this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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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)

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • 0 AD
  • Battle for Wesnoth
  • Tales of Maj'Eyal
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Adding to this:

  • Veloren
  • Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
  • Mindustry
  • The Dark Mod
  • Oolite
  • Flare: Empyrean Campaign
  • Xonotic
  • Unvanquished
  • Frozen Bubble
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • Nethack

Yes the interface is a mess. But it's ridiculously deep once you get into it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Oh my goodness, yes! I spent hundreds of hours playing this as a kid. Angband too.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

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.

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just discovered Unciv on the fdroid store very recently and it blew me away. It is such a well done little Civ 5 clone.

I am definitely going to try Hedgewars. Worms was one of my favorite games when I was a kid.

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] SmoothLiquidation 7 points 1 year ago

Endless Sky is great. It was inspired by the old Escape Velocity games by Ambrosia Software.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It’s surprisingly well written. Both major story arcs had me on the edge of my seat.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

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
[–] [email protected] 23 points 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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Dwarf Fortress is not open source. You are correct.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] TheGiantKorean 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Shattered Pixel Dungeon and other forks of Pixel Dungeon (but SPD is my fave).

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Does open source implementation of proprietary game counts? OpenMW

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

OpenTTD. IMO mindustry, for example, is better but it's still worth to try OpenTTD

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

MineClone2 is addictive. All that Minecraft style fun, but free and open source. It's pretty comprehensive and solid for the most part.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How does it differ from Minetest?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Minetest is the engine and Mineclone2 is a game/mod for it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Minetest is the engine, MineClone2 is the game. Minetest has a default game (Minetest game), which has no mobs or anything. It's dull without mods. MineClone2 is recreation of Minecraft on Minetest, but with some differences. For example, you can use a burger to lure villagers. It's great fun and worth a try.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

lichess.org

It's chess, and it's great!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

OpenTTD, OpenRCT and OpenRA are all great!

[–] MutatedBass 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

CDDA and Shatered Pixel Dungeon arey favorites.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] Zoomboingding 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Naev - an open world space exploration game. Cruise the galaxy as a bounty hunter, work as a freighter, enlist in the military, or become a pirate! Lots of ship customization and a huge map with lots of factions.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

My PC always has 3 games installed, and depending on the distro I'm currently on they may have come directly from the default repos:

  • Battle for Wesnoth
  • Warzone 2100
  • OpenRCT2

I have lost count of how hours I have in all 3.

[–] Pirky 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Beyond All Reason if you're looking for an RTS similar to Supreme Commander. I haven't tried playing it in a few years though. I'm sure it's gotten some updates since then.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

https://www.freeorion.org/

It's essentially a clone of the Master of Orion series, which are classics in the 4X world.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hour_One_Life

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Xonotic, if you like very fast paced shooters.

[–] angrymouse 6 points 1 year ago

https://veloren.net/ is a voxel MMO and it is already very playable

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had fun playing Dink Smallwood (I think the Dink Smallwood HD Version on Android). You run around, solve tasks, and work your way through the story.

It is, as you described, not actually great, but great in a sense that you can have much fun with it. I especially liked the humor.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Teeworlds is a good game. Unfortunately the player base got very small, even though it's on Steam.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

People like giving recommendations like Super Tux Kart that haven’t aged well and don’t play well.

What's the issue with SuperTuxKart? I thought that it was great fun when I played it.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Space Station 13 is great

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Which of these are available on Android?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

OpenRCT (not totally free but a damn impressive project nonetheless)

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