An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.
An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.
Not all open-source games are free software; some open-source games contain proprietary non-free content. Open-source games that are free software and contain exclusively free content conform to DFSG, free culture, and open content and are sometimes called free games. Many Linux distributions require for inclusion that the game content is freely redistributable, freeware or commercial restriction clauses are prohibited. [1]
In general, open-source games are developed by relatively small groups of people in their free time, with profit not being the main focus. Many open-source games are volunteer-run projects, and as such, developers of free games are often hobbyists and enthusiasts. The consequence of this is that open-source games often take longer to mature, are less common [2] and often lack the production value of commercial titles. [3] In the 1990s a challenge to build high-quality content for games was the missing availability or the excessive price for tools like 3D modeller or toolsets for level design. [4]
In recent years, this changed and availability of open-source tools like Blender, game engines and libraries drove open source and independent video gaming. [5] FLOSS game engines, like the Godot game engine, as well as libraries, like SDL, are increasingly common in game development, even proprietary ones. [6] Given that game art is not considered software, there is debate about the philosophical or ethical obstacles in selling a game where its art is proprietary but the entire source code is free software. [7] [8] [9]
Some of the open-source game projects are based on formerly proprietary games, whose source code was released as open-source software, while the game content (such as graphics, audio and levels) may or may not be under a free license. [10] Examples include Warzone 2100 (a real-time strategy game) [11] and Micropolis (a city-building simulator based on the SimCity source code). Advantage of such continuation projects is that these games are already "complete" as graphic and audio content is available, and therefore the open-source authors can focus on porting, fixing bugs or modding the games.
In a 2004 article, Adam Geitgey questioned the compatibility of the open-source culture with respect to the game development process. He suggested that perceived open-source development advantages do not work for games because users move on to new games relatively quickly and so do not give back to the project. Geitgey further noted that music and art development is not built up from the work of others in the same way that coding would be. He argued that high quality art content is required, which is typically produced commercially by paid artists. While Linux operates on the open-source philosophy, this may not benefit game development. [12]
As of September 2015, the Steam gaming service has 1,500 games available on Linux, compared to 2,323 games for Mac and 6,500 Windows games. [13] [14] [15]
Just as in most other forms of software, free software was an unconscious occurrence during the creation of early computer games, particularly for earlier Unix games. These are mostly arcade conversions, parlour games, and text adventures using libraries like curses. [16] [17] A notable example of this is the "BSD Games", a collection of interactive fiction and other text-mode titles. [18] [19] Game fan communities such as the modding community do include some aspects of free software, such as sharing mods across community sites, sometimes with free to use media made for the modification. [20]
With the rise of proprietary software in the mid to late 1980s, games became more and more proprietary. However, this also led to the first deliberately free games such as GNU Backgammon , GNU Chess , GNU Go , and GNU Shogi of the GNU Project established in 1983, part of whose goal is to create a complete free software system, games included. [21] More advanced free gaming projects emerged, such as Moria and its descendant Angband , Hack and its derivatives NetHack and Slash'EM , in addition to Xtrek successor Netrek , variants of robots , and adventure game Dunnet , which has been included with GNU Emacs since 1994 among others. [22] [23] Still developed and played today, front-ends for frameworks such as X11, SDL, GTK and Qt, plus fuller featured variants such as Iso-Angband , glHack and Vulture's Eye have kept the games accessible. [24] [25] Roguelikes have continued to be produced, including Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead , Tales of Maj'Eyal , HyperRogue , DRL , Isleward , [26] Egoboo , S.C.O.U.R.G.E. , [27] Shattered Pixel Dungeon , [28] as well as Linley's Dungeon Crawl and its offspring Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup . The source code to the original Rogue was released under the BSD license in 1986.
As PC gaming began to emerge in the late 1980s, free gaming also advanced. More complicated games utilizing the X Window System for graphics started to appear, most beginning with the signature letter X. [29] These included XAsteroids , XBattle, XBoing , X-Bomber , XConq , XDigger , XEmeraldia , XGalaga , XGammon , XLander , XLife , XMahjong , XMine , XSoldier, XPilot , XRobots , XRubiks , XShogi , XScavenger , XTris , XTron , and XTic . [30] XBill is notable as one of the earliest free gaming titles to feature an activist theme of halting proprietary software adoption, later echoed in titles such as Virus Killer , Defendguin and FreedroidRPG . [31] XEvil followed the development cycle of many early pieces of free software, having originally been developed as a university project on the Project Athena network, although it was freeware for a while. [32] The game was also one of the first free titles to feature controversial subject matter such as graphic violence and drug use. [33] XTux was also an early deathmatch game for Linux, featuring various free software mascots, a theme that would continue to be revisited. [34] Rocks'n'Diamonds is another earlier free software game, and one of the first for Linux. [35] Other games targeted or also supported the SVGAlib library allowing them to run without a windowing system, [36] such as LinCity , Maelstorm , and SABRE. [37] The General Graphics Interface was also utilized, [38] with games like Heroes, [39] Thrust, [40] U.R.B.A.N The Cyborg Project [41] and Dave Gnukem. [42]
The Freeciv project was started in 1995 and gave rise to another new style of free game development. Similar to the cooperative nature of the Linux kernel development, Freeciv was extended by many volunteers, rather than only one or two authors. [43] It had started out as a small university student project but then branched out into its current form and is still being developed today. Freeciv also proved to be one of the earliest very popular free software games, and was among the first to be included with Linux distributions, a system commonly known now as a source of peer review or selection of quality for free gaming projects. Magazines, news sources and websites have also started noting free games, often in listings. [44] [45] [46] [47] Freeciv and other archetypes have led to the development of many other clones of popular proprietary games. [48] [49] Lincity was also started in 1995, despite there having been a Unix version of its namesake officially released by DUX Software in 1990. [50]
Beyond directly tying to the operating system, various free game development frameworks emerged starting with Allegro in 1990, SDL in 1998, ClanLib in 1999, OpenAL in 2000, SFML in 2007, as well as SDL 2 and Raylib in 2013. The GNU Image Manipulation Program, MyPaint, Krita, Inkscape, Synfig, Pencil2D, Audacity, Rosegarden, MidiEditor, [51] OpenShot, Kdenlive, Pitivi, Blender, MakeHuman, MM3D, [52] [53] and other applications have provided an entire open source toolchain for creative projects. Various free software emulators and compatibility layers have also been produced, such as MAME and MESS, Mednafen, higan, Executor, Darling, lxrun, Cygwin, Dosbox, ScummVM, Anbox, Wine and Proton, allowing games to run in new environments (broadly targeted by the RetroArch front-end).
Proprietary games such as Doom and Descent brought in the age of three-dimensional games in the early to mid 1990s, and free games started to make the switch themselves. Tuxedo T. Penguin: A Quest for Herring by Steve Baker, a game featuring the Linux mascot Tux and introducing the PLIB library, was an early example of a three-dimensional free software game. [54] He and his son Oliver would later create other popular 3D free games and clones such as TuxKart and contribute to those by other developers such as Tux Racer . BZFlag pre-dates all of these, inspired by Battlezone and started in 1992 and released in 1993. FlightGear , YSFlight , ACM , [55] and GL-117 [56] are also good examples of original 3D games, first started in 1997, 1999 and 2003 respectively (and the latter eventually forked as Linux Air Combat [57] ), especially noting that they are not first-person shooters but flight simulators; Danger from the Deep meanwhile simulates submarines. [58]
The OpenGL specification provided a foundation for hardware acceleration since 1992, primarily through the free Mesa implementation since 1995, and later complimented by Vulkan since 2016. [59] The Direct3D API has also been made available on free operating systems via compatibility layers such as WineD3D and DXKV. The Glide API was also made open source following the dissolution of 3dfx in 2002.
The Genesis3D engine project, Crystal Space and Cube also spawned other 3D free software engines and games, later joined by the likes of Retribution, [60] Delta3D, Dim3, Neutron, [61] [62] Lescegra, [63] Raydium, [64] Drome Engine, [65] Vanda, [66] Linderdaum, [67] Lumix, [68] Toy, [69] ezEngine, [70] WickedEngine, [71] Limon, [72] Banshee, [73] Esenthel, [74] Flax, [75] and the G3D Innovation Engine. [76] Engines even exist for high-level programming languages such as Python [77] (Pyglet, PyOpenGL, [78] Spineless, [79] Soya3D, PyUnity, [80] PyZOE [81] ), Pascal (GLScene, Castle, [82] nxPascal, [83] ZenGL [84] ), Lua (LÖVR, [85] LÖVE3D [86] ), Rust (Amethyst, [87] Bevy, [88] Fyrox, [89] Piston [90] ), Zig (Mach [91] ), Java [92] (libGDX, Jake2, jMonkeyEngine, [93] Env3D [94] ), Kotlin (KorGE, [95] MiniGDX [96] ), Go [97] (Azul3D, [98] G3N [99] ), Ruby (Candy Gear [100] ), Gambas (PS Tech [101] ) FreeBASIC (OpenB3D [102] ) in addition to ActionScript (Away3D), Haxe (Heaps.io, [103] Kha [104] ) and JavaScript (Babylon.js, Three.js) using WebGL. [105] [106] [107] Several engines exist with rendering in low-level C or C++ with higher level scripting, such as Panda3D and Ursina [108] for Python, Basic4GL, and Maratis, [109] Polycode, [110] and Cafu for Lua, or offering a variety of language binding options such as Cocos3D, [111] Horde3D, Delta Engine, [112] HARFANG3D, [113] OGRE and the Irrlicht Engine. The games Yo Frankie! and Sintel The Game were developed by the Blender Foundation to showcase the abilities of the Blender modelling tool and the erstwhile Blender Game Engine, which has since been forked as UPBGE. [114] Blender is also utilized by Urho3D/U3D [115] [116] and Armory. [117] Since May 2023, the GDevelop tool allows low to no code 3D game creation. [118]
id Software, an early entrant into commercial Linux gaming, would also prove to be an early supporter of free gaming when John Carmack released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D in 1995 and Doom in 1997, first under a custom license and then later the GNU General Public License (GPL) in 1999 (later termed id Tech 1). This was followed by the release of Quake engine in 1999, the Quake II engine in 2001 (both known as id Tech 2), id Tech 3 in 2004 and most recently id Tech 4 in 2011 (including the updated version from the Doom 3: BFG Edition in 2012) before Carmack left id in 2013. [72]
id Tech 4 was released as free software, even amongst patent concerns from Creative Labs over Carmack's reverse, [119] while the original Doom source release shipped without music due to complications with the Cygnus Studios developed DMX library (which lead to the Linux version being selected for release). [120] Carmack has continued to advise developers to be careful when depending on middleware, noting how it can limit the possibilities of later releasing source code. [121] Tim Sweeney has implied this issue has hindered potential releases of older Unreal Engine source code. [122] The Godot, Nebula Device, Plasma, Torque, [123] Bork3D, Stride, PlayCanvas, Dagor Engine, [124] [125] and Defold [126] engines were also initially commercial and proprietary, while the Open 3D Engine is derived from released code from Amazon Lumberyard originally based on CryEngine. [127]
This led not only to source ports that allowed the playing of the non-free games based on these engines [128] (plus fan added enhancements) [129] on free engines and systems, but has also to the production of standalone free games. [130] These include Freedoom , Blasphemer , Open Quartz , LibreQuake , Nexuiz / Xonotic , Tremulous / Unvanquished , Quetoo , [131] and OpenArena on id Tech, plus Terminal Overload [132] and Uebergame [133] on Torque. Freeware games, such as Harmony , [134] The Adventures of Square , [135] The Hunted Chronicle 2 , [136] Force: Leashed , [137] Retro Blazer , [138] Alien Arena , World of Padman , and Urban Terror , [139] have also taken advantage of these free engines and sometimes have given code back to the community. Development and editing tools are also commonly released freely, such as GtkRadiant, [140] Qoole, Doom Builder, LibreSprite, [141] Ogmo, [142] LDtk, [143] LevelEditor, [144] Tile Studio, and Tiled. [145] [146] Released engines have also been used for fangames such as Sonic Robo Blast 2 , [147] Wolfenstein: Blade of Agony , [148] Project Osiris , [149] ZBlood/Transfusion , [150] SUPERQOT , [151] and Slayer's Testament , [152] and even commercial games such as Wrath: Aeon of Ruin , Steel Storm , and DOOMBRINGER , [153] on the DarkPlaces engine, as well as Hedon , [154] Selaco , [155] Vomitoreum , [156] and Supplice [157] on the GZDoom engine and also titles by Blendo Games on the id Tech 2 and id Tech 4 engines. The games Ion Fury and A.W.O.L are built on the source available Build engine, [158] and Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge on Aleph One. Liblast is an open source multiplayer first-person shooter built using the Godot game engine. [159]
id partners and related, such as Raven Software, Bungie, Volition, GarageGames, Cyan Worlds, and 3D Realms, as well as Two Tribes, [160] Pangea Software, former developers from Capstone Software, Fields of Vision, Virtual Design, and Black Magic Software, and several of the developers who participated in the Humble Indie Bundle, [161] have also released code and it is now accepted practice for some mainstream game developers to release legacy source code. [48] Formerly proprietary games such as Jump 'n Bump , Dink Smallwood , Clonk , Seven Kingdoms , AstroMenace , Warzone 2100 , Glitch , Maelstrom , Planet Blupi , [162] Avara , Eat the Whistle , [163] Blades of Exile , Star Control 2 , SimCity , Fish Fillets , HoverRace , Duelyst , as well Abuse and the unfinished Golgotha have even been entirely released freely, including multimedia assets and levels. [164]
Some games are mostly free software but contain proprietary content such as the Cube sequel, Sauerbraten (and later forks, but not Red Eclipse ), Warsow / Warfork , or the former id Tech mods The Dark Mod and Smokin' Guns , but some developers desire and/or work on replacing these with free content. [165] [166] Mods for originally proprietary games have gone standalone following the source code being released for their parent game, such as Nexuiz for Quake , CodeRED: Alien Arena for Quake II , and Urban Terror for Quake III , as well as Penumbra: Necrologue for Amnesia: The Dark Descent . Derivatives of released code or recreations have even been used for commercial re-releases of vintage games such as Wolfenstein 3D Classic for iOS, [167] Abuse Classic for iPhone, Marathon 2: Durandal for Xbox Live Arcade, [168] Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition , [169] Shadow Warrior Classic Redux , [170] Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II for the Evercade, [171] and The Original Strife: Veteran Edition . [172] Source code releases were used however for unauthorized versions of Lugaru and Abuse that were allowed onto the App Store prior to takedown claims by the original developers. [173] [174]
Primarily proprietary developers have also helped free gaming by creating free libraries. Loki Software helped create and maintain the Simple DirectMedia Layer and OpenAL libraries and Linux Game Publishing created and maintained the free network layer Grapple. LGP also avoided publishing games similar to popular free titles. [175] Many libraries/infrastructures have been created without corporate assistance however, such as the online game system GGZ Gaming Zone, [176] [177] Gamerzilla achievement integration, [178] GamingAnywhere cloud streaming, [179] Mumble voice over IP, [180] OBS Studio for screencasting, [181] and the Lutris game manager. [182] Physics engines such as Box2D, Bullet, Chipmunk, OPAL, Open Dynamics Engine, Tokamak and Newton Game Dynamics have been made available as open source. In addition, various game creation systems are free software [183] such as the ZZT remake MegaZeux , [184] ZGameEditor, [185] Novashell, [186] SLUDGE, [187] the JavaScript based Ct.js [188] and Pixelbox.js, [189] versions of Game Editor, Adventure Game Studio, OHRRPGCE, Game-Maker, the engine behind Stencyl, the original Construct, GDevelop and Godot.
Individuals and teams have continued creating many popular free software games, starting really in the late 1990s to the present day. Many of these are clones [190] such as Pingus , Lix , [191] and Rabbit Escape [192] ( Lemmings ), BomberClone ( Atomic Bomberman ), [193] Enigma ( Oxyd ), Beats of Rage ( Streets of Rage ), TetriNET ( Tetris ), GAV , [194] Blobby Volley , and SlimeVolley [195] ( Arcade Volleyball ), Ace of Penguins ( Microsoft Solitaire ), [196] Crack Attack ( Tetris Attack ), [197] Pang Zero [198] and PiX Pang [199] ( Super Pang ), System Syzygy ( Systems' Twilight ), [200] Troll Bridge , Fanwor: The Legend of Gemda [201] and ZQuest Classic [202] ( The Legend of Zelda ), Rocks'n'Diamonds and Epiphany [203] ( Boulder Dash ), Numpty Physics ( Crayon Physics ), [204] Pathological ( Logical ), [205] PainTown ( MUGEN ), [206] FloboPoyo , [207] GTK Puyo Puyo [208] ( Puyo Puyo ), Paranoid , [209] LBreakOut 2 , [210] and Briquolo [211] ( Breakout ), BurgerSpace ( BurgerTime ), [212] Einstein Puzzle ( Sherlock ), [213] UltraStar ( SingStar ), OpenClonk ( Clonk ), FreeGish ( Gish ), [214] Hexoshi ( Super Metroid ), [215] I Have No Tomatoes [216] and Bombic [217] ( Dynablaster ), Scorched 3D and XScorch [218] ( Scorched Earth ), FreeVikings ( The Lost Vikings ), [219] Savage Wheels ( Destruction Derby ), [220] Penguin Command ( Missile Command ), [221] Sable ( Space Harrier ), [222] Circus Linux! ( Circus Atari ), [223] Falling Time ( Fall Down ), [224] Toppler ( Tower Toppler ), [225] [226] Gem Drop X ( Gem Drop ), [227] Fish Supper [228] and Froggix [229] ( Frogger ), OpenMortal ( Mortal Kombat ), [230] [231] Triplane Turmoil and SDL Sopwth [232] ( Sopwith ), Taisei Project ( Touhou Project ), [233] Crown and Cutlass ( Sid Meier's Pirates! ), [234] IceBreaker ( JezzBall ), [235] Monsterz ( Bejeweled ), [236] Tux Football [237] and YSoccer [238] ( Sensible Soccer ), iMaze ( MIDI Maze ), [239] PixBros ( Bubble Bobble ), [240] Surge the Rabbit ( Sonic the Hedgehog ), [241] Dave Gnukem ( Duke