Last Updated on December 11, 2018
The plethora of free games available for Linux makes it time-consuming for gamers to randomly try even more than a small fraction of them. A good proportion of these titles are entertaining, highly addictive, offer captivating gameplay, and are challenging. While there are a variety of both printed publications and online resources which point gamers to the hottest Linux gaming titles, there are still many free games that receive little or no promotion but which exhibit real promise and merit publicity.
This publicity, in itself, can act as a catalyst to a game’s development, increasing the number of developers and contributors enhancing the code base, and by attracting creative individuals to add new levels, graphics, sound and maps. In addition, with more individuals playing the game, there should be greater feedback on bugs, innovative feature requests, and more support.
The purpose of this article is to focus on open source games that are currently in an early stage of development. Whilst the games have great potential for improvement, all are highly playable and great fun. A few of the games are not being actively developed, but they represent an excellent base for budding programmers to wield their talents, or for creatively minded individuals to produce new levels and visuals.
To be eligible for inclusion in this list each game needed to meet the following requirements:
- Free to play (no download charge, no monthly charge)
- Does not require Wine to run. Wine is a compatibility layer for running Windows software
- Must be playable and great fun
This article is the second instalment in a three part series, identifying free games that are worth giving a whirl.
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.
| Up-and-Coming Linux Games (Part 2 of 3) | |
|---|---|
| Vertigo | Addictive pure reflex arcade game |
| Balanced Annihilation | Popular strategy game based on the Spring engine |
| Caph | Sandbox game, based on physics |
| Scrabble3D | Highly customizable Scrabble game |
| Revenge of the Cats: Ethernet | Influenced by Subspace/Continuum, Starsiege: Tribes, and Tron |
| Skunks | Car simulation based on the Open Dynamics Engine |
 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. |