Free GNU/Linux gaming

I know my fellow blogger wrote one post about this category before, and I felt an urge to continue writing about the subject. Yes, I know there is some work to be done when it comes to games in GNU/Linux, both support for proprietary games that can be played in Windows and also when it comes to free software. These games should work on both Windows and Gnu/Linux, if not directly it should work after compiling in an IDE.

So, say you like Minecraft but would like a free (as in freedom) alternative? There are some options:

Infiminer
This game is said to be the inspiration to Minecraft. It is written in C#, and the code is released under the MIT/X11 license.

Minetest
This game is in my opinion, a good alternative. It is entirely written in C++, and has some mods available (you can read more about the mods here). It is licensed under LGPL.

OpenCraft
A game that provides more advanced features than Minecraft server, as said in their website. It includes scripting and “griefing preventation [sic]“. It is written in Java and is licensed under the BSD License.

These three options is not the only options out there, but is a handful of them all. You could search on Google or Duckduckgo for more alternatives to Minecraft.

I would also like to add some games that I think my friend could also have mentioned; 0 A.D. and Unknown Horizons.

0 A.D.
0 A.D. is a game written by Wildfire Games and contributors. It feels kind of Empire Earth, I think because you have different civilisations that can evolve two times if they have enough resources. It is licensed under the GPL. It is still alpha software, and sometimes a bit slow when playing, but still a good game with a lot of potential in my opinion.

Unknown Horizons

Formerly named “OpenAnno” and is a free/open source Anno-like game. The game is under active development and a bit slow during gameplay, but this game has also a lot of potential, I think.

Finally, I would like to say that there is a free IDE for .NET languages, such as C#, called MonoDevelop. With this tool developers can port apps written in Visual Studio to Gnu/Linux.

3 thoughts on “Free GNU/Linux gaming

  1. Pingback: What can be done on a Linux machine? « A blog about (almost) everything

  2. Good addition to my post. The two last games filled the “gap” perfectly.
    Good job once again!

    • Thank you, Zevoryx!

      Well, we probably have “a complete” list of games for different genres now, I think =) Otherwise everyone testing Gnu/Linux could search for games in the software central, which is a great tool, in my opinion.

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