30 free and open source Linux games 💾 1 of 3 (2024)

Linux is celebrating its 30-year anniversary today, so I’m taking the opportunity to highlight 30 of my favorite free and open source Linux games, their communities, and their stories!

If you like RTS, FPS, space trading, roguelike, racing, strategy, or platform games then you’re bound to find something you like below. Oh, and some of the games work on Windows and macOS too, so there should be something for (almost) everyone.

In no particular order…

SuperTuxKart

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It’s impossible to start a list of Linux games without paying homage to Tux, the logo brand character for the Linux kernel.

Tux is the star of SuperTuxKart, a fun arcade racing game that includes a variety of characters, tracks, and modes. You can race against the kernel, on your LAN with friends, or with complete strangers from all over the world online. If you like Mario Kart or Sonic All Stars Racing, you’ll love this!

Fun fact: You might recognize some of the other characters in the game like Wilber, Pidgin, and Konki from the open source projects they represent. I wonder if we’ll ever see Mona?

Oolite

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Billed as an open-word space opera, Oolite is inspired by David Braben’s classic game Elite—a game I spent many an hour playing on my school’s BBC Micro.

Forge your own path in the galaxy by becoming a feared pirate, a dodgy trader, a gun for hire, or a washed-up software engineer searching the galaxy for coin.

Did you know: There are over 500 expansion packs created by the community that introduce new ships, missions, weapons, and more. Maybe I’ll nerd-snipe myself into building some sort of GitHub Universe this weekend.

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Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

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Cataclysm: DDA is a roguelike game set in a procedurally generated, post-apocalyptic world. Think zombies, nuclear waste grounds, that sorta thing. Like most roguelikes games, it’s primarily text-based, but there are tilesets available.

Did you know: The game has over 1300 contributors who are introducing new crouching mechanics, fixing in-game computer terminals, adding lakes and flyable helicopters, and more.

If you catch the Cataclysm: DDA bug and would like to contribute, check out the Contributing Guide. You can add some documentation, translate content, or get your code on and add some new NPCs, monsters, missions and more! For the most part, that’s as simple as adding/editing some JSON.

The Battle for Wesnoth

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Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game with a variety of campaigns involving elves, dwarves, orcs, trolls, humans, and more. Speaking of humans, hundreds of them have contributed maps, campaigns, features, and bug-fixes to the project.

If you’re looking for an excuse to get some extra green squares on your contribution graph, you can create new maps, campaigns, and units, introduce new art or music, help with translations, or even update the AI. Check out this getting started guide.

Warning: As the thousands of very positive reviews on Steam might suggest, this game is addicting. So much so, if you’re on your laptop and lose track of time you might run out of battery. Thankfully, someone submitted a fix for that!

Warzone 2100

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A malfunction in Earth’s new strategic defense system causes a series of nuclear strikes that take out almost every inhabitant on Earth. Your job is to help rebuild civilization, but as you can imagine, there are a few barriers to overcome first.

Originally developed by Pumpkin Studios and released in 1999, Warzone 2100 was open sourced in 2004 under a GNU GPL v2.0 or later license. Now the project is entirely community-driven and still sees plenty of updates from hundreds of contributors. If you like real time strategy games, you’ll like this. 👍🏻

Yorg

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Yorg (no, not that one) is an arcade-style racing game with lots of cars, tracks, powerups, and weapons. Race against AI or take on your friends in local/online multiplayer! I’m probably a little biased as I grew up loving games like Micro Machines and Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road.

Yorg was created by Ya2, a small indie game development team established in Rome, and created using Panda 3D—an open-source, cross-platform game engine designed for Python and C++.

OpenTTD

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Did you ever play Transport Tycoon Deluxe back in the day? OpenTTD, as the name suggests, is an open source game based on it. In addition to mimicking the original game, it offers significant new features, like multiplayer mode for up to 255 players, waaay bigger maps, and the ability to build on slopes and coasts!

If you have a little time and are familiar with C++, consider contributing to the project. Check out the CONTRIBUTING.md for details about the goals of the project and the kinds of things you could work on.

Teeworlds

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Easy to learn, but hard to master, Teeworlds is a nice little MMO that’s a mashup of retro platform and shooting games. Customize your character, battle with up to 16 players, create your own maps, or check out some of the amazing community-created maps.

Originally created by Magnus Auvinen, it’s now open source and maintained by the community.

Unvanquished

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Unvanquished is an FPS strategy game pitting superhuman soldiers against devious aliens. Take shots destroying the enemy bases – either as a human with long range firepower, or as an alien in close combat who prefers stealth.

Unvanquished has been in development for 10 years, with the first release in February 2012. Since then, the game has had monthly releases – the latest being the 0.52.1 beta release – chock full of enhancements, bug fixes, and a new flatpak making it easier to install across almost every Linux distro.

AstroMenace

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If you grew up on games like Gallaga or 1942 R-Type, or if you just like blowing stuff up in space, then this game is for you. AstroMenace is a shoot-em-up developed and published by Russian indie game developer @viewizard.

Translators wanted: If you’d like to help make the game more friendly and welcoming for everyone, they are currently looking for help translating the game to other languages. I don’t see any requests for Klingon translation. Yet. Qapla’.

Wait, what? That’s only 10! That’s right, tune in tomorrow for the next 10!

Editor’s note: Not sure if Lee is only giving us the first 10 because he’s trying to master clickbait… or if he hasn’t actually written the rest of the post. Let’s find out tomorrow!

Tags:

  • gamedev
  • linux

Written by

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Lee Reilly

@leereilly

Developer / Marketing / Community at GitHub. Twitter: https://twitter.com/leereilly.

30 free and open source Linux games 💾 1 of 3 (2024)

FAQs

Can you get free games on Linux? ›

Steam is a very popular digital video game store that offers incredible deals on games for Linux (including free games as well). So, it is an obvious source of PC games. You can explore it to find tons of games ranging from AAA titles to Indie games.

Can you play PC games on Linux? ›

Steam is the most popular way to play games on Windows PCs and the same can be said for Linux. The client fully supports the Linux operating system and installing it on a Debian-based OS couldn't be easier. All that's required is to download the Steam .

Does Steam work on Linux? ›

Running Steam

You can either log in with your credentials or with the QR code. After logging in, you can start playing all the games you want, right on the Linux operating system. Steam is ready to help you dive into the world of gaming on Linux.

Why are there less games for Linux? ›

Many game developers prioritize Windows due to its larger market share, often leading to delayed releases or complete absence of support for Linux. This can result in a limited library of games available to Linux users.

Is Linux completely free? ›

Linux is a free, open source operating system, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Anyone can run, study, modify, and redistribute the source code, or even sell copies of their modified code, as long as they do so under the same license.

Does Linux allow gaming? ›

Linux-based operating systems can be used for playing video games. Because many games are not natively supported for the Linux kernel, various software has been made to run Windows games, software, and programs, such as Wine, Cedega, DXVK, and Proton, and managers such as Lutris and PlayOnLinux.

Why is Linux better than Windows? ›

Linux is faster and less resource-intensive than Windows. Linux also doesn't contain bloatware like Windows does. That means it boots up and completes tasks much faster. If you want a faster OS, or if you want to extend the life of an older PC, Linux is a great choice.

Can Minecraft run on Linux? ›

Quick Links. Minecraft runs just fine on Linux, but it's probably not available for easy installation in your Linux distribution's package manager. Here's how to get your Linux system ready for Minecraft. We used Ubuntu 20.04.

Do games run better on Linux? ›

Some games perform better on linux. Some games will have reduces input lag, advantageous in many competitive games. Some hardware won't work as well, and you may need to buy new computer parts. Older hardware stays usable.

How many games are playable on Linux? ›

On Linux, you have many more options than these 12 000 verified titles. For example, you have many game emulators and cloud gaming that make many other titles playable. Linux gaming has become totally viable.

What percentage of gamers use Linux? ›

Distribution of Steam gaming platform users operating systems used as of September 2023
CharacteristicShare of users
Windows 7 64 bit1.23%
OSX (TOTAL)1.43%
MacOS 13.5.2 64 bit4.09%
Linux (TOTAL]1.63%
3 more rows
Oct 27, 2023

Is PlayOnLinux free? ›

PlayOnLinux is free software. PlayOnLinux uses Bash and Python.

Can you get Minecraft for free on Linux? ›

Your free trial of Minecraft: Java Edition is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Before you start your free Minecraft game trial, download Minecraft by scrolling to the grey box in the middle of the page, selecting the icon that represents your device and following the download instructions.

Are Linux apps free? ›

Linux is a free and open-source operating system based on the Linux kernel. It consists of a wide variety of essential applications that can be used to perform many day-to-day tasks. Multiple alternative applications of Linux are available to perform every task.

Do games run well on Linux? ›

I've tried running various games - native or through Wine/Proton - and all of them have similar or in some cases, better performance than on Windows. Windows games like Roblox (via the Vinegar app) on my computer has an FPS average of 60 on games such as Arsenal, while on Windows it gets 20-30 FPS.

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