I was curious to try a tool called umu-launcher that aims to replicate the steam runtime outside of steam. The best part is that it supports NixOS out of the gate.
After installation, you just need to run:
GAMEID=0 WINEPREFIX=~/Games/umu/umu-game umu game.exe
Note that the command is umu not umu-run.
Relevant links:
- Usage examples
- More usage examples
- How to use configuration file instead of env variables
- umu-protonfixes
I ran a few games with it and they worked great. Hopefully it works for you too.