The is being celebrated these days thirtieth anniversary of Linux and on GitHub they have taken the opportunity to publish a series of three articles ( 1 , 2 and 3 ) in which they have mentioned thirty Open Source games whose source code is hosted on their platform. As expected, we meet many acquaintances from the Linux scene, who also have their users on Windows, Mac and in some cases Android and iOS.
Despite receiving little attention from the specialized press, among the video games published as FLOSS there are very veteran projects that have been able to provide quality products. In fact, and although this has not been mentioned in the GitHub posts because its source code is not hosted there, 0 AD . It even achieved certain recognitions within the indie scene, and to be honest, there are many free and proprietary independent developments, that do not receive the attention they deserve from both the public and the critics. .
The first game mentioned by GitHub is an old acquaintance: Super Tux Kart . Looking at the name and the seniority of the project, it is obvious that we are facing a clone of the well-known Mario Kart in which the characters of the Big N are replaced by the mascots and logos of outstanding projects published as free software. Although its development does not go very fast, at least it has been relatively constant, so it has been improving over the years, and it also has an Android version to kill time in those boring moments inside the bus.
Whether in real time or in turns, is a genre that has its main platform on the PC, and this, of course, is a trend that has spread to FLOSS video games. On GitHub they have recalled some of the most prominent, such as The Battle for Wesnoth , Warzone 2100 and OpenRA . The first is a board-type turn-based strategy game that takes place in a fantastic world, the second is a real-time strategy and tactics game set in an apocalyptic future and the third is a free software clone of the mythical Command & Conquer.
Special is the case of Warzone 2100, which was born as a commercial and proprietary game at the end of the 90s of the last century to be published mostly under GPLv2 in 2004, since then it has been a community-maintained project. Four years later, the videos and music were added to totally liberate it. Too bad there aren’t more examples like this to help nurture the picture.
We cannot leave strategy without mentioning Unvanquished , which fuses this genre with first-person shooter and team play. Here we find battles between humans and aliens, a very hackneyed story and in which the side to choose may depend on the degree of misanthropy of each one. Leaving the genre a bit, but without abandoning the strategic component, the tower defense Mindustry is another noteworthy title.
for shooters, it seems that GitHub has not mentioned many, although there is the popular Red Eclipse 2 and AssaultCube . Here the multiplayer-focused titles are a clear majority compared to those with a single-player campaign, although this does not mean that there are no games that cannot be enjoyed alone, such as Cube 2: Sauerbraten , whose code is hosted on SourcForge. Xonotic , a multiplayer shooter inspired by Unreal Tournament and built with the DarkPlaces engine, is another such title that you can always turn to, but its code is hosted on GitLab.
As we are seeing, there are many FLOSS video games with interesting and quality proposals. To all the aforementioned (and not just projects hosted on GitHub) you can add spatial proposals such as Vega Strike and Pioneer . Among the ROL games we have Veloren, a game inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mincecraft (among others) whose graphic and artistic finish is really spectacular for a project of its size. Notable is the fact that the code Valoren is released under the GPLv3 license , for the greater glory of fans of free software.
short, and despite the fact that the specialized videogames media do not pay much attention to it, the panorama of video games published as FLOSS is really very alive, with many quality titles whose development and evolution are constant, so game enthusiasts Free software and Open Source have many options with which to entertain themselves and why not, also to produce content in case of being interested.
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