Xonotic is Nice ig
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Linux Gaming
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My favorites:
- Mindustry
- OpenTTD
- Luanti (especially MT-Game, I actually dislike MineClonia)
- Endless Sky
- Shattered Pixel Dungeon
- FreeCiv
- YGO Omega & EDOPro
I keep wanting to get into Pioneers / FreeCol, but it just doesn't work for me. I know a lot of people love TuxKart and Rigs of Rods, but I can't jive with driving games. And I feel that there need to be honorable mentions to Nethack, Dwarf Fortress, and Liberal Crime Squad.
...all of them excellent. Dwarf Fortress, while being the bee's knees, is not open source.
Also try out Cataclysm: DDA. It's open source, and possibly approaches Dwarf Fortress in scope and fun.
While YGO Omega is great, only some components are open source and so not FOSS. It also runs on Unity, that is not FOSS
Woah, thanks for the list of games! I basically knew only about Tux Kart.
You're welcome! There's a lot of great FOSS games - and I have to admit that having started from Windows, most of my knowledge originated from PortableApps.com. The games they list there are mostly FOSS, so it's a decent launchpad into the world of FOSS gaming.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is FOSS? I've never seen a paid FOSS app
Shattered is a fork. The original Pixel Dungeon has a permissive license and allows selling modifications with source available
you can download it from github for free - missing the PC improvements like more quickslots and a larger inventory screen that can stay open while dungeoneering, but it's the full game: https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon/releases
specifically those improvements are for the paid steam release.
I see, thanks for clearing that up!
Yeah, the steam release is more of a "support the dev for some goodies" type of thing :-) Dwarf fortress on steam is also paid
I've seen some apps free on F-droid and paid in Play Store. Best of both worlds!
Here's an example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.bitfire.davdroid
- Battle for Wesnoth is one of my favorite turn-based strategy games.
- Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup makes a whole day disappear when I play it.
- Tales of Maj'Eyal is another, slightly more graphically rich roguelike. I haven't played it too much, but it seems like there's quite a lot of content to it.
- The Ur-Quan Masters... I don't even know how to categorize it. It's tough as nails, but the art style is rich, and the worldbuilding draws you in.
Any others I would have mentioned are already in other comments.
Oh damn! I hadn't heard of Tales of Maj'Eyal. That looks awesome, and it's available on Linux.
If you havent played this already, you are in for a treat:
Mindustry.
Every time this question comes up.
And I'll never get tired of saying it.
I just got my fiancee into it this weekend - and I've been playing since before Serpulo had a name! She already loves it.
be ware of siligone
Yeah, no kidding. Same for most secondary resources.
- Beyond All Reason (Supreme Commander, Total Annihilation clone)
- Warzone 2100
- Liero
- Hedgewars (Worms clone)
- OpenTTD (especially JGRPP fork)
- GZDoom / Woof / DSDA and other DOOM 1 and 2 source ports
And some that require original assets:
- OpenMW (The Elder Scroll: Morrowind engine replacement)
- OpenXcom (especially OXCE and Brutal-OXCE forks, they all have great mods, like XCom Files, Harmony, XPiratez)
Also, check this open source or source available games list: https://osgameclones.com/
Xonotic is fun, kind of brings back the nostalgia gameplay of DukeNukem and Quake
it's lightweight and still looks pretty good, and you can have plenty of fun fighting bots, surprised more people haven't mentioned it
My personal top 4 favorites, in no particular order, are:
- SuperTuxKart
- SuperTuxAdvance ( has a windows download and I'm not smart enough to figure out how to set up and run a version for Linux outside of using WINE or Proton and is pretty WIP )
- Luanti ( specifically VoxeLibre )
- Mindustry ( liked it enough to buy it on Steam to.support the devs )
I know OP already mentioned #3, but you know.
Also, if we could include things like OpenGOAL ( which relies on having files from the Jak and Daxter games ), I'd include that since I just got roughly back to where I left off on Jak II before I lost my memory card. Though that's cheating since it relies on copyrighted proprietary files.
I've been playing so much Mindustry this Summer. I didn't even realize it was open source when I bought it but that was a fun fact to find out.
OpenRCT2 is really great, if you count that
OpenRCT2 is great (and so is OpenXCom), but I prefer OpenTTD because you don't need the original game.
Oh, without a doubt - how do you think I got my copies working? But, I don't start off with newbs by suggesting they pirate when there's a non-pirate option.
Huh? OpenTTD is a completely different game with different mechanics. How is it an option if one wants to play RTC2 ?
Fair point, but I'm saying in the general category of "Linux Gaming". Now, if anyone in 2025 tells me they want to play RCT or RCT2 specifically, I'll point them at OpenRCT2 and then at either Exo or another means of quick access. Just like I won't start by suggesting CorsixTH if I'm asked about games as a category, but if somebody wants to play Theme Hospital, I immediately advise the same process.
Ask me a different question, and I'll give you a different answer. I'm not going to tell someone new to Linux who wants to play games that the best games available require pirated versions of generations-old games. I'm sorry, it's simply not the way my mind works.
Makes sense, cheers!
space station 14 and Mindustry are both excellent games.
I've been wanting to get into SS14, but I don't know if anyone else would play with me.
osu
CDDA and Veloren are some that I have played lately.
OpenTTD
Bitburner
It's a programming idle/incremental game. Has a bit of a learning curve (not bad if you already know how to code) but it is my favorite programming game. It scratches so many itches and it really invites players to explore. There are even secret achievements you can only get by messing with the source code and rebuilding it!
Try stratagus and devilutionx and gltron/armagetron and unciv
Huh. Why is that open source?
You love to see it. Thank you for the link!
They made some of the C&C games open source a few months ago.
I saw that EA (boo) gave the games away, but I didn't know they open sourced them. That's awesome!
Assault cube + reloaded, ppl are rarely on but it feels good
Pekka Kana 2