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)

  • s20@lemmy.ml
    45·
    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.

    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

    • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      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!

    • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
      5·
      1 year ago

      I never even knew about Hedgewars’ existence, but Warmux on the other hand… Now that’s my childhood right there

      • s20@lemmy.ml
        4·
        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.

  • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
    41·
    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.

  • Quik@infosec.pubEnglish
    391·
    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@programming.devEnglish
      30·
      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@lemmy.one
      131·
      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.

    • alwaysconfused@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a great game if you are into rogue-like games. Expect to die waaaay more than you win. There is a lot of depth and quite a few ways to solve the the puzzles and enemy encounters.

      The developer has done an amazing job picking up where the original developer of Pixel Dungeon left off. Very consistent and solid updates and has plenty of plans for future updates which look interesting.

      There are plenty of forks ranging from adjusting difficulty to overhauling the art or expanding the gameplay significantly. If you ever get bored, you can just try something new.

      I’ve enjoyed the growth of this game over the years after the development of the original game stopped.

      • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Yes, I love that the dev is so engaged. He also started up a community here for Pixel Dungeon as well.

        I’m glad Shattered csme along. I didn’t care for item degradation that the original dev of PD built in towards the end. Shattered forked at just the right time.

        Sprouted PD is fun if you enjoy grinding.

    • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 year ago

      We only reimplemented the engine, not the game. You still need to own a copy of Morrowind so there’s something for the new engine to actually run. That said, it is possible for it to run other potentially-open-source games, such as OpenMW’s example suite (which isn’t finished enough to even call a game yet) or the Robowind demo (which I can’t remember the licencing details of) .

    • owatnext@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      I have wasted almost as many hours in OpenMW as I have with the official engine. It is just that good.

    • WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’ve played this game so much as a kid. It’s nice to see that this game is still maintained (as OSS) and still being mentioned. :)

    • TheThirdAccount@kbin.social
      4·
      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.

    • booty [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I play chess on lichess and go on OGS and I had no idea before opening this thread that they were open source.

      Open source software is just better I guess edgeworth-shrug

  • CrypticCoffee@lemmy.mlM
    14·
    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.

      • CrypticCoffee@lemmy.mlM
        7·
        1 year ago

        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.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
    14·
    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@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      3·
      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@feddit.uk
        4·
        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.

  • ArtikBanana@beehaw.org
    12·
    1 year ago

    Thrive

    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.

      • 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.

  • karlexceed@midwest.socialEnglish
    10·
    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

    https://www.freeorion.org/

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