Nukem ), [242] Formido [243] ( Phobia ), Violetland [244] and Grimsonland [245] ( Crimsonland ), Luanti ( Minecraft ), [246] SolarWolf ( Solar Fox ), [247] Freedroid [248] and Nighthawk [249] ( Paradroid ), Tile World and Escape [250] ( Chip's Challenge ), [251] FreeOrion ( Master of Orion ), [252] Tuxánci ( Bulánci ), Super Tux Party ( Mario Party ), [253] Neverball ( Super Monkey Ball ), [254] Kraptor/RafKill ( Raptor: Call of the Shadows ), Trackballs ( Marble Madness ), [255] Hurrican ( Turrican ), [256] OpenTyrian ( Tyrian ), [257] HexGL ( Wipeout ), [258] Zaz ( Zuma ), Ostrich Riders ( Joust ), [259] Endless Sky [260] and Naev [261] ( Escape Velocity ), Pioneer and Oolite ( Elite ), SuperTux , Secret Maryo Chronicles and Mari0 ( Super Mario Bros. ), [262] SuperTux 3D [263] ( Super Mario 64 ), WarMUX [264] and Hedgewars [265] ( Worms ), OpenLieroX , NiL , [266] LieroLibre ( Liero ) as well as Frets on Fire ( Guitar Hero ), and StepMania ( Dance Dance Revolution ).
Frozen Bubble , originally a clone of Puzzle Bobble , has become a classic known for its addictive gameplay and winner of many Linux Journal Reader's Choice Awards. [267] These games and others have also helped expand the prevalent Tux genre which started with titles and like A Quest for Herring and are related to the activist content of games like XBill. As well as ground up clones, [268] open source re-implementations of various proprietary games have become increasingly common, which utilize the original game data. [269]
More original games such as the platformers 0verkill , [270] Abe's Amazing Adventure , [271] Adventures on Planet Zephulor , [272] Alex the Allegator 4 , [273] Amphetamine , [274] B.A.L.L.Z. , [275] Cow's Revenge , [276] Gilbert and the doors , [277] Go Ollie! , [278] GunFu Deadlands , [279] JVGS , [280] Me and My Shadow , [281] Mr. Rescue , [282] Nikwi , [283] Plee the Bear , [284] Super Bombinhas , [285] Stringrolled , [286] Teeworlds , Which Way Is Up , [287] and Worminator 3 , [288] [289] puzzle games such as Anagramarama , [290] Angry, Drunken, Dwarves , [291] Balls Blocks and Mazes , [292] Battery , [293] Brikx , [294] Chroma , [295] Dynamite , [296] Hex-a-Hop , [297] irrlamb , [298] kiki the nano bot , Krystal Drop , [299] Marble Muncher , [300] Memonix , [301] Minilens , [302] Raincat , [303] Tetzle , [304] The Powder Toy , Wizznic! , [305] and Xye , [306] arcade games such as Apricots , [307] Airstrike , [308] Avoision , [309] Battle Tanks , [310] Barrage , [311] C-Dogs , Chromium B.S.U. , Emilia Pinball , [312] the Enemy Lines series, [313] [314] FLAW , [315] Free Tennis , [316] the Geki series, [317] Hase , [318] Help Hannah's Horse , [319] Heroes, [320] Jammer the Gardener , [321] KETM , [322] Kuklomenos , [323] Librerama , [324] Luola , [325] M.A.R.S. , [326] Meat Fighter - The Weiner Warrior , [225] Hikou no mizu , [327] Moag , [328] OilWar , [329] osu! , Osgg , [330] Orbital Eunuchs Sniper , [331] Overgod , [332] Powermanga , [333] [334] Ri-li , [335] Super Transball 2 , [336] Technoball Z , [337] The Sheep Killer , [338] Variations on Rockdodger , [339] Warlock's Gauntlet , [340] and Zorn , [341] have been able to carve out their own niches.
A number of these games and those mentioned earlier and later in this section have even received mainstream press coverage [342] and commercial compilations, [343] and have helped to establish free gaming as a moderately popular pastime. Most prominently among Linux [344] users and other free Unix-like systems such as BSD, [345] Solaris, [346] Darwin, [347] ToaruOS, [348] Xv6, [349] Fiwix, [350] Redox, [351] [352] and SerenityOS, [353] but also some Macintosh [354] players and even a few Microsoft Windows gamers as well as OpenHarmony embedded open source platform. [355] [356] As well, open source games have been made available for Palm OS, [357] Android, [358] and iOS [359] mobile devices. Additionally, these games provide options for a variety of alternative and hobbyist systems, [360] including CP/M, [361] OS/2, [362] [363] BeOS, [364] [365] RISC OS, [366] [367] [368] QNX, [369] IRIX, [370] [371] MenuetOS, [372] Phantom OS, [373] Genode, [374] HelenOS, [375] SkyOS, [376] TempleOS, [377] SymbOS, [378] [379] FreeRTOS, [380] AmigaOS [381] [382] (plus WarpOS [383] ), and MorphOS, [384] as well as later implementations such as FreeDOS, [385] ArcaOS, [386] ReactOS, [387] Haiku, [388] [389] ZETA, [390] KolibriOS, [391] Syllable Desktop, [392] AmigaOS 4, [393] and AROS. [394] [395] Particularly prolific is New Breed Software, which offers games for all or most of those systems, [396] as well as for vintage computers such as the Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, and Amiga, homebrew for several video game consoles such as the Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii, handhelds such as the Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and GP2X, as well as mobile platforms such as the Agenda VR3, OpenZaurus, Maemo, and Symbian OS. [397]
Strategy and simulation games have been a prevalent force in free software gaming, [398] partly due to the lack of proprietary options for free software operating systems as compared to other genres like first-person shooters and role-playing games. [48] [399] Xconq and XBattle, and later Freeciv and Lincity, began the trend, and were followed by other clone titles like FreeCol , UnCiv , [400] Crimson Fields , [401] C-evo , LordsAWar! , Freelords , Civil , [402] LGeneral , [403] Open General , [404] OpenPanzer , [405] OpenCity , OpenRTS , [406] TripleA , [407] Mars, Land of No Mercy , [408] Ophiuchus , [409] Mindustry , [410] Tanks of Freedom , [411] OpenRA , OpenRCT2 , OpenTTD , Simutrans , StormWar , [412] Advanced Strategic Command , [413] Tenes Empanadas Graciela , Endgame: Singularity , Thousand Parsec , Unknown Horizons and Widelands .
