Moonlight allows you to play your PC games on almost any device, whether you're in another room or miles away from your gaming rig. Moonlight (formerly Limelight) is an open source implementation of NVIDIA's GameStream protocol. We implemented the protocol used by the NVIDIA Shield and wrote a set of 3rd party clients. A painstakingly elaborate project for one of the most loved PC games of all time, Brutal Doom is a beefed-up version of ZDoom, the open-source port of Doom, Doom 2, Final Doom and Master Levels. It features extra animations and gore and weapons, as well as redesigned maps, modernized controls and UIs.
Open-source video games are games assembled from and are themselves open-source software, including public domain games with public domain source code. This list includes games in which the game engine is open-source but the game content (media and levels, for example) may be under a more restrictive license.
Open engine and free content[edit]
The games in this table are developed under a free and open-source license with free content which allows reuse, modification and commercial redistribution of the whole game. Licenses can be a public domain, GPL license, BSD license, Creative Commons License, zlib license, MIT license, Artistic License and more (see the comparison of Free and open-source software and the Comparison of free and open-source software licenses).
Title | First release | Last release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Dimensions | Other information |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 A.D. | 2009 | 2018 | RTS | GPLv2+ | CC BY-SA 3.0 | 3D | Historical, cross-platform RTS, using an original engine named Pyrogenesis. Game source-code released July 10, 2009.[1] |
2048 | 2014 | 2014 | Puzzle | MIT | MIT | 2D | A sliding block puzzle game. |
Abuse | 1996 | 2011 | Run and gun | Public domain software | Public domain | 2D | |
Argentum Online | 1999 | 2018 | MMORPG | GPLv3+ | GPLv3+ | 2D | First Open Source MMORPG developed in Argentina.[citation needed] |
Armagetron Advanced | 2001 | 2016 | Racing | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 3D | A multiplayer, 3D Tron lightcycle racing game. |
AstroMenace | 2007 | 2013 | Arcade | GPLv3+ | GPLv3+, CC BY-SA 4.0 | 3D | A top-scrolling space shooter. |
Ballerburg | 1987 | 2008 (ports) | Artillery game | Public domain software | Public domain | 2D | Public domain software on the authors website with source code.[2] Later ported to other systems such as Linux, MacOS, iOS, etc. |
The Battle for Wesnoth | 2005 | 2019 | TBТ | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | Turn-based tactical strategy game with RPG elements. Includes single-player campaign and skirmish modes as well as multiplayer. |
Biniax | 2005 | 2012 | Puzzle | zlib | zlib | 2D | |
Bitfighter | 2008 | 2018 | Arcade | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | A multiplayer vector graphics space game |
Blob Wars | 2003 | 2009 | Platformer, Action-adventure | GPLv2 | GPLv2, CC BY-SA, other open source | 2D, 3D | |
Bos Wars | 2004 | 2013 | RTS | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | Isometric 2D | 2D RTS running on a modified version of the Stratagus engine. |
BZFlag | 1997 | 2018 | Tank FPS | LGPLv2.1 | LGPLv2.1 | 3D | A first-person shooter3D tank based multiplayer online game. |
C-Dogs SDL | 2002 | 2018 | Run and gun | GPLv2 | CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA | 2D | Overhead run and gun, with hotseat co-operative and deathmatch play for up to four players. |
Candy Box 2 | 2013 | 2017 | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 2D | The TypeScriptsource code of Candy Box 2 was released under the GPLv3.[3][4] | |
Candy Crisis | 1999 (2005) | 2015 | Tile-matching | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | A tile-matching game inspired by Puyo Puyo in which the player must align candy-shaped tiles in groups of 4 or more to score points. |
Cart Life | 2011 | 2017 | Simulation | Cart Life's Free License (permissive license) | Cart Life's Free License (permissive license), Freeware | 2D | In March 2014 the source code and game was made available by Richard Hofmeier for free online, saying he was finished supporting the game.[5][6] Winner of the IGF 2013 award.[7] Mirrored on github.[8] |
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead | 2013 | 2019 | RPG/Roguelike | CC BY-SA | CC BY-SA | 2D | A post-apocalyptic, survival roguelike with an open-ended gameplay. Had a successful crowdfunding campaign on kickstarter.com on 22 June 2013.[9] |
Chromium B.S.U. | 2000 | 2016 | Arcade | Clarified Artistic | MIT | 2D | A fast-paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter |
Cocaine Diesel | 2018 | 2019 | GPLv3+ | CC-BY-SA | 3D | Running on Qfusion | |
Colobot | 2001 | 2018 | RTS, Educational | GPLv3+ | GPLv3+ | 3D | Source code released in 2012 |
Colossal Cave Adventure | 1976 | 1995 | Text adventure | Public domain software[10] | Public domain | Text | The original text adventure game by Crowther / Woods. |
Core War / pMars | 1984 | 1984 | Programming game | various (public domain, BSD, GPL)[11][12] | various | Text | Original created by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney, continued until today by the community. |
Crossfire | 1992 | 2017 | MMORPG | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | Crossfire originally started as a Gauntlet clone[13] developed by Frank Tore Johansen at the University of Oslo, Norway.[14] | |
Diamond Trust of London | 2012 | 2012 | TBS | Public domain software | Public domain | 2D | Following a Kickstartercrowdfunding campaign Diamond Trust of London was developed by Jason Rohrer and published by indiePub. On August 28, 2012 it was released for the Nintendo DS. The game has been placed in the public domain, hosted on SourceForge, like most of Rohrer's games.[15] |
DRL | 2013 | 2016 | Roguelike | GPLv2+ | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 2.5D | Based on Doom and Doom II. |
Duck Marines | 2014 | 2016 | Puzzle | 2D | Remake of Sonic Team’s ChuChu Rocket. | ||
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup | 2006 | 2019 | Roguelike | GPLv2+ | CC0 | 2D | An open-source fork of the 1997 game Linley's Dungeon Crawl. |
Empty Epsilon | 2016 | 2019 | Space bridge simulator | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D, 3D | Heavily inspired by Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator with 5 control stations per ship and additionally one person being the 'Captain'.[16] |
Endgame: Singularity | 2005 | 2011 | science fiction/AI simulation game | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | written in Python |
Endless Sky | 2015 | 2017 | Space Sim | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 2D | Inspired by Escape Velocity sandbox with the single player company missions. |
Enigma | 2003 | 2014 | Puzzle | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | Oxyd clone. |
Fish Fillets NG | 2004 | 2011 | Puzzle | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | Released commercially as Fish Fillets in 1998. Source released in 2002 under the GPL. | |
Flare | 2013? | 2018 | RPG, Action-adventure | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 2D | Flare is an open source, 2D action RPG licensed under the GPL3 license. Its game play can be likened to the games in the Diablo series. |
FlightGear | 1997 | 2018 | Flight Sim | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 3D | Microsoft Flight Simulator inspired clone. |
