Last Updated on October 10, 2018
There remains a scarcity of commercial games available for Linux with the big game companies rarely venturing into the Linux world. The main reason cited continues to be that its market share does not warrant high ticket-price games being ported over to Linux, let alone releasing an exclusive title. Also there is a perception that Linux gamers are more reluctant to put their hands in their pockets (not literally). However, the recent Humble Indie experiment, where gamers chose the price they wanted to pay, showed that this is far from the truth. The game bundles were available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. It was Linux gamers that were, in fact, prepared to pay (by donation) more for the same games than their Windows and OS X counterparts. How refreshing to put to bed that myth.
There is a market for Linux commercial games which is still largely untapped. This offers a real opportunity for indie developers, who lack significant funding, to generate good sales. The more publicity that indie games receive should hopefully entice their developers to release further titles, as well as encouraging new entrants to the scene.
In this third and final segment, we recommend a further 6 commercial Linux indie games which are highly addictive, exceedingly playable and above all great fun to play.
To be eligible for inclusion in this article each game needed to be:
- Released under a proprietary license with a fee required either to purchase the game, or a monthly charge
- Not require Wine to run. Wine is a compatibility layer for running Windows software
Now, let’s scrutinize the 6 games at hand. For each game we have compiled its own portal page, providing screenshots of the game in action, a full description of the game, with an in-depth analysis of the features of the game, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.
| Commercial Games | |
|---|---|
| Caster | Intense action shooter video game |
| Gish | Crazy game where the protagonist is a squishy ball of tar |
| And Yet it Moves | Award-winning single player physics-based platform game |
| Wakfu | Turn-based tactical Massively Multiplayer Online Game |
| Eschalon: Book II | Sequel to 2007′s award winning RPG Eschalon: Book I |
| ColorCube | 3D puzzle game where you control a rolling cube in a cubic world |
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |