Guest post by When I decided to take on this article I thought it would be easy. Grab a few quotes from some developers, re-hash WINE support, check out the latest version of Battle for Wesnoth… Simple stuff.
I was wrong. I wanted it to be fairly comprehensive, and quickly realized there was far too much material for that. So instead of a comprehensive run-down of every Linux game I hope only to give Linux gamers a few more options to feed their addiction.
Linux may still be the red-headed step child when it comes to major game developers, but the thriving indie game climate, along with new ways to get non-native games, has made 2011 a great year to be a Linux gamer.
The Three Doors of Linux Gaming
As a Linux gamer you’re essentially faced with three different ways of playing games on your OS of choice. Door number one holds native games: those that were built to run on Linux initially or ported to Linux by the developer. Door number two has compatibility layers: things like WINE that allow you to run non-native games on Linux, sometimes with a little bit of tweaking. Door number three is the online door, which includes browser based games as well as “streaming” game services like Onlive.
Door Number One: Native Games
One of the biggest developments in native games for Linux in the last couple of years isn’t actually a game, but a way to market them: The Humble Bundle.
Ryan C. Gordon, of icculus.org, pointed out that “These guys are making massive waves, pulling in big money and demanding Linux support…and the Linux users are responding by throwing money at it. In their short time, they’ve done more to support Linux gaming than all of the other Linux game companies, ever, combined. They’re also showing, time after time, that there is a definite market for Linux games.”
Saying they’ve done more than any other company is a big claim, but one that is backed up by the numbers. In most of the bundles the Linux gamers have provided about a quarter of the total money collected, even though they were outnumbered by Windows and Mac gamers. This is because they have consistently given more than their counterparts in terms of donations, in some cases almost twice as much as Windows gamers. Take the current promotion, the Voxatron Debut, which will run through the 12th of November. As of the 9th Linux gamers are donating, on average. $8.08. Compare that with Mac ($6.38) and Windows ($4.62) and it’s clear that Linux Gamers have no qualms about opening their wallets in support of games, when the conditions are right.
The conditions are important, though. I spoke with Jonathan Blow, the developer behind Braid. Braid is available on a plethora of platforms, including Xbox 360, PS3, Mac, Windows and Linux (Linux being the last platform to receive the game, as part of the second Humble Bundle). During the sale of Humble Indie Bundle 2 Linux and Mac users made up about 50% of all sales, and assuming Linux users made up about half of that (which has been the trend) that means that almost 60 000 Linux gamers purchased the bundle. That’s a fair number, but since then Blow said that Linux sales have made up “very close to 0%” of direct downloads.
There are multiple explanation for that, of course. It’s very possible that most people who might have purchased Braid on Linux got it on a different platform, and then the remainder bought it with the bundle when it came out, leaving very few to purchase it after the bundle. Still, as with any endeavor, marketing appears to be a key ingredient in a successful Linux game launch. Luckily developers have more ways to market their games now.
Liam Dawe (of gamingonlinux.com) pointed out that gamers who are new to Linux should check out “services like Desura, Gameolith and Indievania … That and keep an eye on the various news sites.” Not only do these sites provide a great way for linux gamers to keep tabs on what’s available, but they’re invaluable for an indie developer who is trying to market their game.
I decided to give the Desura Client a try and was impressed. After installing it on a fairly vanilla Ubuntu set-up (using a supplied script as the installer, not a repository) I set up an account and started browsing. Downloading new games to try was a cinch and the community looked quite active. This is especially useful when you run into problems (several comments on games included information for user’s of 64 bit version of Linux, detailing how to get the games working correctly).
Most game markets like Desura are fairly similar to the biggest name: Valve’s Steam. Though Steam on Linux rumors have swirled since time immemorial, it has yet to make an appearance. In fact, the only official word from Valve is that they’re currently not developing a Steam client for Linux. Steam might come to Linux at some point, but it doesn’t look like 2011 will be that year. As someone who has used Steam as well as the options listed above, though, I highly recommend giving them a try. You will be pleasantly surprised.
Steam notwithstanding, the various markets currently available are fairly easy to deal with, and a great resource for gamers and developers alike. While writing this article I also found that people who run Linux gaming blogs (like Dawe) are generally pretty easy to get a hold of, and very passionate about gaming. Throwing a few Linux blogs in your RSS reader is a great way to keep up on the latest in Linux gaming, and contacting the owner’s of the blogs is a great way for developers to get the word out about their games.
In short: indie games are thriving on Linux. The Humble Bundles have not only helped publicize the games, but have also helped prove that there is an untapped market for games on Linux, and that Linux users have no problem paying to support the developers who support them. But there is still one area where gaming on Linux lacks. As Dawe pointed out: “The biggest obstacle for Linux gamers is still a lack of so called AAA games, not being able to just pick up big name games and play them.” In the next two sections we’ll talk about different ways to play a AAA title on Linux.