Freeciv | 1996 | 2018 | TBS | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | Isometric 2D | Civilization II clone. |
FreeCol | 2003 | 2015 | TBS | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | Isometric 2D | Sid Meier's Colonization clone. |
Freedoom | 1993 (2001) | 2017 | FPS | GPLv2+ (requires a Doom engine) | BSD 3-clause[17] | 2.5D | Doom content/resource clone. |
FreedroidRPG | 2002 | 2016 | RPG | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 2.5D | Diablo/Fallout style game inspired by Paradroid.[18] |
Frozen Bubble | 2002 | 2008 | Puzzle | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | Puzzle Bobble clone. |
Gang Garrison 2 | 2008 | 2018 | Shooter | MPLv2 | MPLv2 | 2D | A retro 'demake' of Team Fortress 2. The project was previously under GPLv3. |
Gigalomania | 2004 | 2018 | GPLv2+ | Various[19] | 2D | Mega-Lo-Mania clone. | |
Glest | 2004 | 2008 | RTS | GPL | CC BY-SA | 3D | 3D RTS game with two factions, A.I. and same-platform networking support. Development ceased in 2008. Two forks exist, named MegaGlest and Glest Advanced Engine. |
Globulation 2 | 2008 | 2009 | RTS | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 2D | In open beta (2019). |
GLtron | 2003 | 2016 | Racing | GPL | GPL | 3D | Based on the light cycle portion of the film Tron. |
GNOME Games | 1997 | 2018 | Various | GPL | GPL | A collection of games accompanying the rest of the GNOME desktop environment. | |
GNU Backgammon | 1999 | 2017 | TBS | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | Text, 2D, 3D | Backgammon playing and analysis engine with various interface options, developed by the GNU Project. |
GNU Chess | 1984 | 2017 | TBS | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 2D | Chess playing engine developed by the GNU Project |
GNU Go | 1999 | 2009 | TBS | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | Go playing engine developed by the GNU Project | |
Golden Age of Civilizations | 2014 | 2017 | Time-based strategy | CC-LGPL 2.1 | CC-LGPL 2.1 | 2D | A time-based MMO strategy game, mostly based on FreeCiv. |
Hedgewars | 2007 | 2018 | Artillery game | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | Worms clone. |
HyperRogue | 2011 | 2018 | Puzzle/Roguelike/Educational | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | Hyperbolic | Puzzle roguelike in the hyperbolic plane. |
heXon | 2016 | 2017 | Arcade | MIT | GPLv2, CC BY-SA | 3D | Twin-stick-shooter |
Infiniminer | 2009 | 2009 | Open world game | MIT[20] | MIT | 3D | Minecraft predecessor by Zach Barth. |
kdegames | 1997[21] 1998[22] | 2009 | Various* | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | *Collection of games provided with the official release of KDE. | |
kiki the nano bot | 2003 | 2007 | Puzzle | Public domain software | Public domain | 3D | Mixture of Sokoban and Kula World. |
Lincity | 1999 | 2013 | City-building game | GPL | GPL | 2.5D | SimCity clone. |
Linley's Dungeon Crawl | 1997 | 2005 | Roguelike | LGPL | LGPL | Roguelike game. | |
Liquid War | 1995 | 2015 | Maze games | GPL | GPL | 2D | 2D game in which you control particles and move them to defeat the opposing side. |
Lugaru | 2005 | 2017 | GPLv2+ | CC BY-SA[23] | 3D | A game by Wolfire Games where the player is an anthropomorphic rabbit who seeks revenge when a group of enemy rabbits kill their family. | |
Maelstrom | 1992 | 2010 | Shoot 'em up | GPL | CC-BY | 2D | |
Magarena | Card | 2D | Single-player fantasy card game played against a computer opponent. | ||||
MegaGlest | 2010 | 2016 | RTS | GPL | CC BY-SA | 3D | Cross-platform 3D RTS for up to eight players (can be A.I. controlled) on seven factions. MegaGlest is a fork of Glest. |
MegaMek | 2005 | 2018 | TBТ | GPL | GPL | Simulates the Classic BattleTech board game. | |
Micropolis | 1989 (as SimCity) 2008 (as Micropolis) | 2008 | City-building game | GPLv3[24] | GPLv3 | Open-source release of SimCity. Also known as OLPC SimCity.[25] | |
Minetest | 2010 | 2019 | Sandbox game | 3D | A free open-world voxel/block game for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Android and OS X. In 2015, Minetest was chosen as the best Open Source Game by OpenSource.com.[26] | ||
Moria | 1983 | 1999 | RPG/Roguelike | GPL[27] | GPL | 2D | A roguelike RPG based heavily on J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. |
NetHack | 1987 | 2018 | RPG/Roguelike | Nethack GPL | Nethack GPL | Text | A single player dungeon exploration game. |
Netrek | 1988 | 2011 | Shoot 'em up | MIT | MIT | 2D | Successor to 1986's Xtrek, Netrek was first played in 1988. It was the third Internet game, the first Internet team game, and as of 2011 is the oldest Internet game still actively played. |
Neverball | 2003 | 2014 | Platform | GPL | GPL | 3D | Super Monkey Ball inspired free game clone for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Dreamcast, and iOS.[28] |
Nexuiz | 2005 | 2009 | FPS | GPL | GPL | 3D | Forked into Xonotic following a commercial licensing agreement by a minority of the development team. |
NoGravity | 1997 (?) | 2005 | Space shooter | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 3D | Source code of the Wing Commander inspired game released by realtech VR on February 16, 2005.[29] |
One Hour One Life | 2018 | 2018 | Survival | Public Domain | Public Domain | 2D | Multiplayer co-op survival game |
Oolite | 2006 | 2018 | Space Sim | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 3D | Elite clone. |
OpenArena | 2005 | 2012 | FPS | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 3D | Quake III clone. |
OpenCity | 2003 | 2008 | City-building game | GPL | GPL | 3D | SimCity clone. |
OpenClonk | 2010 | 2018 | Action, Platform | ISC | CC BY | 2D | Successor of the Clonk shareware series. |
OpenRiichi | 2017 | 2018 | Puzzle | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 3D | A Mahjong videogame.[30] |
opsu! | 2014 | 2018 | Rhythm game | GPLv3[31] | GPLv3 | 2D | An open-source client for the osu! rhythm game.[32] |
osu!lazer | 2018 | Rhythm game | MIT | MIT | 2D | The Future Client of osu! rhythm game. | |
Pang Zero | 2006 | 2007 | Arcade | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | Reimplementation and extension of an old arcade game. |
Passage | 2007 | 2007 | Side-scroller | Public domain software | Public domain | 2D | In 2007 Rohrer released the game's source code and assets into the public domain,[33] while asking for donations (Donationware) and selling the iOS version for $0.99.[34] |
Pingus | 1998 | 2011 | Puzzle | GPL | GPL | 2D | Lemmings clone. |
Pioneer | 2006 | 2019 | Space sim | GPLv3 | CC BY-SA | 3D | Inspired by Frontier: Elite 2. |
Pixel Zone | 2018 | 2019 | Platformer | MIT | MIT | 2D | Simple 2D Platformer-game made in Godot Engine 3.1 by Master - Games, the developers team from Master, Inc. |
PokerTH | 2006 | 2017 | Card | GPL | GPL | 2D | |
PySol | 2001[35] | 2018 | Card, Patience | GPLv3 | Public domain and GPLv3 | 2D | |
Quatter | 2016 | 2017 | Board game | MIT | GPLv2, CC BY-SA | 3D | An impartial board game for two players based on Blaise Müller's Quarto |
Rigs of Rods | 2007 | 2016 | Vehicle Sim | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 3D | Rigs of Rods was initially created as an off-road truck simulator, but has developed into a versatile physics sandbox. |
Rocks'n'Diamonds | 1995 | 2018 | Puzzle | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | A scrollingtile-basedcomputer puzzle game that can be described as a combined Boulder Dash, Supaplex, Emerald Mine, and Sokoban clone. |