The Stratagus project began as an attempt to recreate the proprietary Warcraft II engine, under the name FreeCraft. Blizzard Entertainment sent a cease and desist letter in 2003 over the use of the name "craft" in comparison to Warcraft and StarCraft . [414] Though the earlier free software strategy game CRAFT: The Vicious Vikings shared the name "craft" without controversy. [415] With the new, legally inoffensive name Stratagus and the old FreeCraft assets renamed Aleona's Tales, the team began work on a new strategy game called Bos Wars .
Development on this game still continues, as well as the modern Warcraft II port Wargus. Other games branched out of the engine project as well such as the Battle for Mandicor and Astroseries projects, the StarCraft port attempt Stargus, and most recently Wyrmsun. [416] After the Stratagus example, other real-time strategy games were developed, such as Globulation 2 , which experiments with game management mechanics, the similarly experimental Liquid War , mutliplayer military game TUD , [415] the claymation based Dark Oberon , [417] and the 3D projects 0 A.D. (a former freeware project), Boson , [418] Battles of Antargis , [419] Spring and Glest . [344]
Racing games, another uncommon Linux commercial genre, have also seen development. [420] One of the earliest was RARS , which evolved following the principle of forking into TORCS and then Speed Dreams . MicroRacers [421] and Toy Cars [422] are inspired by Micro Machines , while Ultimate Stunts [423] and Stunt Rally , [424] are rooted in Stunts . Other racing games include versions of Racer , VDrift , Rigs of Rods , Slune , [425] GLtron and Armagetron Advanced , YORG , [426] the Mario Kart –inspired SuperTuxKart , Elasto Mania clone X-Moto , SkyRoads imitator Orbit-Hopper , [427] sledding game Extreme Tux Racer , the text based ZRacer , [428] and the top-down Trophy , [429] Dust Racing 2D and Pixel Wheels. [430]
WorldForge , Ryzom , Crossfire , Solipsis , Illarion , [431] and The Mana World [432] [433] are further examples of increasing diversification, offering free massively multiplayer online role-playing game worlds. Single-player role-playing games are also available, such as A Dark Room , Heroes of Allacrost , [434] Valyria Tear , [435] Empty Clip , [436] Summoning Wars , [437] GNU FreeDink , [438] FLARE , [439] Heroine Dusk , [440] FreedroidRPG , [441] the Cube World inspired Veloren, [442] and the Pokémon derived Tuxemon , [443] OPMon , [444] and Pigeon Ascent . [445]
The rise of the independent game development in the 2000s and 2010s was partly driven by the growing ecosystem of open-source libraries and engines; indie developers utilized the open-source ecosystem due to good cross-platform capabilities and availability for limited financial burden. [5] Game jams such as Ludum Dare and Game Off are often run on open source principles, frequently using free frameworks such as pygame, Arcade, [446] Wasabi2D, [447] and Ren'Py for Python, Ruby2D [448] and Gosu [449] for Ruby, GGEZ [450] for Rust, LibGDX for Java, MiniGDX [96] for Kotlin, LÖVE and Solar2D for Lua, Ebitengine [451] for Go, Phaser, Panda, [452] and SuperPower for HTML5, [453] as well as nCine, [454] Solarus, [455] Starling, MonoGame, Twine, and Cocos2d. [456] [457] Educational languages such as Snap! and Scratch are also free software, [458] [459] as is The Wick Editor animation and game creation tool. [460] Individual developers such as Jason Rohrer, creator of Passage and One Hour One Life , and Kenta Cho have embraced open source. [461]
Despite its initial roots as individual projects, the free software gaming scene has been becoming progressively more organized. The roots of this even go back as far as the games created for the GNU Project and to the original larger-scale free software projects like Freeciv. Still, for the most part free game development had very little organization throughout its history. [462] Popular games were generally separate efforts, except for instances of people working on them known for other projects such as Ingo Ruhnke (Pingus), Bill Kendrick (SuperTux) and Steve Baker (TuxKart). [463] Games were commonly found in directories such as The Linux Game Tome [464] and Freshmeat [465] and hosted on sites like SourceForge [466] [467] and GNU Savannah, but they were largely only ever brought together in the form of disorganized lists. [468] [469] [470] [471] Other projects and games existed purely on isolated personal or project websites, often unknown and ignored. [472]
The launch of the GNOME and KDE desktop projects in the late 1990s organized application and, to a certain extent, game development. Both attempts to create a more usable Linux desktop attracted volunteers to make utilities to that end. These programs included games, mostly recreations of small games like Minesweeper or Solitaire that come with Microsoft Windows, arcade classics and the like, games from combined sets such as Microsoft Entertainment Pack , and occasionally original ideas. [473]
The variety and number of these games, and other free games easily found in software repositories, have had GNOME or KDE-enabled Linux called a better option for out of the box casual gaming than Microsoft Windows. [474] They also provide games for other Unix-like operating systems, such as BSD and Solaris. [475] [476] Many such games are packaged into kdegames and the erstwhile GNOME Games package. Examples include GNOME Aisleriot , GNOME Quadrapassel , GNOME Tetravex , GNOME Mines , GNOME Robots , GNOME Nibbles , and KTuberling , [477] KMahjongg , KGoldrunner , KBreakout , KsirK , plus the original game Konquest . [478] Although designed primarily for application development, the underlying GTK [479] and Qt [480] [481] toolkits have also been used broadly for game development, as have wxWidgets, [482] Tk, [483] and FLTK. [484] The availability of free game engines, such as Stratagus, Pygame, [485] LÖVE, [486] and ioquake3 [487] have also helped unify free software development by making the engine projects themselves hubs of activity for games that make use of them.
The Battle for Wesnoth project was started in 2003 and quickly became popular to both players and editors. It also showcased some new ideas when it came to free game development. [488] Like Freeciv before it, it utilized the efforts of the gaming and free software community and their code, levels and artwork contributions but it also accepted storyline contributions and ideas for the game's entire fictional universe. The game's canon is maintained through review and discussion over which submitted campaigns become official, thus setting up a model for community input and organized results. [489] This helped the game grow in scale and popularity to the point of being almost saga-like in scope. In addition, the project is worked on by many well-known free programmers, artists, designers and musicians such as the co-founder of the Open Source Initiative Eric S. Raymond, [490] and Linux kernel hacker Rusty Russell. [491] [492] Vega Strike has similarly allowed its community to expand the game and the surrounding lore while maintaining canon consistency. [493] The Wesnoth developers also worked on Frogatto & Friends , which features a free engine but mostly proprietary game data.
The general lack of unity and organization has created and continues to generate some controversy among the free software community, with problems of "reinventing the wheel" by making similar clones, games and multimedia resources being cited as a notable problem to free game development. [494] This is especially taking up more notice as other problems are corrected, such as a lack of tools, libraries, artists and coders. A more central knowledge bank, texture library, and discussion area had been lacking. [495]
Traditionally free software video games were developed as individual projects, some small scale and others larger scale. [215] Programmers and other developers did often work on other projects, but the whole system was very unlinked. [496] More recently free software development teams have started appearing, groups that function like software companies and create multiple pieces of work. Examples include the developer Parallel Realities, which have released the games Project: Starfighter, The Legend of Edgar , Blob Wars: Metal Blob Solid , as well as its sequel, Blob Wars: Blob and Conquer . [497]
The Linux Game Tome "Game of the Month" team was an open group of game developers that revamp old free software games. Some examples include the transformation of TuxKart into the more modern SuperTuxKart, work on Pingus and SuperTux, and Lincity-NG, an updated version of Lincity with superior graphics. [498] A more recent project with similar goals exists called LibreGames, which has worked on Jump 'n Bump , OpenAlchemist and FreeTumble and JAG . [499] Identical Software has also worked to modernize various libre games, including Ostrich Riders , Shippy 1984 , OpenAlchemist , Mojotron , Seahorse Adventures , Thrust , and Mari0 . [500] [501]
PlayPower is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 designed to create free educational computer software for low income families in India and other developing countries. The Tux4Kids initiative also maintains various educational games featuring the child-friendly Tux character such as Tux Paint , Tux, of Math Command , Tux Typing and related efforts. [503] The GCompris suite is also available from KDE, [504] and the activity centre Childsplay is also available. [505]
In recent years, content repositories such as OpenGameArt.org, Wikimedia Commons, Openclipart, and The Freesound Project have enabled developers to easily find appropriately-licensed content rather than relying on programmer art. [506] [507] Such content is often under Creative Commons licenses or those in the GNU GPL family, [508] easily facilitating use by most free software projects. [509] [510] OpenGameArt.org is also affiliated with related websites such as Libregamewiki, [269] a database of purely libre games, the Free Gamer blog [511] and the FreeGameDev forums. [512] [513] [514]
GitHub, GitLab and Gitea now hosts a significant number of free and open-source games. [515] [516] [517] The itch.io service is also a host for many open source games, and also features an open source client. [518] The same is true for competitor Game Jolt, [519] and was also the case for former distributor Desura. [520] A number of open source games have even been made available on Steam. [521] [522] [523] Many free software games are also available from Flathub and Snap.
Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.
id Software LLC is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack.
John D. Carmack II is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and their sequels. Carmack made innovations in 3D computer graphics, such as his Carmack's Reverse algorithm for shadow volumes.
Tux Racer is a 2000 open-source winter sports racing video game starring the Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. It was originally developed by Jasmin Patry as a computer graphics project at the University of Waterloo. Later on, Patry and the newly founded Sunspire Studios, composed of several former students of the university, expanded it. In the game, the player controls Tux as he slides down a course of snow and ice collecting herrings.
id Tech 1, also known as the Doom engine, is the game engine used in the id Software video games Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth. It is also used in Heretic, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, Strife: Quest for the Sigil, Hacx: Twitch 'n Kill, Freedoom, and other games produced by licensees. It was created by John Carmack, with auxiliary functions written by Mike Abrash, John Romero, Dave Taylor, and Paul Radek. Originally developed on NeXT computers, it was ported to MS-DOS and compatible operating systems for Doom's initial release and was later ported to several game consoles and operating systems.
A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible.
The Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of Ken's Labyrinth, for 3D Realms. Like the Doom engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.
SuperTux is a free and open-source 2D side scrolling platform video game inspired by Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. series. The player character is Tux, the official mascot of the Linux kernel.
The Quake engine, is the game engine developed by id Software to power their 1996 video game Quake. It featured true 3D real-time rendering. Since 1999, it has been licensed under the terms of GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.
Torque Game Engine, or TGE, is an open-source cross-platform 3D computer game engine, developed by GarageGames and actively maintained under the current versions Torque 3D as well as Torque 2D. It was originally developed by Dynamix for the 2001 first-person shooter Tribes 2. In September 2012, GarageGames released Torque 3D as open-source software under the MIT License.
