I’m usually a fan of open source games but rarely do they manage to be actually great. People like giving recommendations like Super Tux Kart that haven’t aged well and don’t play well. What are some open source games that are legitimately good that I’ve missed?
My favorites are:
-
Mindustry
-
Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart
-
Powder Toy
-
GZDoom (and all the amazing mods for it)
-
Veloren (even though it’s still in alpha)
- milicent_bystandr ( @milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee ) 29•1 year ago
Endless Sky.
It’s an open world 2D spacefaring game, with a good core story and more being added by the surprisingly-active dev community.
Not without its flaws, but anyway I think it’s a fantastic game in its own right. And it’s both “finishable” and under continued development & expansion.
- Moobythegoldensock ( @Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee ) English7•1 year ago
It’s surprisingly well written. Both major story arcs had me on the edge of my seat.
- Quik ( @Quik@infosec.pub ) English27•1 year ago
My favorites:
- OpenTTD: Old transport tycoon game, but really fun especially in multiplayer
- Minetest: Minecraft-like voxel game engine, which means there a many different game modes
- Beyond All Reason: Great RTS, also great in online multiplayer or with some friends. (Disclaimer: Possible unfree licenses for artwork)
- Dwarf Fortress (free but not open source, thanks for telling me that one): not everyone’s cup of tea, but sometimes you just get stuck in it for hours on end
- JackbyDev ( @JackbyDev@programming.dev ) English16•1 year ago
Dwarf Fortress is not open source. It is freeware. Parts of the game (some graphics stuff) has the code available but you have no license to distribute it.
- Jummit ( @Jummit@lemmy.one ) 10•1 year ago
Possible unfree licenses for artwork
I’d still consider the game open source, even if the art is copyrighted.
Dwarf Fortress
Is there an open source version? It’s a great game (also try the steam edition if you check it out), but I thought it was closed-source.
- JackbyDev ( @JackbyDev@programming.dev ) English7•1 year ago
Dwarf Fortress is not open source. You are correct.
- zwerdlds ( @zwerdlds@lemmy.ml ) 6•1 year ago
BAR is so good!
- Quik ( @Quik@infosec.pub ) English1•1 year ago
It is indeed, got all my friends addicted as well :)
- raptir ( @raptir@lemdro.id ) English24•1 year ago
- 0 AD
- Battle for Wesnoth
- Tales of Maj’Eyal
- ShaunaTheDead ( @ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social ) 3•1 year ago
Tales of Maj’Eyal is a great little game if you’re an rogue-like fan! I played so many hours of that game a few years back, it’s seriously great!
- s20 ( @s20@lemmy.ml ) 24•1 year ago
Battle for Wesnoth
This one never gets the love it deserves. It’s a fantastic turn based strategy game with multiple campaigns and storylines, multiplayer, and campaign design tools. It’s an old project (started in 2003, IIRC), but it’s still fantastic
Hedgewars
Basically, this is Worms but with adorable little hedgehogs instead of, well, worms. Single player is okay, and it has online multiplayer I guess, but the real fun (just like in Worms) is local multiplayer. Also, it has Portal Guns. There’s really no downside to this one.
- https://www.hedgewars.org/
- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2223810/Hedgewars/
- Itch: https://hedgewars.itch.io/hedgewars
Re-volt io and RVGL
This one’s a little iffy. Re-volt was a fantastic R / C racing game with bright graphics, fun tracks, excellent controls, and a killer soundtrack. For good or ill, it was put out by Acclaim, which self destructed in 2004. The Re-volt fan community, however, doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit.”
Nowadays, you can join a lively community with regular online tournaments of the game. There’s a new cross platform engine called RVGL (that’s Re Volt Game Launcher), and metric tonnes of mods and fan content. You still need the original game’s assets, though, which is where it’s dicey; they’re technically abandonware not open source, unless I’m mistaken.
Anyway, links!
Unciv
This project’s aim is to be Civilization V, but with more abstract visuals, and, or course, free. In short, it’s FreeCiv, but Civ V instead of II and a UI from the 2020s rather than the 80s. (Not throwing shade here; FreeCiv is an amazing project that is exactly what it wants to be!)
If that’s not enough to keep ya’ happy, I know a few more, but they’ve mostly been covered by other folks here.
Edit: formatting
- miss_brainfart ( @miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml ) 3•1 year ago
I never even knew about Hedgewars’ existence, but Warmux on the other hand… Now that’s my childhood right there
- s20 ( @s20@lemmy.ml ) 3•1 year ago
I feel you. Warmux was really neat. Sadly, it never got as much development as Hedgewars, even though the mascot theme was really cool. AFAIK, Warmux has been inactive (or at least extremely slow) for years, while Hedgewars has been thriving.
