One thing I strongly advocate for is “Free and Open Source Software”. This is something that ties into a thread I made in “Game Development” HERE. And what most gamers don’t know is that their are HEAPS of FOSS games. One thing to clear up though, is that their is a difference between “Free” games and “Open Source” games…
That difference being “Free” games are often proprietary, They own a license and don’t share their source code… This allows their publishers to monetize in other often more underhanded ways than if you had just paid outright for a game (I’m looking at YOU “Loot Boxes”). It’s become so common place that it’s even started creeping into fully paid titles in recent years… We just kind of accept it as the nature of the beast tho. Some teams don’t do this as bad… but we aren’t really surprised by it anymore.
“Open Source” Is just the opposite, they’re often not monetized at all. and if their is something you don’t like about it you can ask the dev team to change it, contribute to the project yourself with said change… OR… fork the entire project and use it as a “jumping off” point make something entirely new.
So below, I’m going to list a bunch of good FOSS game projects that y’all might be interested in. They are listed in no particular order. Some you may have already heard of, and others are hidden gems. Further, some of these are also available for download on Steam, but the most up to date versions are usually available direct from the devs websites. All work on Windows, Most run naively on Linux (Or can be made to run on it via compatibility layers), and some might work on Mac… IDK because I don’t hate myself enough to buy Apple… A hand full also support networked multiplayer and have very active communities.
Note: These are just some that I’ve played and enjoyed, their are tons more out there.
SuperTux - It’s a clone of Super Mario World… Starring Tux the Penguin.
SuperTuxKart - Feels like MarioKart64, but with the story mode of DiddyKongRacing… if that makes sense.
FreeCiv - Open Source clone of Civ2
OpenTTD - Open source clone of TransportTycoon with added features
TheDarkMod - Free open source FPS Stealth game inspired by “Thief”
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - Turn based post apocalyptic survival
DwarfFortress
Mari0 - Open source fan-game combining elements of NES Mario, with Portal… supports multiplayer + bonus features.
Sonic Robo Blast 2 - Custom Sonic game made with the Doom engine.
Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart - Fork of SRB2, honestly one of the greatest kart racers I’ve ever played in my life.
0 A.D - Ancient warfare RTS.
OpenRA - Open Source implementation for several classic RTS’s
Hexen II
BZFlag Tank battles
Armegetron - Tron light bike game.
Caller’s Bane - Formerly “Scrolls” by Mojang (Yes that one)
BattleForWesnoth -Fantasy turn based strategy
Warzone2100 - Modular RTS with an active community
EndlessSky - 2D Space sim inspired by “Escape Velocity”
Naev - Also kinda like EndlessSky/EscapeVelocity
Xonotic - Arena FPS, like Unreal Tournament
Veloren - Voxel based MMORPG