0 A.D. is a free and open-source real-time strategy video game under development by Wildfire Games. It is a historical war and economy game focusing on the years between 500 BC and 1 BC, with the years between 1 AD and 500 AD planned to be developed in the future. The game is cross-platform, playable on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD. It is composed entirely of free software and free media, using the GNU GPLv2 license for the game engine source code, and the CC BY-SA license for the game art and music.
The Quake II engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for use in their 1997 first-person shooter Quake II. It is the successor to the Quake engine. Since its release, the Quake II engine has been licensed for use in several other games.
Cube 2: Sauerbraten is a first-person shooter released for Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X using OpenGL and SDL.
Linux Game Publishing was a software company based in Nottingham in England. It ported, published and sold video games running on Linux operating systems. As well as porting games, LGP also sponsored the development of Grapple, a free software network library for games. As well as acting as a Linux game porter in of themselves, they also functioned as a publisher for other Linux game developers and porters. The company was dissolved on 3 May 2011.
Linux-based operating systems can be used for playing video games. Because few games natively support 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. The Linux gaming community has a presence on the internet with users who attempt to run games that are not officially supported on Linux.
Ryan C. Gordon is an American computer programmer and former Loki Software employee responsible for icculus.org, which hosts many Loki Software projects as well as others. Gordon's site hosts projects with the code from such commercial games as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Quake III Arena and other free and open source projects for multiple platforms.
SuperTuxKart (STK) is a free and open-source kart racing game, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3. It features mascots of various open-source projects. SuperTuxKart is cross-platform, running on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS (beta), Android systems and Nintendo Switch (homebrew).
Desura was a digital distribution platform for the Microsoft Windows, Linux and OS X platforms. The service distributed games and related media online, with a primary focus on small independent game developers rather than larger companies. Desura contained automated game updates, community features, and developer resources. The client allowed users to create and distribute game mods as well.
Godot is a cross-platform, free and open-source game engine released under the permissive MIT license. It was initially developed in Buenos Aires by Argentine software developers Juan Linietsky and Ariel Manzur for several companies in Latin America prior to its public release in 2014. The development environment runs on many platforms, and can export to several more. It is designed to create both 2D and 3D games targeting PC, mobile, web, and virtual, augmented, and mixed reality platforms and can also be used to develop non-game software, including editors.
Some of our system components, the programming tools, became popular on their own among programmers, but we wrote many components that are not tools. We even developed a chess game, GNU Chess, because a complete system needs games too.
This is a 3D game engine for Windows first person shooter (FPS) games. It uses OpenGL for hardware accelerated transformation and lighting and DirectSound for music and 3D sound effects. The engine supports particle effects, shaders, glow maps, volumetric fog and explosions, stencil shadows, chrome maps, weather effects, damage decals, etc. It has support for complex 3D models and a wide variety of generic weapon types (melee weapons like a fist, projectile weapons like a laser blaster, exploding projectile weapons like a rocket launcher, instant hit weapons like a pistol, beam weapons like a rail gun, grenades, and shotgun) that can be customised. It also has a scripting engine with a GUI interface that lets you create scripts without learning the scripting language. The engine comes with a variety of tools, including a level editor, a model editor and an episode editor. Also included are some freeware games. The engine is released under the GNU General Public License.
Alpha Shooter is a 3D FPS game with a sci-fi setting, developed by Nicola Cocchiaro and released under the GNU General Public License. It is currently written in C++ and uses its own reusable game engine, named Neutron. The game (and its engine) will evolve to include simulated physics and artificial intelligence, a scripted storyline, involving music and sound effects and more.
Niklaus Wirth is the creator of this language. A lot of game engines like Mingro, Nxpascal, Castle game engines are written in Pascal language.
I spent the next 4 years of my life, almost 100% full-time working on Azul3D, a game engine in Go - and spent only minimal time attending online community college on the weekends.
It was written in Gambas 3.15.2 and uses Qt 5 for interfaces, SDL 2 for audio and OpenGL 2.1 for rendering. Created in six days, it features a beta version of the second revision of the PS Tech engine.
Furthermore, the Delta Engine can be easily transformed between Java C++, C#, Objective-C and JavaScript. This makes it ultimately a cross platform Game Engine.
Alas, artists are always conservative for their creations. For me, the most important thing was to have the code under a free license... it always leaves the opportunity for other creators to take over the game with new data, but it's a hell of a job! Honestly, I am for free, but free is not always the panacea and our creators do not want to find their babies anywhere without their consent. Anyone today who wants to offer free content to replace cc licensed content with better quality will be welcomed with open arms as a possible future team member :D And anyone who wants to use our content for another project is safe ask permission on our forum.
If you've seen or used RigelEngine before, some of the new features will sound familiar – the project is in fact based on RigelEngine.
One was how many open source game-creation systems I found (4, more than the zero I expected). These are Game Editor (2d with export to some mobile devices), Construct (2d, some 3d), Novashell (2d), and Sandbox (3d).
Hexoshi – this game's resemblance to Metroid makes it relatable to gamers. The game's tight controls and solid gameplay may be a good stepping stone for people.
Written by David Jaffe, Dave Gnukem is a 2D scrolling platform game, similar to Duke Nukem 1. It includes a sprite and level editor. It uses GGI and thus runs on the console as well as X, windowed or fullscreeen. It also runs on Windows, using DirectX. Download it and blow yourself away
Clone of the C64 game Paradroid.
An improved version of Paradroid - a strategic shoot-em up. You are a droid out to save the universe. To do this, you must do more than simply blasting everything in sight - you have to transfer to better droids in order to conquer more advanced droids, and go through walls to reach parts other droids cannot reach.
I ported Helicopters, one of my games, just to show you how easy you can port games to it.
However, some teams put more energy into doing fun such as running games or playing music by connecting a speaker with their CPU. Group 6, to which I belonged, was a group of such people who loved entertainment, and we decided to run an OS as our team goal.
lxdoom-1.4.4
While not yet having accelerated graphics and their Wayland support is still some ways out, they have ported some games/emulators to Redox OS already like DOSBox, Neverball, OpenTTD, ScummVM, 2048, and others.