Door Number Two: Compatibility Layers
For many end users, the Operating System is less important than the applications you want to run. Macs became popular with the media crowd not because they looked fancy and were expensive (and let’s be honest, they haven’t always looked fancy) but because the software media people wanted could be found on the Mac.
But some people DO care about which OS they’re using, and, because applications aren’t always available on the platform you want, an industry has sprung up allowing people to run applications on platforms other than the originally intended one. On Linux the main program to do this is Wine.
The problem is that it’s not perfect. Although many games run perfectly with little or no configuration (you can find a list at the AppDB), many games don’t run at and it usually takes some time for a new game to work correctly with Wine.
Several companies have sprung up due to the success of Wine, such as Play On Linux and Codeweavers Crossover Games. These are built on Wine, but further optimized specifically for gaming (including the tweaks you may have to do by hand to get certain games running) and with paid support options available. There are even some very specific communities built around compatibility layers such as Steam Games on Linux, built around the goal of getting steam and steam supplied games up and running. But these still are based off of Wine and suffer similar problems: delays for some games, other games will never work, and there’s a chance you’ll take a performance hit.
Any engineer worth his salt know that the simpler the system the better. As Gordon said: “the best game experience will always be the native game.” The problem is that many games will never be ported because “you need skilled developers, and you need at least enough cooperation from the original developer to hand off the source code.” Since few major publishers would be willing to do so (a notable exception being id Software, where games are often ported by developers inside the company), Wine and other compatibility layers or emulators are necessary.
But there is one last option that may help get more AAA titles to Linux, albeit an option with a number of significant hurdles.
Door Number Three: Online and Streaming Options
Internet technologies are improving at an astounding rate. Browser based games used to be limited to simple flash or javascript, but recently we’ve seen a number of games that are successful on other platforms being ported to web technologies. The biggest example of this, of course, being Angry Birds. But the browser, though capable of a lot and increasing in sophistication, has generally been the arena of more casual games. We’re still looking in to the AAA titles.
For those, the recent emergence of game streaming services may hold promise. The biggest example of this is Onlive. If you haven’t heard of Onlive, think of it as VNC for gaming. Instead of running games on your computer, they are run on Onlive’s server farm, and the video and audio is streamed to your computer, with your input being sent back. There are several hurdles, though.
First, there’s the small fact that no official client exists yet, though one is rumored to be in development. It’s just that, though, a rumor–Onlive hasn’t said yay or nay to Linux support officially. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous you can combine doors number two and three and run Onlive through Wine, but it’s still very much experimental.
The elephant in the room, though, is network speed. Or as Dawe put it: “Streaming services could be extremely useful and popular but they have a massive drawback – net connections. I know plenty of people in the UK who can’t even get 1MB Internet…”
If you have a high-speed connection Onlive could be just the tool you need to bring AAA titles to your Linux machine. But until high speed Internet is ubiquitous Onlive faces an uphill battle.
The Picture for Gamers
If you’re new to Linux or gaming (or both) now is a great time to get into it. Indie studios are making Linux support a priority, and are producing some amazing games. Not only that, but Wine allows you to run a number of Windows-only games with little or no configuration. If you’re looking for AAA titles the day they’re released, though, you’re still pretty much out of luck.
Not only is the software doing well, but graphics chip makers are paying more attention to Linux. When I asked Gordon a trend he found heartening in Linux Gaming he specifically mentioned driver support as both a positive AND a negative, pointing out that:
“…video drivers are becoming more available.It used to be: get an Nvidia card and install the closed-source drivers for it, and everything works pretty well. Now there are several open source options (including for some Nvidia GPUs) making modern hardware work with modern games.
This is an awesome step forward.
But, as this is all work in progress (and, as new hardware ships, a moving target), it can certainly feel like a terrible step back.”
Gordon also had a few tips for someone who is just now getting in to gaming on Linux:
The system is always improving, but you still need to do some cursory research to make sure your hardware will be well-supported.If you don’t have moral objections to closed-source drivers: get an Nvidia GPU. The drivers are very mature, so it’s one less thing to worry about. That being said, I can’t believe how far the open source Intel and ATI drivers have come in the past year or so.
On the software side I can’t help but echo Dawe’s advice that users find a market they like, as well as a few blogs to follow. After using Desura to research for this article I know I’ll be coming back to it, along with some of the blogs I’ve found.
The Picture for Developers
When I asked Blow if he had advice for developers he gave me a definite answer:
Focus on making a good game, first and foremost, regardless of platforms. Platform considerations are very minor in comparison, because it doesn’t matter what platform your game is on if it sucks.