Ryzom | 2004 | 2018 | MMORPG | AGPL | CC BY-SA | 3D | All textures and effects, 3D models, animations, characters and clothing (no music or sounds) are under CC BY-SA. |
Scorched 3D | 2001 | 2014 | Artillery game | GPL | GPL | 3D | Clone of Scorched Earth |
Secret Maryo Chronicles | 2003 | 2014 | Platformer | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 2D | 2D platformer inspired by the Super Mario series. |
Seven Kingdoms | 1997 | 2017 | RTS | GPL | GPL | 2D | Source code released in 2009. |
Simple Solitaire Collection | 2016 | 2018 | Card, Patience | GPLv3 | GPLv3, LGPLv3, CC0, Apache 2.0 | 2D | Collection of various Solitaire games for Android devices. |
Simutrans | 1997 | 2017 | Business Sim | Artistic | Artistic | 2D | Similar to Transport Tycoon and its open-source clone, OpenTTD. The player must build a profitable transportation system. |
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection | 2004 | 2018 | Puzzle | MIT | MIT | 2D | A collection of various puzzle games, started by Simon Tatham and designed to be easily portable to any operating system. |
Sintel The Game | 2012 | 2012 | RPG | GPL | CC BY, GPL | 3D | A game based on the Blender Foundation movie, Sintel. |
Sopwith | 1984 | 2014 | Shoot 'em up | GPL | GPL | The C and x86 assemblysource code to Sopwith was released in 2000,[36] at first under a non-commercial use license, but later under the GNU GPL at the request of fans.[37] | |
Space Station 13 | 2003 | 2018 | RPG | AGPLv3 or GPLv3 | CC BY-SA 3.0 | 2D | A MMO 2D sprite and tile based role playing game. Written in BYOND. |
Speed Dreams | 2010 | 2016 | Sim racing | GPLv2+ | FAL | 3D | Forked from TORCS in late 2008. |
Star Ruler 2 | 2017 | 2017 | RTS | MIT License | CC-BY-NC 2.0 | 3D | Source code was released as MIT Licence on 22nd July 2018.[38] Does not include game music.[39] |
StepMania | 2001 | 2018 | Rhythm game | MIT[40] | MIT | 2D, 3D | A DDR clone, the player must hit buttons or keys in time with the music. |
Etterna (Game) | 2016 | 2019 | Rhythm game | MIT[41] | MIT | 2D, 3D | A StepMania fork focused on keyboard spread play, the player must hit buttons or keys in time with the music. |
SuperTux | 2003 | 2018 | Platformer | GPL | GPL | 2D | 2D platformer inspired by the Super Mario series. |
SuperTuxKart | 2006 | 2019 | Racing | GPL | GPL | 3D | Arcade racing game similar to Mario Kart. |
Super Tux Party | 2018 | 2018 | Party | MIT | GPL | 3D | Party game similar to Mario Party. |
Teeworlds | 2007 | 2018 | Platformer | zlib | CC BY-SA 3.0 (except font) | 2D | 2D side-scrollingshooter. |
Tenés Empanadas Graciela | 1996 | 2015 | TBS | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | Based on the boardgame Risk. | |
Terasology | 2011 | 2018 | Sandbox game | Apache | Apache, CC BY 4.0 | 3D | Voxel-based game prioritizing ease of user module development. |
The Castle Doctrine | 2014 | 2014 | MMO | Public domain software | Public domain | 2D | A game by Jason Rohrer, developed on a Sourceforge[42] repository and sold on Steam for $15.99.[43] |
The Powder Toy | 2010 | 2019 | Sandbox game | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | 2D | A falling-sand game |
Thrive | 2014 | 2019 | Educational game | GPLv3 | CC BY-SA 3.0 | 2D and 3D | Evolution simulator developed by a team of volunteers. |
Tremulous | 2006 | 2009 | FPS | GPLv2 | CC BY-SA 2.5[44] | 3D | Alien VS human base building, defending, and attacking opposite team. |
Trigger Rally | 2004 | 2019 | Racing | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 3D | Sim racing game similar to Colin McRae Rally. |
TripleA | 2002 | 2018 | TBS | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | 2D | A turn based strategy game inspired by Axis & Allies and board game engine. Development is ongoing. |
TrueCraft | 2017 | Sandbox game | MIT | MIT | 3D | TrueCraft is a completely clean-room implementation of Minecraft beta 1.7.3. | |
Tumiki Fighters | 2004 | 2004 | Shooter | BSD 2-clause[45] | BSD 2-clause | 3D | Written in D and released in 2004 by Kenta Cho[46] under a BSD-like license, like all his games. Later commercially ported to Wii as Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy,[47] as well as Linux.[48] Included in Debian,[49] ported to Pandora.[50] |
Tux Racer | 2000 | 2009 | Racing | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 3D | |
Tux, of Math Command | 2001 | 2011 | Educational game | GPLv3+ | GPLv3+ | 2D | |
Uebergame | 2014 | 2018 | FPS | MIT | CC0 | 3D | Modern Multiplayer Shooter with realistic graphics, comes with integrated editor. |
UFO: Alien Invasion | 2006 | 2016 | TBТ | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+, CC BY-SA 3.0 | 3D | Inspired by the XCOM-series, but with 3D-combats on surface of the earth. |
UltraStar Deluxe | 2007 | 2016 | Music | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 2D | SingStar clone. |
Unknown Horizons | 2008 | 2017 | City-building game | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+, CC BY-SA 3.0, OFLv1 | Isometric 2D | Genre-mix of city-building game and real-time strategy game, inspired by the Anno series. |
Unvanquished | 2012 | 2016 | FPS | BSD 3-clause, GPLv3+ | CC BY-SA 2.5 | 3D | Team-based first person shooter with strong RTS elements, derived from the Tremulous project. |
Vega Strike | 2008 | 2012 | Space Sim | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 3D | Elite clone and space simulator engine. |
Warmux | 2002 | 2011 | Artillery game | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 2D | Worms clone. |
Warzone 2100 | 1999 | 2017 | RTS, RTT | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 3D | Post-apocalyptic, cross-platform RTS. |
Widelands | 2002 | 2016 | RTS | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | Widelands is a RTS clone of The Settlers II. | |
WorldForge | 1998 | 2014 | MMORPG | GPLv3 | GPLv2+ | 3D | An open-source framework for massively multiplayer online role-playing games. |
Xconq | 1987 | 2005 | TBS | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 4X strategy game engine. | |
X-Moto | 2005 | 2014 | Platformer | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 2D | Elasto Mania clone. |
Xonotic | 2010 | 2017 | FPS | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 3D | A fork and direct successor of the game Nexuiz. Binary files for Linux and Windows is under GPLv3+. |
XPilot | 1992 | 2010 | Arcade | GPLv2+ | GPLv2+ | 2D | A multiplayer Asteroids-like game. |
Yo Frankie! | 2008 | 2009 | Action-adventure | GPLv2+, LGPLv2.1 | CC BY 3.0 | 3D |
Open-source games with own but non-free content[edit]
Only the game engine in this table are developed under an open-source license, which means that the reuse and modification of only the code is permitted. As some of the games' content created by the developers (sound, graphics, video and other artwork) is proprietary or restricted in use, the whole games are non-free and restricted in reuse (depending on the content license). The motivation of developers to keep own game content non-free while they open the source code may be the protection of the game as sellable commercial product. It could also be the prevention of a commercialization of a free product in future, e.g. when distributed under a non-commercial license like CC NC. By replacing the non-free content with free content, these games could also become completely free. In practice, many projects include a mixture of free and non-free own content.