- redcalcium ( @redcalcium@lemmy.institute ) 22•1 year ago
Does open source implementation of proprietary game counts? OpenMW
- starman ( @starman@programming.dev ) English15•1 year ago
OpenTTD. IMO mindustry, for example, is better but it’s still worth to try OpenTTD
- Jummit ( @Jummit@lemmy.one ) 14•1 year ago
osu! is an amazing rhythm game. Try osu!lazer, it’s the new client: https://osu.ppy.sh/home/download
I also like Pioneers and Endless Sky, both space sims.
This might not count, but both Lichess, a chess website, and OGS, a Go website are open source.
There is also Mindustry, but I haven’t played it.
- TheThirdAccount ( @TheThirdAccount@kbin.social ) 3•1 year ago
Not only is Endlessly open source, it has been crowd developed for years and years. It’s still actively adding user content (stories, outfits, ships, races, etc) and has the only actually functional launcher I’ve ever seen (like if you want to play a stable release, or play in your own sandbox development area, etc). It’s really great community of folks.
- Quik ( @Quik@infosec.pub ) English2•1 year ago
Really nice recommendation, thank you!
- poVoq ( @poVoq@slrpnk.net ) 13•1 year ago
!opensourcegames@lemmy.ml is good to share such games.
- librecat ( @librecat@lemmy.basedcount.com ) 2•1 year ago
Thanks, didn’t know about this.
- ArtikBanana ( @ArtikBanana@beehaw.org ) 11•1 year ago
tl;dr: a better Spore
From the site:
Thrive is a free, open-source game about the evolution of life.
From the lowly tidepools of your home planet, you will rise to cosmic dominance. At every step, powerful creation tools and deep simulation mechanics will aid your species’ development. Revolutionary Games is the open-source team of dedicated volunteers aiming to make Thrive a reality.
Our team seeks to accomplish two major goals: create engaging, compelling gameplay that respects our players’ intelligence, and remain as accurate as possible in our depiction of known scientific theory without compromising the former.
- Justchilling ( @Justchilling@feddit.nl ) 2•1 year ago
As a past spore player i really wished something like this existed earlier.
- Muffi ( @Muffi@programming.dev ) 2•1 year ago
If you like that kind of stuff, check out The Sapling, which is being developed and devlogged by this cool nerdy dude who I think is dutch.
The game is like an “eco dwarf-fortress” evolution simulator, and it’s been amazing to follow the development of.
- Justchilling ( @Justchilling@feddit.nl ) 1•1 year ago
Seem’s awesome, sadly not open source but it has an appeal.
- CrypticCoffee ( @CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml ) 11•1 year ago
MineClone2 is addictive. All that Minecraft style fun, but free and open source. It’s pretty comprehensive and solid for the most part.
- Chaotic Entropy ( @ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk ) 10•1 year ago
Warzone 2100, from the community project website and not Steam. Some douche just took the code and uploaded it to Steam themself and does a poor job maintaining it.
- EamonnMR ( @emr@lemmy.sdf.org ) English1•1 year ago
Warzone 2100 was my jam! They hadn’t actually got cutscenes working in the Linux port I was using so I was.very confused about the story.
- Chaotic Entropy ( @ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk ) 2•1 year ago
Around the year 2000, I had to make a choice between Battlezone 1 and Warzone 2100. I chose Warzone and have never regretted it.
It’s always nice just to run through the campaign every couple of years.
- craigevil ( @craigevil@lemmy.ml ) 9•1 year ago
Crossfire https://crossfire.real-time.com/ Battle for Wesnoth https://www.wesnoth.org/ Unciv https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv/ Dungeon Crawl http://crawl.develz.org Feudal Tactics https://github.com/Sesu8642/FeudalTactics
- 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚎𝚘𝚠 ( @ChairmanMeow@programming.dev ) 9•1 year ago
OpenTTD, OpenRCT and OpenRA are all great!
- gibson ( @gibson@sopuli.xyz ) 7•1 year ago
One Hour One Life is open source, it is a 2D hand drawn survival game where you have 1 real life houre to live from a baby to an elder and contribute to the player-made society in your life as best you can.
You have to pay for an account on the official servers, but i recommend you do to support the development.
Not sure if the dev accepts community patches or not, but the game is public domain license.
- karlexceed ( @karlexceed@midwest.social ) English7•1 year ago
Minetest and several others that I play regularly have already been mentioned, so I wanted to shout out a game I’ve been following and playing for years, waiting for their 1.0 release: FreeOrion
It’s essentially a clone of the Master of Orion series, which are classics in the 4X world.