SDL officially supports Linux, Windows, BeOS, Mac OS, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris and IRIX. SDL also works with Windows CE, AmigaOS, Atari, QNX, NetBSD, AIX, Tru64 UNIX and SymbianOS. However, those OSes are not yet officially supported. This means if you write your application using SDL, you can port it with minimal rework to all those OSes. SDL provides a portable way to write games and multimedia applications on every major OS currently in use.
While it runs on a number of platforms (including some surprising ones, like ReactOS, BeOS, and OS/2), the Linux installation of OpenTTD is quick and easy.
Also a BeOS version was released and hence Arianne was one of the first BeOS open source games.
It is multi-platform game, which is easy to install on Windows to MacOSX and open source platform such as FreeBSD, Open BSD, NetBSD and now historic BeOS.
In addition to games in these emulators, a plethora of games have been ported to RISC OS from Linux and other platforms
The rest of the adventure went fairly well. He managed to build SDL and port over some games.
Impressively, MenuetOS is no thought experiment. To illustrate the point, the operating system ships with shareware versions of legendary games 'Quake' and 'Doom'.
doom... quake... tetris...
tetris - Fork of BSD Tetris game
This new build also includes new ports, such as Quake III, Python, SDL with OpenGL support, and much more.
Without graphics support, the proof-of-concept application is quite limited in what it can do. I therefore chose to port "frotz". This is an interpreter for Z-machine games. The system requirements are minimal, but it can be used to play perhaps thousands of "interactive fiction" (text adventure) games.
You can not only play the latest 8bit version of Doom converted by Prodatron, but many other games such as Sakoban, 2048 and yes even Flappy Bird via this graphically impressive Z80 operating system.
I started my port of Zork for the NXP FRDM-K64F board using the port from Thomas Shane. You can find my port for the FRDM-K64F on GitHub (links at the end of this article). It should be fairly simple to port it to any other board. The game code has been converted to C using a converter (so the code looks rather ugly with lots of goto statements).
Simutrans is an open source simulation game under the Artistic License 1.0 for Windows, AmigaOS, BeOS, Mac OS X and Linux that focuses on freight, passenger, mail and energy transport.
Many open source games have been ported to MorphOS, including several commercial games whose sources have been released, like id Software masterpieces Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II, Quake, Quake II and Quake III.
The game was originally released for Linux, Windows, ReactOS, Mac OS X. Versions for other computers include FreeBSD, BeOS, among others.
Magnussoft also included a few emulators (including graphical frontends) in this release, two of which I want to highlight: DOSbox and Qemu. Using the DosBox emulator, I was able to play some old DOS games (Keen!), even though I had to edit the DOSbox config file in order to get some decent performance. The QemuVM frontend had problems in that it would not work correctly when using physical disks instead of image files.
Kolibri features a rich set of applications that include a word processor, image viewer, graphical editor, web browser, and well over 30 exciting games," states the authors of the operating system.
Some of the other things you can download for free include games, rescue software and a VNC viewer.
Bill Kendrick has also created a number of other arcade conversions, edutainment, and experimental software toys which he ports to the widest possible range of platforms, all of which can still be found on the New Breed Software website.
He is most famous for starting work on the platformer SuperTux and crafting the drawing program Tux Paint, helping to popularize Tux as a gaming icon with others in the Tux4Kids initiative, all alongside the work of people like Steve Baker and Ingo Ruhnke.
LGT sponsors annual awards where members of the site vote for the best free and non-free games of the year. A "miscellaneous" category also singles out the best sounds, emulators, toys, and the most promising Linux game project. The current top free game is Frozen Bubble, and the favorite commercial game is Quake 3 Arena.
Freshmeat was the focal point of my search. With over 300 games listed in the X11 section and 200 in the console section, it provided more games than I could possibly evaluate. Naturally, since I want instant gratification of my need for fun, I tended to look only at those with stable releases.
These aren't by any means the only two games from the KDE project. There are many others, including card games, tile games, and arcade games. The nice thing about the KDE Games package is that they contain games you're happy to walk away from at a moment's notice, and they only require about a fourth of your attention. I use these to kill time while compiling code. Sometimes I don't get a full game in, but I always appreciate the subtle shift in mental gears.
Thanks to open source, there are actually quite a few fun and free games to download and for which the Ubuntu repositories have a fine selection. From the Applications > Add/Remove menu there's a whole range of games from the basic classics like Nethack and Frozen Bubble through to 3D accelerated gems like Chromium and Neverball. I played all of these. And then I played some more. And then some more. How do they make these so damn addictive? They're not blockbusters, but they beat the pants off the free games bundled in Windows, and will keep you occupied for many hours longer. Good deal for the price point.
If you're running KDE or Gnome, you already have a few simple games installed. I'm not a fan of either desktop -- both strike me as bloated and obtuse -- but their games packages are a nice way to pick up a dozen simple favorites such as Solitaire, Asteroids, and Tetris.
The desktop includes a number of games that typically come with GNOME.
If one wishes to contribute, or is dismayed at the absence of any piece or pieces of data, one should ask, query, inquire - that is to say, communicate - via appropriate channels. We have a wiki because we are engaged in a collaborative attempt at documenting and presenting data that has been generated concerning the VS universe, and because we, as a community, would like to think we're up to developing a culture where that is a pleasant venture.
Work on [Pingus] began in 1998. This game is the first Game of the Month by The Linux Game Tome, which has revamped such games as SuperTux, Super TuxKart, and Lincity. The first post-GotM version 0.6 was released in 2003 for Linux featuring new levels and a level editor.
A disappointment was the state of open content sharing. While some sites, like OpenGameArt and New Grounds provide tagging with a Creative Commons license, far more common are sites like Google's 3D Warehouse that have site-specific terms of use, and provide no ability for artists to indicate they are willing to share their work via Creative Commons or an open source license.
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