Title | First release | Last release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Dimensions | Other information |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Angband | 1990 | 2016 | Roguelike | GPLv2 | GPLv2, Proprietary[51] | Text | |
AssaultCube | 2006 | 2010 | FPS | zlib | CC BY-NC-SA | 3D | Based on Cube. A lightweight online FPS (45-50 MB package), with a built-in map maker and capable of being played with a 56k connection. |
C-evo | 1999 | 2013 | TBТ, 4X | Public domain software | Proprietary | Inspired by Sid Meier's Civilization | |
CodeRED: Alien Arena | 2004 | 2011 | FPS | GPL | Proprietary[52] | Based on ID Software open-source engine. | |
Cube | 2002 | 2005 | FPS | zlib | Proprietary | 3D | Deathmatch style multiplayer gameplay with map editing. |
Cube 2: Sauerbraten | 2004 | 2013 | FPS | zlib | Various non-free and some free licenses | 3D | Deathmatch style multiplayer gameplay with map editing. |
Frets on Fire | 2006 | 2008 | Music | GPL | GPL, Proprietary | 3D | Guitar Hero clone. |
Frogatto & Friends | 2010 | 2011 | Platformer | zlib license | Proprietary[53] | 2D | Initially for Windows, Linux, and Mac; hold and toss enemies, swim, talk; scripting language included. |
Gravity Bone | 2008 | 2009 | Platformer | GPLv2 | freeware | 3D | Brendon Chung built this game on base of the Quake 2 engine and released therefore the game's source code in 2008. In 2015 ported to Linux and the OpenPandorahandheld.[54] |
H-Craft Championship | 2007 | 2015 | Racing | zlib[55] | Free for personal use[56] | 3D | Sci-Fi Racer for Linux, Windows and Android which is using the Irrlicht engine. |
Hammerfight | 2009 | 2011 | physics based combat | zlib[57] | commercial | 2D | For the third Humble Indie Bundle[58][59]Ryan C. Gordonported the underlying game engine, 'Haaf's Game Engine', to Linux and Mac OS X, and released source code under the zlib license.[60][61] |
Katawa Shoujo | 2012 | 2012 | Visual Novel | MIT license (most of game and engine beside some scripts[62]) | CC BY-NC-ND | 2D | A visual novel. |
Kroz | 1987 | 2009 | Maze | GPL | Freeware | Game source released on March 20, 2009. | |
Narcissu | 2005 | 2005 | Visual novel | GPL | Freeware/PFSL[63] | 2D | Is a free visual novel by the dōjin group stage-nana, telling the story of a terminally ill young man and woman. The english version was made with the ONScripter engine.[64] |
OpenTTD | 2005 | 2018 | Business Sim | GPLv2 | GPLv2, CC Sampling Plus | 2D | An open-source clone of 'Transport Tycoon Deluxe' |
osu! | 2007 | 2017 | Rhythm game | MIT license | CC BY-NC 4.0 | 2D | Open-source clone of several games, including Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!, Taiko no Tatsujin and beatmania IIDX. On August 28, 2016, osu! was open-sourced under the MIT License on GitHub, assets under CC BY-NC.[65][66] Aims is to make osu!, written in C# with the .NET Framework, available to more platforms and transparent.[67] |
PlaneShift | 2001 | 2016 | MMORPG | GPL | Proprietary | 3D | Free to play MMORPG. |
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy | 2003 | 2009 | Third-person shooter | GPLv2 | Proprietary | 3D | Source code was released as GPLv2 by Raven Software and Activision following the dissolution of Lucas Arts in 2013. |
Steel Storm: Episode I | 2010 | 2010 | Action | GPLv2[68] | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0[69] | Based on DarkPlaces. An indie top-down arcade shooter with single-player, deathmatch, and co-op. | |
Smokin' Guns | 2009 | 2012 | FPS | GPLv2 | Proprietary | 3D | Western-themed first-person shooter using the ioquake3 engine. |
Squally | 2018 | 2019 | Platformer, Action-adventure, RPG | MPLv2 | Proprietary | 2D | A modern 2D platformer that teaches x86/x64 assembly language, and other low-level computer science. The code is open-source, however the assets are private and must be copied from the game files released on Steam. |
Tales of Maj'Eyal | 2012 | 2016 | RPG/Roguelike | GPLv3+ | GPLv3+, Proprietary[70] | 2D | Developed open-source from the beginning with the own T4E engine,[71] while the assets are kept proprietary for commercialization on Steam and gog.com.[72][73] |
The Dark Mod | 2009 | 2017[74] | Stealth game | GPLv3+ | CC BY-NC-SA | 3D | First person stealth game in the style of the Thief (series) games ( 1 and 2 ) using a modified Id Tech 4 engine |
The Last Eichhof | 1993 | 1993 | Shoot-'em-up | 'Do whatever your want' license (public domain)[75] | Freeware | 2D | Shoot-'em-up game released for DOS in 1993 by Swiss development group Alpha Helix. Source code released in 1995. |
The White Chamber | 2005 | 2006 / 2013 | Adventure | MIT license (Wintermute Engine) / CC BY-NC-SA (game code) | CC BY-NC-SA / Freeware | 2D | The White Chamber and its Wintermute source code have been released under CC BY-NC-SACreative Commons license.[76] That means anyone is free to share and modify the game as long Studio Trophis is credited, it is not for commercial gain and that the result is made available under a similar license. 2013 the Wintermute engines source code was released under MIT. |
TORCS | 1997 | 2016 | Racing | GPL | Free Art License, Proprietary | 3D | Some car models are non-free, but there is a DFSG-compliant version which doesn't include them. |
Urban Terror | 2000 | 2018 | FPS | GPL | Proprietary | 3D | Multiplayer tactical shooter based on the id tech 3 engine.[77] |
VDrift | 2005 | 2012 | Racing | GPLv3+ | GPLv3+, Proprietary | 3D | Some datas are non-free, for example the 'SV' car model, under a CC BY-NC-SA license. |
Warsow | 2005 | 2017 | FPS | GPLv2+ | CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-ND 4.0 | 3D | A fast-paced arena FPS with movement tricks. |
World of Padman | 2007 | 2008 | FPS | GPL | Proprietary | Originally a Quake 3 modification. Became stand-alone in 2007, now runs on ioquake3. | |
Zero-K | 2010 | 2018 | RTS | GPLv2+ | various, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0[78] (sound) | 3D | Zero-K is a multi-platform real time strategy game inspired by Total Annihilation, powered by the Springgame engine. Released 2018 on Steam.[79] |
Spring:1944 | 2002 | 2017 | RTS | GPLv2 | CC BY-NC | 3D | Spring:1944 is a multi-platform real time strategy game focusing on WW2-era warfare, powered by the Springgame engine. |
Open-source remakes with non-free content from the proprietary original[edit]
The video game remakes in this table were developed under an open-source license which allows usually the reuse, modification and commercial redistribution of the code. The required game content (artwork, data etc.) is taken from a proprietary and non-opened commercial game, so that the whole game is non-free. See also the Game engine recreation page.
Title | First release | Last release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Dimensions | Other information |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CorsixTH | 2009 | 2017 | Business simulation | MIT | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Theme Hospital. |
Dune Legacy | 2009 | 2016 | RTS | GPLv2+ | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Dune 2. |
Exult | 1992 | 2012 | RPG | GPLv2+ | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Ultima VII.[80] |
GemRB | 2005 | 2017 | RPG | GPLv2+ | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of the Bioware Infinity Engine. |
Heart of The Alien Redux | 2005 | 2005 | Platform game | GPL | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Heart of the Alien.[81] |
OpenBVE | 2009 | 2018 | Train simulation | Public domain software | Proprietary | 3D | Engine remake of BVE Trainsim.[82] |
OpenFodder | 2015 | 2018 | Action-strategy shoot 'em | GPLv3+ | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Cannon fodder and Cannon fodder 2. |
OpenMW | 2008 | 2018 | RPG | GPLv3+ | Proprietary / CC BY SA (OpenMW Example Suit) | 3D | Engine remake of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. |
OpenRA | 2007 | 2019 | RTS | GPLv3+ | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. |
OpenRW | - | - | Action-adventure video game | GPLv3+ | Proprietary | 3D | Engine remake of Grand Theft Auto III. |
OpenRCT2 | 2014 | 2018 | Construction and management simulation | GPLv3+ | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Rollercoaster Tycoon 2.[83] |
Thyme | 2017 | - | RTS | GPLv2+ | Proprietary | 3D | Engine remake of Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour |
OutpostHD | 2015 | 2017 | City-building game | zlib[84] | Proprietary[85] | 2D | Remake of the 1994 game Outpost with added features and improved gameplay mechanics.[86] |
REminiscence | 2005 | 2011 | Platform game | GPL | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of Flashback (1992 video game).[87] |
Openxcom | 2010 | 2014 | GPLv3 | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of X-COM: UFO Defense.OpenXcom aims to fix all the known bugs and limits, improve the AI and user interface, localize in more languages, and enable customizing and modding.[88][89] Is playable and already base of notable Total Conversations, like X-Piratez.[90] | |
OpenApoc | 2014 | 2018 | MIT | Proprietary | 2D | Engine remake of X-COM: Apocalypse. OpenApoc aims to fix all the known bugs and limits, improve the AI and user interface, localize in more languages, and enable customizing and modding. Currently, the game is playable from start to end, though due to its Alpha release state is prone to random crashes and game-breaking bugs which can be navigated around via use of the OpenApoc bug-tracker hosted by GitHub for advice and recommendations. |
Source-available games[edit]
Video games in this table are source-available, but are neither open-source software according to the OSI definition nor free software according to the Free Software Foundation. These games are released under a license with limited rights for the user, for example only the rights to read and modify the game's source for personal or educational purposes but no reuse rights beside the game's original context are granted. Typical licenses are the creative commons 'non-commercial' licenses (e.g. CC BY-NC-SA), MAME like licenses or several shared source licenses.
