https://gist.github.com/daasuharo/d83c92ac04a9bd0c5edfc359c3c5a4de
Proton 3.7-5
steam-42910.log

I found a way to make Magicka runnable.

Installation

• First of all, go to this Reddit guide which, I found in this comment, and follow it.

• Second, install all the dotnet35sp1 using Winetricks

winetricks -q dotnet35sp1

and wait until it finishes.
Then install xna31

winetricks -q xna31

• Third, go to the Magicka folder and after to the Dependencies folder and install the xnafx31_redist.msi. I know this is the same as the last command but do it.

To install it, use the following command

wine msiexec /i xnafx31_redist.msi

Then, install the directx_feb2010. Basically, you need to go to its folder and execute DXSETUP.exe
or
you can download the directx_february, which will extract the same files as in the Magicka folder, and install.

wine DXSETUP.exe

I should say that this part failed for me, yes, it gave me an error that the installation wasn't completed. But the game should run fine because you know, magic(ka).

• Fourth, which is the fun part, start the game. BUT, depending on what was installed first or last or reinstalled afterward, it might hang on the steam. Kill the process called iscriptevaluator.exe and Magicka shall launch. Don't reopen, it will launch.

Have fun !!

PRO-TIPS!

• The game might crash when starting an adventure. Keep trying, it will launch one time. I believe that it's related to the character, as using the default one was ok.
• To stop iscriptevaluator.exe from looping it's necessary to keep reinstalling the xna31 or DXSETUP until it works. It will work one day.
• If your wine prefix is being "transformed" into a 64bit, use this pull request file to "fix" it.
• Remember that those commands need to be done with the desired prefix, as the Reddit guide.

Problems

• Some graphical glitches.
• Audio at the start might be seem corrupted but it gets normal.

Notes

• I did not track what was done to stop the iscriptevaluator.exe from looping. Leave a comment on how, if you did it.

Another Way to Run Magicka Without 32Bit Prefix- Does not work!! Try above for now.

• Install dotnet40

winetricks -q dotnet40

• Follow the third step as said above

• Kill Wineserver when starting the game(It will try to install everything again, thus, taking a lot of time)

• If it's stuck because of the .NET 3.5 installation, kill again Wineserver.

HAVE FUN!!

The guide does not work for me. It hangs on "starting Magicka...", but killing the iscriptevaluator does not make the game launch

Tagging this as XNA, but note that this is an XNA3 game, so FNA compat work won't apply to this unfortunately.

While I'm not sure if it works for magicka, I have a workaround for the same issue regarding the iscriptevaluator loop with Resident Evil Revelations.
Here's a little tip to avoid killing the process each time :
When the script starts, it should create a evaluatorscript_"GAMEID".vdf file
(in /home/$USER/.local/share/Steam/legacycompat/)

• Copy/paste this file to a .vdf.bak before you kill the iscriptevaluator process (because this removes that file).
• Comment or remove all the lines and rename the file to .vdf
• Change the file permissions to none
• From a terminal, type : sudo chattr -i evaluatorscript_GAMEID.vdf
  And that's it.

4gb_patch helps to fix some crashes
https://ntcore.com/?page_id=371

Any news on this one?
Is the install procedure the same as of Proton 4.11?

Well, now it's possible to install xna31 and dotnet35sp1 on proton 5.0 without having to use a 32bit prefix. Just follow the same procedure as the 32bit tutorial on the 64bit prefix, literally same thing.

Just to note that I actually use Proton GE 5.2 and not the official one...

It does not work with proton 5.0-5 currently distributed by steam with 64bit prefix

The dependencies seem to install fine, but the result is:

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. File not found.
File name: 'System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'
   at Magicka.Game..ctor()
   at Magicka.Game.get_Instance()
   at Magicka.GlobalSettings..ctor()
   at Magicka.GlobalSettings.get_Instance()
   at Magicka.Program.Main(String[] args)

@viraptor what a strange error I did not have it when I was fiddling with Proton and Magicka. Have you tried installing them with protontricks?

By the way, even though the game started for me it had an error of out of memory (XNA resource it seems) when I actually tried to play and I couldn't solve it. Sometimes the game would start okay while sometimes it wouldn't.

Yes, I've done the steps via protontricks

Gonna subscribe here, game does not launch on current Proton 5. Did no modifications to it whatsoever.

Every time I press play it shows "Installing: Microsoft .NET Framework (step 1 of 1)", then Steam shows the game is being Played and after a few seconds it reverts back to Non-Playing status. The game never opens up.

Yes, I can confirm this problem with Proton Experimental

Tried it using Wine Mono and setting WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y to use the XNA redist from the game, but got:
[ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentLoadException: Error loading "UI\ToM\background_mesh". Cannot find ContentTypeReader XNAnimation.Pipeline.SkinnedModelReader, XNAnimation, Version=0.7.0.0, Culture=neutral.

XNAnimation.dll exists, is loaded in the process, and exports XNAnimation.Pipeline.SkinnedModelReader as a public type, so I'm not sure what's going wrong here.

For some reason, when XNAnimation.dll is loaded as a reference from Magicka.exe, Mono searches the exe directory, but when it's loaded by the XNA content system, Mono instead searches the parent directory of Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll and doesn't find it.

