayStation Portable homebrew, Wijsman has remained committed to keeping Minigalaxy lightweight and purpose-driven.
“I wanted a good overview of the GOG games I can play and an easy way to install them,” he adds. “That minimalism was very much deliberate.”
Built by One, Improved by Many
Though originally a solo effort, Minigalaxy’s development quickly became a team effort thanks to community interest. One early contributor, Kzimir, wrote the initial Wine support. Others have since fixed long-standing bugs, improved translations, and added entirely new features.
“I do have to say I was not expecting as much community engagement as there has been,” Wijsman reflects. “It was initially just something I wanted to have, but also made available to others. Then when I implemented translation support, the contributions really started rolling in.”
Today, more than 50 contributors have helped shape the launcher. Translators from around the world brought in full localisations, including a complete Ukrainian translation and, in one particularly meaningful early moment, full Taiwanese Mandarin support by the third release.
“It’s things like that which just blow me away.”
A Welcoming, Driven Community
The Linux and GOG gaming community has embraced Minigalaxy not only for what it does, but for what it represents: an open, collaborative spirit in the face of corporate indifference. As GOG Galaxy for Linux remains non-existent (and Galaxy 2.0 itself feels increasingly abandoned) tools like Minigalaxy fill a crucial gap.
“The community has been really nice,” Wijsman says. “They’ve really helped to keep me going. Minigalaxy has had the features I want from it for a while now, but the community keeps bringing in new ideas — and even implementing them.”
No Donations, Just Contributions
As for how users can support the project? Wijsman is clear: no money needed — just help where you can.
“I don’t want donations, but contributions are always welcome,” he says. “It’s now super easy to contribute translations. I think it would be really nice if some more people could help out with that.”
A big thanks to Wouter for his time in answering my questions and chatting about Minigalaxy, dev work and the open-source scene - along with gaming! It is much appreciated, and a project I love!
If you'd like to see more on Minigalaxy, you can find them on GitHub.
You can also talk gaming and the project on the Minigalaxy Discord server.