Title | First release | Last release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Dimensions | Other information |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alien Swarm | 2010 | 2010 | Shooter game | Non-commercial usable and shareable[91] | Freeware | 3D | In 2010 Valve released this Source engine based game with source code, which started as a mod. |
Hero Core | 2010 | 2013 | Shooter game | Non-commercial, attribution required | Freeware | 2D | Around 2013 Daniel Remar released the GameMaker source code of the game, together with the sources of his other games like Iji.[92] |
Flow | 2006 | 2009 | Life simulation | ? (educational purposes) | Freeware | 2D (layered) | Around 2009 the flash source code was made available for educational purposes by the developers.[93] |
Fortress Forever | 2007 | 2018 | FPS | Proprietary | 3D | Unofficial, open-source Source engine successor to Team Fortress Classic. | |
I Wanna Be the Guy | 2007 | 2011 | Platform game | Proprietary | Freeware | 2D | On November 9, 2011 the developer Michael 'Kayin' O'Reilly released the source code of the game under an own software license (forbidding new content)[94][95] so that the game's community would be able to create fixes and patches.[96] |
Jump 'n Bump | 1998 | 1999 | Emailware[97] | Emailware | 2D | 1998 freeware DOS platform video game, written in C and Assembly language by Brainchild Design. The source code was released in 1999, then source ported to several other operating systems and platforms via SDL. | |
Larn | 1986 | 2016 | Roguelike | Non-commercial | Freeware | Text | |
Mari0 | 2012 | 2012 (stable), 2014 (unstable) | Platformer | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | 2D | Remake of Super Mario Bros with elements from Portal. |
Noctis | 2000[98] | 2003 | Platformer | WTOF Public License[99] | Freeware | 3D | Space exploration/flight simulation |
Notrium | 2003 | 2008 | Top-down shooter survival game | custom FOSS license / GPLv3 | custom FOSS license / Freeware | 2D | Notrium's source code was released by the developer after 2003 under a custom software license and is developed as OpenNotrium on GitHub since then, with new code being GPLv3.[100] |
Prince of Persia | 1989 | 1989 | Proprietary | Proprietary | 2D | On April 17, 2012, Jordan Mechner released the Apple II source code of the game on GitHub.[101] | |
Progress Quest | 2002 | 2011 | Proprietary | Freeware | 2D | On May 20, 2011, Eric Fredricksen released the source code of the game on bitbucket.[102][103] | |
Racer | 2003 | 2011 (proprietary) | Sim racing | Proprietary | Proprietary, Freeware | Only source code of 0.5 version is available, all other releases are closed source. | |
Space Engineers | 2013 | 2018 | Sandbox, simulation | Distribution as mod allowed | Proprietary | 3D | |
Spelunky | 2008 | 2009 | Platformer | Non-commercial[104] | Freeware | 2D | The source code of the 2008's Windows freeware version was published on December 25, 2009 under a software license permitting noncommercial distribution and modification.[104] Based on this source code the game community created a community patch which added support for Mac OS X.[105][106] The source code for the 2012 remake has not been made available. |
Visual Pinball | 2000 | 2017 | Pinball simulation editor and game | MAME like license | diverse | 3D | Many free custom tables and recreations of original machines available. The program is also able to operate with Visual PinMAME |
Proprietary developed games, later opened under varying licenses[edit]
For games that were originally developed proprietary as commercial closed source product, see also Category:Commercial video games with freely available source code.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'0 A.D. Open Source Release'. wildfiregames.com.
- ^April 1987: Ballerburg - Zwei Spieler, zwei Burgen und ein Berg dazwischen... on eckhardkruse.net 'Ich habe das Programm als Public Domain veröffentlicht' (in German)
- ^source codeArchived 2016-03-01 at the Wayback Machine on candybox2.net
- ^Play This Right Now: Candy Box 2 by Nate Ralph on PCworld.com (Oct 24, 2013)
- ^Petitte, Omri (20 March 2014). 'Cart Life exits Steam, goes open source'. PC Gamer. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
- ^cartlife_opensores.zip on the author's dropbox
- ^'The 17th Annual Independent Games Festival'. igf.com. 2013-03-28.
- ^cartlife_src
- ^'Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - Dedicated Developer'. Kickstarter. 22 June 2013.
- ^Jerz, D.G. 'Colossal Cave Adventure'. Seton Hill University. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
- ^corewar on sourceforge
- ^pMars-SDL on corewar.co.uk by Joonas Pihlaj (7 May 2003)
- ^ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/crossfire/historic[permanent dead link]
- ^'Re: CF: the begining(sic) of crossfire'. real-time.com. Archived from the original on 2007-04-04. Retrieved 2013-04-27.
- ^Jason Rohrer (2011-10-17). 'DiamondTrust/ci/default/tree'. SourceForge. Retrieved 2013-05-22.
- ^'EmptyEpsilon - Multiplayer Spaceship Bridge Simulator'.
- ^'Savannah Git Hosting - freedoom.git/blob - COPYING'. Git.savannah.gnu.org. Archived from the original on 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ^'Home | FreedroidRPG'.
- ^'Gigalomania content licenses'. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
- ^Infiniminer on github.com
- ^'The KDE Games Open Source Project on Open Hub'. ohloh.net.
- ^'KDE - KDE 1.0 Release Announcement'. kde.org.
- ^'Lugaru HD'. Gitlab. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
- ^'Micropolis Downloads'. donhopkins.com.
- ^Simser, Bil (2008-01-10). 'SimCity Source Code Released to the Wild! Let the ports begin...' weblogs.asp.net/bsimser. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
[...] releasing the original SimCity source code under the GNU General Public Library [...] EA requires that the GPL open-source version not use the same name as SimCity
- ^Muilwijk, Robin (2017-02-21). 'Best open source games of 2015'. opensource.com. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
[...]number one, Minetest, an open source alternative to Minecraft.
- ^'free-moria'. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ^Patterson, Blake (July 8, 2008). 'Neverball: A Free Alternative to Super Monkey Ball'. TouchArcade. Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
- ^No Gravity (Classic) on sourceforge.net
- ^'OpenRiichi'. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
- ^'GitHub - itdelatrisu/Opsu: Opsu! ~ an open-source osu! Client'. 2019-08-27.
- ^Han, Jeffrey (2017-08-09), opsu! ~ an open-source osu! client, retrieved 2017-08-14
- ^supportMyWork on hcsoftware.sourceforge.net 'I release all of the source code that I write as free software (free as in 'freedom') into the public domain' (accessed 2016)
- ^Passage on itunes.apple.com
- ^'All releases of PySol – Freecode'. freecode.com.
- ^Clark, Dave (2000-10-29). 'Sopwith Code Support'. Retrieved 2006-12-01.
