I have a prusa M4 with multi-material head, and I am super happy with it. It started as a M3, and has been upgraded twice to become what it is today.

It was expensive, but prusa really does have great support for free, which is worth a LOT. And the upgradability means you end up spending less if you keep with the hobby over years.

But one caviat, I have the printer set up and my friend’s house, because he has more space and free time. So most of what I know about it comes from his experience, not mine. I do lots of CAD, but I don’t often actually touch the printer myself.

If you could use some of the Tuxcart resources/engine, perhaps a vehicle-based battle game with a garage for customization of your vehicle?

I’d say keep it simple to start. Perhaps a turn-based tactics game like final fantasy tactics advance, or more 3D, like XCOM?

Bazzite just works, it runs every game I have with zero fuss, it’s easy to run Windows programs / emulators / local LLMs, AND it’s basically unbreakable.

No worries, bazzite has you covered there too.

https://flathub.org/apps/com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl

I can second bazzite. It. Just. Works. But it is built differently from the distros that everyone has heard of like arch & Ubuntu, so it’s best to read up on how to install non-flatpak programs.

Keep in mind that steam can run Windows programs for you with it’s emulation layer. It’s not the only option, but it is convenient as an app launcher.