This is very odd. It seems Mono is actually looking for steamapps\common\Magicka\neutral\XNAnimation.dll, specifically when searching via the domain search path. It sees a culture of "neutral" in the assembly name, so it looks there. If I have the check in appdomain.c:real_load test for "neutral" instead of just a NULL or empty culture string, and use an empty string in that case, it works.

Searching in a "neutral" directory seems wrong to me, but I'm not sure if the bug is there, or if there's some parsing error that led to an AssemblyName being created with a culture of "neutral" instead of a NULL or empty string.

Found the problem, it was a parsing error. https://github.com/madewokherd/mono/commit/f76cfd9e3a433f639eb0c777ea187328765efd42

This should work now with WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y set and a build of Wine Mono from the develop branch. https://github.com/madewokherd/wine-mono/actions/runs/1134003630 has a recent build, you can scroll down to find the "make msi output" download, and protontricks can install the msi into the game's prefix.

Game just works with Proton 6.3-7 RC :+1:

Just tried this game with Proton 6.3-8 and it launches for a few seconds and then closes silently. Running Steam under Arch with KDE and 1080 GTX card with the latest stable driver.

Also closes for me, looking at logs it is missing xna31, and I could not install it using protontricks

XNA should be included with the game and installed as a prerequisite.

Just tried this game with Proton 6.3-8 and it launches for a few seconds and then closes silently. Running Steam under Arch with KDE and 1080 GTX card with the latest stable driver.

Even with the command given by @madewokherd?

WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y %command%

I am using Endeavor OS KDE Proton 6.3-8 and it does not open at all.
Also tried the command WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y %command%.

https://pastebin.com/bSefVqPV

For me it still asks for XNA, even with WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y %command%

Game process updated : AppID 42910 "WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y /home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/reaper SteamLaunch AppId=42910 -- '/home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier'/_v2-entry-point --verb=waitforexitandrun -- '/home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton 6.3'/proton waitforexitandrun  '/home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Magicka/Magicka.exe'", ProcID 11890, IP 0.0.0.0:0
Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 42910
Steam_SetMinidumpSteamID:  Caching Steam ID:  76561198015031860 [API loaded no]

Unhandled Exception:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game, Version=3.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6d5c3888ef60e27d' or one of its dependencies.
File name: 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game, Version=3.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6d5c3888ef60e27d'
[ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game, Version=3.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6d5c3888ef60e27d' or one of its dependencies.

Just tried in a brand new system, was using Ubuntu 20.04, tried in Garuda Linux (based on arch), same result, adding WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y %command% did not help either

Game process updated : AppID 42910 "/home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/reaper SteamLaunch AppId=42910 -- '/home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/SteamLinuxRuntime_soldier'/_v2-entry-point --verb=waitforexitandrun -- '/home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Proton 6.3'/proton waitforexitandrun  '/home/belfalas/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Magicka/Magicka.exe'", ProcID 122112, IP 0.0.0.0:0
Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 42910
Steam_SetMinidumpSteamID:  Caching Steam ID:  76561198015031860 [API loaded no]

Unhandled Exception:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game, Version=3.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6d5c3888ef60e27d' or one of its dependencies.
File name: 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game, Version=3.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6d5c3888ef60e27d'
[ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game, Version=3.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6d5c3888ef60e27d' or one of its dependencies.

I got this working now with Proton 6.3-8 for some reason. I did a fresh install of the game and ran it first with proton-ge 6.21. Here it would launch and I got get to the menu of the game but crash there. I then switched to proton 6.3-8 and the game would perfectly and now I can play it just fine. Have no idea why that has worked though.

@afettouhi About the crash with Proton GE 6.21, I think that you meant that it froze, right? The thing with Proton GE is that you need to wait 30 seconds to 1 minute for it to keep going. It will stop in the intro and in EVERY loading screen, which is pretty bad but there's only so many loading screens so it was pretty ok for me.

BTW, I ran it with the WINE_MONO_OVERRIDES=Microsoft.Xna.Framework.*,Gac=y %command% launch options for it to work.

Knowing that using that switching to Proton 6.3-8 fixes it after using the Proton GE is pretty sweet as well. I guess that there's no freezing when doing this step, right?

What a weird quirk...

No the I got a crash desktop with Proton GE.

I could make it start by executing the before mentioned command:
WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/42910/pfx wine msiexec /i ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Magicka/Dependencies/xnafx31_redist.msi

But it freezes when the main menu start appearing.
Tried with 6.3-8, Experimental and Proton-GE

Edit:
Stacktrace https://pastebin.com/KPnmHJ0V

Works for me with Proton 6.3-8 out of the box, no crashes.

Now it doesn't start with proton 7.0 or experimental, but 6.8 still works

Starts with 7.0-2 RC.

With this I at least get into the game and can start a game, the into plays, but then the screen stays dark.

I could make it start by executing the before mentioned command: WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/42910/pfx wine msiexec /i ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Magicka/Dependencies/xnafx31_redist.msi

Starts and runs with current Proton Experimental. Does not start with Proton 7.0-3.

Doesn't start out of the box, but works with WINEPREFIX=~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/42910/pfx wine msiexec /i ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Magicka/Dependencies/xnafx31_redist.msi.

I can confirm this starts and runs (tested in-game) with Proton 9.0-4, Proton Experimental, and GE-Proton9-25, no crashes. There are some slight artifacts when the "Windowed" option is off in the game settings, but switching Windowed off and fullscreening manually through your desktop environment makes it work without issues.

EDIT: On another system, it started out of the box, no artifacts, worked perfectly.