- ^Clark, Dave. 'Sopwith – Source Code'. Dave Clark's Home Page. Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2006-12-01.
- ^'Star Ruler 2 is now Open Source!'. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
- ^https://github.com/BlindMindStudios/StarRuler2-Source. Retrieved 2018-01-09.Missing or empty
|title=
(help) - ^'stepmania/stepmania'. GitHub. 2019-08-26.
- ^'etterna/etterna'. GitHub. 2019-08-27.
- ^CastleDoctrine on sourceforge.net
- ^Castle Doctrine on store.steampowered.com
- ^[tremulous] View of /trunk/COPYING
- ^tf0_2.zip
- ^doujin-classics-the-works-of-kenta-cho on ricedigital.co.uk
- ^The Indie Shooter Roundtable: Mak, Cho, And Omega Fire At Will by Brandon Sheffield on Gamasutra.com
- ^TUMIKI fighters on sourceforge.com
- ^'Bug#439713: Marked as done (ITP: Tumiki-fighters -- sticky 2D shooter)'.
- ^who is Kenta Cho?Archived 2016-03-26 at the Wayback Machine
- ^[1] The sounds are licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA license. Shockbolt's graphics are licensed under a non-free license.
- ^'[alienarena] Log of /trunk/docs/license.txt'. Svn.icculus.org. Retrieved 2010-07-13.
- ^Developer InfoSource Code and License: [...] Our code is open-source, our content isn’t.
- ^gravitybone-pandora on github.com
- ^[2] 'For the most part H-Craft Championship sources are released under the zlib-license.'
- ^[3]You are not allowed to modify or distribute the media files or use them in your own games. But you can still download the media files and they are free for personal use.
- ^license.txt on hg.icculus.org/icculus/hge-unix
- ^McLaughlin, Ryan (3 August 2011). 'Humble Indie Bundle Sells Lots, Windows Users Still Cheap'. Hot Hardware. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
- ^HGE-comes-to-Mac-and-Linux-guest-post-from-Ryan-Gordon on wolfire.com (August 2011)
- ^Ryan Gordon Ports HGE To Linux, Then Releases Code on Phoronix by Michael Larabel (August 07, 2011)
- ^hge-unix on icculus.org 'August 7th, 2011: Source code released to the world!'
- ^'Katawa Shoujo Forums • View topic - Please release Katawa Shoujo source code as free software'. renai.us.
- ^narcissu.txt
- ^narcissu on insani.org
- ^'ppy/osu'. GitHub. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
- ^'2016-08 dev meeting'. ppy blog. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
- ^'demystifying open source osu!'. ppy blog. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
- ^'Steel Storm Episode I'. blendernation.com. 2010-09-20.
- ^'STEEL STORM EPISODE 1 LIMITED USER SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT'. steel-storm.com. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
the Art Assets [...] are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. The Engine [...] licensed under GNU GPL v2 license.
- ^COPYING-MEDIA on git.net-core.org/tome 'All the medias located in all the '/data/gfx' folders are granted to use with the Tales of Maj'Eyal game only. Please contact [email protected] for more informations.' (2016)
- ^COPYING on git.net-core.org/tome (2016)
- ^'Tales of May'Eyal on Steam'. Steam. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
- ^'Release: Tales of Maj'Eyal and Ashes of Urh'Rok expansion'. GOG. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
- ^'Announcing the release of TDM 2.05! | The Dark Mod'. www.thedarkmod.com. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
- ^beersrc.zip - readme 'Do whatever your want' license
- ^source code at studiotrophis.com
- ^'Urban Terror News'. urbanterror.info.
- ^'license.txt'. github.com.
- ^Dominic Tarason (2018-04-27). 'Free Total Annihilation-like RTS Zero-K lands on Steam'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
- ^Prophet. (2002-03-28). 'GameSpyDaily - Exult Interview'. Archived from the original on 2002-04-02. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
- ^Megidish. (2005-01-12). 'Heart of The Alien - Redux'. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
- ^OpenVE on github.com
- ^'official page'. Archived from the original on 2018-01-18. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
- ^LICENSE.txt on svn.outpostuniverse.org:8443
- ^OutpostHD - An Outpost Redesign - OutpostHD (Formerly known as Outpost:MIA) on outpost2.net 'Currently I’m using the original Outpost graphics as created in the early 90’s. They are old and primitive with no support for transparency and are in an 8-bit color depth. I’ve been converting them to modern PNG formats and optimizing the sprite sheets for use in a modern graphics engine.' (September 27, 2015)
- ^Lairworks Entertainment. 'What is OutpostHD?'.
- ^Montoir. (2011-03-11). 'REminiscence'. Archived from the original on 2015-08-01. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
- ^'About'. OpenXcom. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
- ^OpenXCom renews the original OpenXCom renews the original UFO Defense as a valid option for terror by Phil Savage on PC Gamer (May 09, 2013)
- ^You Wouldn’t Steal A Skyranger: X-Piratez Is An Outstanding Total Conversion Of UFO/X-COM by Sin Vega on Rock, Paper, Shotgun (March 30th, 2016)
- ^AlienSwarmfork on github.com'readme: You may, free of charge, download and use the SDK to develop a modified Valve game running on the Source engine. You may distribute your modified Valve game in source and object code form, but only for free.'
- ^resources on remar.se 'source code'
- ^You can get it here.Archived 2016-04-01 at the Wayback Machine on thatgamecompany.com by Jenova Chen (Sep 21, 2009)
- ^'Fix My Game: IWBTG Source Code Release'. Kayin.pyoko.org. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
- ^DIYGamer: Recursive Romhackery – I Wanna Be The Guy Source Code Released (2011)
- ^'IWBTG! - Downloads!'. Kayin.pyoko.org. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
- ^Jump 'n BumpArchived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine readme.txt JUMP 'N BUMP by Brainchild Design in 1998 Jump 'n Bump is e-mailware. That means you're supposed to send us an e-mail.
- ^'Web Archive records of the earliest Noctis' homepage'. Archived from the original on 2000-04-25. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
- ^license
- ^copying github.com OpenNotrium
- ^Prince of Persia source code
- ^
- ^pq on bitbucket.org
- ^ abSpelunky User License v1.1b
- ^Sarkar, Samit (2012-10-12). 'Spelunky unofficially patched with Mac OS X support'. polygon.com. Retrieved 2014-08-07.
Spelunky [...] is now playable on Mac OS X, thanks to an unofficial patch from the game's community.
- ^'Spelunky v1.3 (and Source) - Now for Mac OS X and Windows'. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Free video games. |
- Open source games at Curlie
- LibreGameWiki lists open source games
- Open source games list on Github
- Open source game clones list
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_open-source_video_games&oldid=919619202'
FlightGear flight simulator
An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.
- 3History
Definition and differentiation[edit]
Most free games are open-source, but not all open-source games are free software; some open-source games contain proprietary non-free content. Open source games that are free software and contain exclusively free content conform to DFSG, free culture, and open content and are sometimes called free games. Many Linux distributions require for inclusion that the game content is freely redistributable, freeware or commercial restriction clauses are prohibited.[1]
Background[edit]
In general, open-source games are developed by relatively small groups of people in their free time, with profit not being the main focus. Many open-source games are volunteer-run projects, and as such, developers of free games are often hobbyists and enthusiasts. The consequence of this is that open-source games often take longer to mature, are less common[2] and often lack the production value of commercial titles.[3] In the past (before the 2000s) a challenge to build high-quality content for games was the missing availability or the excessive price for tools like 3D modeller or toolsets for level design.[4] In recent years, this changed and availability of open source tools like Blender, game engines and libraries drove open source and independent video gaming.[5]
Some of the open-source game projects are based on formerly proprietary games, whose source code was released as open-source software, while the game content (such as graphics, audio and levels) may or may not be under a free license.[6] Examples include Warzone 2100 (a real-time strategy game)[7] and Micropolis (a city-building simulator based on the SimCity source code). Advantage of such continuation projects is that these games are already 'complete' as graphic and audio content is available, and therefore the open-source authors can focus on porting, fixing bugs or modding the games.
In a 2004 article, Adam Geitgey questioned the compatibility of the open-source culture with respect to the game development process. He suggested that perceived open-source development advantages don't work for games because users move on to new games relatively quickly and so don't give back to the project. Geitgey further noted that music and art development is not built up from the work of others in the same way that coding would be. He argued that high quality art content is required, which is typically produced commercially by paid artists. While Linux operates on the open-source philosophy, this may not benefit game development.[8]
As of September 2015, the Steam gaming service has 1,500 games available on Linux, compared to 2,323 games for Mac and 6,500 Windows games.[9][10][11]
History[edit]
Beginnings and early games[edit]
XEvil
Just as in most other forms of software, free software was an unconscious occurrence during the creation of early computer games, particularly for earlier Unix games. These are mostly original or clone arcade games and text adventures. A notable example of this is BSD Games, a collection of interactive fiction titles.[12] Game fan communities such as the modding community do include some aspects of free software, such as sharing mods across community sites, sometimes with free to use media made for the modification. With the rise of proprietary software in the mid to late 1980s, games became more and more proprietary. However, this also led to the first deliberately free games such as GNU Chess of the GNU Project, part of whose goal is to create a complete free software system, games included.[13] More advanced free gaming projects emerged, such as NetHack and Netrek, many still developed and played today in front-ends such as Vulture's Eye.
As PC gaming began to rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s, free gaming also advanced. More complicated games utilizing the X Window System for graphics started to emerge, most beginning with the signature letter X. These included XBill, XEvil, xbattle, Xconq and XPilot. XBill is notable as one of the earliest free gaming titles to feature an activist theme of halting proprietary software adoption. This theme was echoed in later titles such as FreeDroidRPG. XEvil followed the development cycle of many early pieces of free software, having originally been developed as a university project, although it was freeware for a while. The game was also one of the first free titles to feature controversial subject matter such as graphic violence and drug use.[14]Rocks'n'Diamonds is another earlier free software game, and one of the first for Linux.
The FreeCiv project was started in 1995 and gave rise to another new style of free game development. Similar to the cooperative nature of the Linux kernel development, FreeCiv was extended by many volunteers, rather than only one or two authors.[15] It had started out as a small university student project but then branched out into its current form and is still being developed today. FreeCiv also proved to be one of the earliest very popular free software games, and was among the first to be included with Linux distributions, a system commonly known now as a source of peer review or selection of quality for free gaming projects. Magazines, news sources and websites have also started noting free games, often in listings.[16][17][18][19] FreeCiv and other archetypes have led to the development of many other clones of popular proprietary games.[20]BZFlag, first worked on a few years earlier, is another project that had humble beginnings but grew into a popular and heavily developed project.
3D games and source releases[edit]
Open Source Racing Games Pc
Proprietary games such as Doom and Descent brought in the age of three-dimensional games in the early to mid 1990s, and free games started to make the switch themselves. Tuxedo T. Penguin: A Quest for Herring by Steve Baker, a game featuring the Linux mascot Tux, was an early example of a three-dimensional free software game. He and his son Oliver would later create other popular 3D free games and clones such as TuxKart and contribute to those by other developers such as Tux Racer. The Genesis3D engine project, Crystal Space and Cube also spawned other 3D free software engines and games. FlightGear is another good example, especially noting that it is not a shooter engine but a flight simulator.[21]
id Software, an early entrant into commercial Linux gaming, would also prove to be an early supporter of free gaming when John D. Carmack released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, first under a custom license and then later the GPL. This was followed by the release of Quake engine, id Tech 2, id Tech 3 and most recently id Tech 4. This led not only to source ports that allowed the playing of the non-free games based on these engines (plus fan added enhancements)[22] on free engines and systems, but also to new free games such as Freedoom, Nexuiz/Xonotic, Tremulous, and OpenArena.[23]Freeware games, such as CodeRED: Alien Arena, Warsow, World of Padman and Urban Terror,[24] have also taken advantage of these free engines and sometimes have given code back to the community. id Tech 4 was released as free software, even amongst patent concerns from Creative Labs. Development and editing tools are also commonly released freely, such as GtkRadiant.[25]
id partners and related, such as Raven Software, Bungie and 3D Realms, as well as several of the developers who participated in the Humble Indie Bundle,[26] have also released code and it is now accepted practice for some mainstream game developers to release legacy source code.[27]Formerly proprietary games such as Jump 'n bump, Meritous, Warzone 2100, HoverRace and Abuse have even been entirely released freely, including multimedia assets and levels. Some games are mostly free software but contain some proprietary content such as the Cube sequel, Sauerbraten or the former Quake III Arena mod Smokin' Guns, but some developers desire and/or work on replacing these with free content.[28] Primarily proprietary developers have also helped free gaming by creating free libraries. Loki Software helped create and maintain the Simple DirectMedia Layer and OpenAL libraries and Linux Game Publishing created and maintain the free network layer Grapple. LGP also avoids publishing games similar to popular free titles.[29] Many libraries/infrastructures have been created without corporate assistance however, such as the online gaming system GGZ Gaming Zone. In addition, various game creators are free software such as the ZZTremakeMegaZeux, versions of Game Editor, the Game Maker inspired G-Creator, Godot, Construct, and ZGameEditor.
Open Source Games For Windows
Rise in popularity and diversity[edit]
Individuals and teams have continued creating many popular free software games, starting really in the late 1990s to the present day. Many of these are clones such as Pingus (Lemmings clone), SuperTux and Secret Maryo Chronicles (Super Mario Bros-inspired),[30]WarMUX and Hedgewars (Worms) as well as Frets on Fire, which is a recreation of Guitar Hero. A number of these games and those mentioned earlier and later in this section have even received mainstream press coverage[31][32] and have helped to establish free gaming as a moderately popular pastime, even if mostly enjoyed by Linux and BSD users. Frozen Bubble, originally a clone of Puzzle Bobble, has become a classic known for its addictive gameplay and winner of many Linux Journal reader's choice awards.[33][34][35] These games and others have also helped expand the prevalent Tux genre which started with titles and like A Quest for Herring and are related to the activist content of games like XBill. More original games like Neverball, another 3D title, have also been able to carve out their own niches.[36][37]
Strategy games have also been a prevalent force in free software gaming,[38] partly due to the lack of proprietary strategy games for free software operating systems as compared to other genres like first-person shooters and role playing games.[39]FreeCiv began the trend, and was followed by other clone titles like FreeCol, LinCity and Widelands. The Stratagus project began as an attempt to recreate the proprietary Warcraft II engine, under the name FreeCraft. Blizzard Entertainment sent a cease and desist letter in 2003 over the use of the name 'craft' in comparison to Warcraft and StarCraft.[40] Though the earlier free software strategy game CRAFT: The Vicious Vikings shared the name 'craft' without controversy.[41]
With the new, legally inoffensive name Stratagus, the team began work on a new strategy game called Bos Wars. Development on this game still continues, as well as the modern Warcraft II port Wargus. Other games branched out of the engine project as well such as the Battle for Mandicor and Astroseries projects and the StarCraft port attempt Stargus. After the Stratagus example, other real time strategy games were developed, such as Globulation 2, which experiments with game management mechanics, 0 A.D., a former freeware project, and the 3D projects Spring and Glest.[42] In addition, the more economically driven strategy game Widelands bases itself upon the proprietary Settlers franchise.
Top Open Source Games
Racing games, another uncommon Linux commercial genre, has also seen development with TORCS and VDrift, as well as the Mario Kart-inspired SuperTuxKart. WorldForge is another example of increasing diversification, in its attempt to create a free massively multiplayer online role playing game. Free software is also the main source for educational and children's software specifically for Linux, usually utilizing the child appeal of the Tux mascot, such as Tux Paint, Tux, of Math Command, Tux Typing and related efforts.[43]
The rise of the independent game development in the 2000s was partly driven by the growing ecosystem of open source libraries and engines; indie developers utilized the open source ecosystem due to good cross-platform capabilities and availability for limited financial burden.[44]
Greater organization[edit]
Despite its initial roots as small private projects, the free software gaming scene has been becoming progressively more organized. The roots of this even go back as far as the games created for the GNU Project and to the original larger-scale free software projects like FreeCiv. Still, for the most part free game development had very little organization throughout its history. Popular games were generally separate efforts, except for instances of people working on them known for other projects such as Ingo Ruhnke, Bill Kendrick and Steve Baker. Games were commonly found in directories such as The Linux Game Tome and Freshmeat and hosted on sites like SourceForge, but they were largely only ever brought together in the form of disorganized lists. Other projects and games existed purely on small isolated personal or project websites, often unknown and ignored.
The launch of the GNOME and KDE desktop projects in the late 1990s organized application and, to a certain extent, game development. Both attempts to create a more usable Linux desktop attracted volunteers to make utilities to that end. These programs included games, mostly recreations of small games like Minesweeper or Solitaire that come with Microsoft Windows, arcade classics and the like, games from combined packs such as the Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack, and occasionally original ideas. The variety and amount of these games, and other free games easily found in software repositories, have even led some to call GNOME or KDE-enabled Linux a better option for out of the boxcasual gaming than Microsoft Windows.[45] Examples include gbrainy, GNOME Mines and KAtomic. Many such games are packaged into GNOME Games and kdegames. The availability of free game engines, such as Stratagus, Pygame, Sauerbraten and ioquake3 have also helped unify free software development by making the engine projects themselves hubs of activity for games that make use of them.
The Battle for Wesnoth project was started in 2003 and quickly became popular to both players and editors. It also showcased some new ideas when it came to free game development. Like FreeCiv before it, it utilized the efforts of the gaming and free software community and their code, levels and artwork contributions but it also accepted storyline contributions and ideas for the game's entire fictional universe. The game's canon is maintained through review and discussion over which submitted campaigns become official, thus setting up a model for community input and organized results.[46] This helped the game grow in scale and popularity to the point of being almost saga-like in scope. In addition, the project is worked on by many well-known free programmers, artists, designers and musicians such as the co-founder of the Open Source InitiativeEric S. Raymond,[47] and Linux kernelhackerRusty Russell.[48][49]Vega Strike has similarly allowed its community to expand the game and the surrounding lore while maintaining canon consistency.
Hubs and development teams[edit]
The general lack of unity and organization has created and continues to generate some controversy among the free software community, with problems of 'reinventing the wheel' by making similar clones, games and multimedia resources being cited as a notable problem to free game development.[50] This is especially taking up more notice as other problems are corrected, such as a lack of tools, libraries, artists and coders. A more central knowledge bank, texture library, and discussion area have been called for several times.[citation needed]
Traditionally free software video games were developed as individual projects, some small scale and others larger scale. Programmers and other developers did often work on other projects, but the whole system was very unlinked.[citation needed] More recently free software development teams have started appearing, groups that function like software companies and create multiple pieces of work. Examples include the developer Parallel Realities, which have released the games Project: Starfighter, The Legend of Edgar, Blob Wars: Metal Blob Solid, as well as its sequel, Blob Wars: Blob and Conquer.[51]
In recent years, content repositories such as OpenGameArt.org and The Freesound Project have enabled developers to easily find appropriately-licensed content rather than relying on programmer art. Such content is often under Creative Commons licenses or those in the GNU General Public License family, easily facilitating use by most free software projects.
The Linux Game Tome 'Game of the Month' team was an open group of game developers that revamp old free software games. Some examples include the transformation of TuxKart into the more modern SuperTuxKart, work on Pingus and SuperTux and LinCity-NG, an updated version of LinCity with superior graphics.[52]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
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- ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2014-05-24. Retrieved 2014-05-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2016-05-07. Retrieved 2016-09-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^Hargreaves, Shawn (July 1999). 'Playing the Open Source Game'. Archived from the original on October 10, 2011.
- ^PC Gaming: Doomed? or zDoomed? - Some of the most rewarding PC games out there were built by indie developers using open source code.Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine by Michael Blake on IGN.com (22 Jun 2011)
- ^Linux games from Freshmeat
- ^Warzone 2100 Resurrection project about page
- ^Geitgey, Adam (2004-08-31). 'Where are the Good Open Source Games?'. www.osnews.com/story. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^Jared Newman (21 September 2015). 'Steam for Linux tops 1,500 games as launch of Valve's Steam Machines nears'. PCWorld.
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- ^'The state of Linux gaming in the SteamOS era'. Ars Technica.
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- ^Linux and GNUArchived 2017-03-19 at the Wayback Machine – GNU Project
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- ^Top 100 Free Games for Linux – Linux LinksArchived 2010-02-06 at the Wayback Machine
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- ^Open Source Mac Gaming: 10 Free Games Reviewed – TidBITSArchived 2010-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
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- ^Open Source Mac Gaming: 10 Free Games Reviewed – TidBITSArchived 2010-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^'Entretien avec l'équipe de Smokin'Guns (French/English interview) – JeuxLinux'. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
- ^Linux Game Publishing: Interview with Michael Simms – Linux Gazette
- ^Free Platformers: Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games Part 3 – Associated Content
- ^Anderson, Lee (December 20, 2000). 'Top 10 Linux games for the holidays'. CNN.com. Archived from the original on December 6, 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-08.
- ^Procrastinate with these Linux games – CNN.comArchived 2009-10-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Linux Journal Reader Choice Awards 2003Archived 2006-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
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- ^Linux Journal Reader Choice Awards 2009Archived 2006-05-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^'OpenDisc project'. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
- ^'Linux Format magazine archives'. Archived from the original on April 4, 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-29.
- ^Free RTS: Open Source Gamer's Guide to Free Real Time Strategy Games – Associated Content
- ^Open Source Mac Gaming: 10 Free Games Reviewed – TidBITSArchived 2010-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Stratagus – LinuxDevCenterArchived 2011-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Mention of Craft in Linux JournalArchived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Top 10 Free Linux Games in 2009 – Simple ThoughtsArchived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Teaching with TuxArchived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Linux Journal, October 21st, 2009
- ^PC Gaming: Doomed? or zDoomed? - Some of the most rewarding PC games out there were built by indie developers using open source code.Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine by Michael Blake on IGN.com (22 Jun 2011)
- ^Open Source Challenge, Part Nine: Games – APC MagArchived 2010-01-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Battle for WesnothArchived 2010-02-06 at the Wayback Machine – Free Software Magazine
- ^Developer entry for Eric S. RaymondArchived 2010-03-12 at the Wayback Machine on gna.org
- ^Developer entry for Rusty RussellArchived 2011-05-17 at the Wayback Machine on gna.org
- ^Video of a talk by Rusty Russell at Australian Linux conference linux.conf.au 2007Archived 2009-03-26 at the Wayback Machine about his work on Wesnoth, from here [1]
- ^'New data on open source: Reinventing the wheel every day'. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
- ^Parallel Realities: Retro-themed Linux gamesArchived 2010-06-14 at the Wayback MachineLinux Journal, June 10, 2010 (Article by Michael Reed)
- ^About LinCity-NG WikiArchived 2010-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
External links[edit]
- Open-source video game at Curlie
- SourceForge Games List of games hosted by SourceForge (archived; from 2015-05-27)
- Playing the Open Source Game, a 1999 article by Shawn Hargreaves [pl] (archived; from 2011-10-10)
- Open source games list on Github
- Open source game clones list
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