Seeing as how his game wound up on a multitude of platforms I can’t help but agree. When the game is created just focus on making the best game you can. That said, you definitely don’t want to make any moves that would make it harder to port your game. As Gordon let me know when asked the same question:
Don’t ever sign away your intellectual property. Even if you don’t care about the Linux/Mac/whatever port, make sure you don’t give someone else exclusive distribution rights on it.Don’t use middleware that doesn’t come with source code, even if it works on all the platforms you care about today.
Use good open source libraries when you can: SDL, OpenAL, OpenGL, PhysicsFS, sqlite, ManyMouse, etc. You’d be surprised how far this goes to make your game Just Work on completely new platforms.
Don’t sign up with a publisher at all. They’ll only make your life miserable and eat your profits. You can handle your own marketing better than they will, and Steam/Apple/Google/whatever will handle distribution and updates. It’ll make your life easier, and it’ll save you a ton of money.
Most importantly, don’t forget about Linux. Though the number of gamers may be less than other platforms, the humble bundle has made it clear that, if they think your project is worthy of support, they will give back more than any other community.
Thanks to Jonathan Blow, Liam Dawe and Ryan C. Gordon for their generous donations of time and knowledge.
with a native client other then Regnum Online.
Liking OSS games like NAEV as it’s a pretty good ripoff of the Mac classic Escape Velocity series.
Hopefully the OSS game devs will put something together with the newly sourced iDTech engine aside from yet another Quake rehash…
The sad truth is that the majority of F/OSS games fill atleast one of the following, if not multiple ones:
* Looks horrible.
* Is yet-another deathmatch FPS.
* Lacks any kind of single-player story.
I do realize that creating deathmatch FPSes is easy; you don’t need a coordinated effort in drafting a story, you don’t need to write your own engine, you don’t even need to worry about the graphics either as people are too busy killing eachothers to notice anything else. Anything more complicated quickly requires too much coordination to be possible.
*toddles back to playing Skyrim*
I guess that http://blog.naev.org/ is at the max of OSS artistic ambition then?
It’s not that impressive graphically, but if they intend to get a set of multipath storylines like the Escape Velocity series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwW1evVrikk then thats going quite far for a free OSS title.
I like my FreeCiv and Freecol. EDIT: And OpenTTD.
Edited 2011-11-14 13:00 UTC
Well, all 3 are open-source implementations of already-existing games…
Yet all 3 don’t fit into you categories.
True but then again, most commercial games are just rehashing the same stuff over and over again so it’s not that different, really.
Not to be picky, but OpenTTD looks pretty much like the first version of SimCity I played.
FPS games are so easy primarily thanks to Id, which has consistently posted the source code to their previous generation engine the Christmas after the current engine comes out. Carmack has already posted on his blog that the source for Doom3 has gone to legal for final vetting for release this xmas, so look forward to a big jump in linux FPS games next spring.
Look at all the awesomeness that came from the Quake3 code… ioquake3 maintains and extends the code, which in turn is the base for games like Urban Terror, World of Padman, Tremulous, and more! I can’t wait to see what comes from the Doom3 code!
URT is all I play these days (call it “work de-stress”) on Windows or Ubuntu. People into the gaming eye-candy wil dismiss it, but it has a lot of depth and awesome online play.
Great game, and nice that the Linux version is considered to be a first-class citizen!
How about your start contributing then?
Wait, that’s impossible right?
I never claimed to have the required skills, now did I?
You could contribute with the storytelling.
I mean, how hard can it be considering that most commercial games have laughably bad stories (and acting) that wouldn’t even make the grade in a C-level movie production.
Ah yes! Because everyone that uses open source software has any ability to code or has any 3d modeling skill?
I’m more then willing to pay for an OSS game, there are plenty of engines that have licensing terms that allow for you to make a profit.
Hell how about an RPG Maker or Fighter Maker or Never Winter Nights style DIY game maker kit.
Try Planeshift
http://www.planeshift.it/
It’s been in active development for many years and is completely free, unlike Regnum. I’ve been playing for longer than I would like to admit and there are usually between 150 and 800 players online at any given time.
I tried it a few years back, was missing far too much at the time and nobody I asked was willing to help with any info for beginners.
I haven’t loaded Regnum in like a year, mainly because it was too much of a grind fest, but at the time the only thing paying got you was EXP doubler scrolls and mounts, neither of which made a huge difference in game play as they only saved you some time, since you couldn’t fight from a horse and if hit on it you could be knocked off and thus take a something like a 5-10 second recover time before you could move, allowing you to be slaughtered by who or whatever hit you. The only player class that would have trouble catching you on a horse would be a Knight, everytihng else has the range or speed to catch you.
EXP scrolls only made sense if you had a grinding party setup so you could maximize party and chain kill EXP modifiers. On your own if you where anything less then a mid level mage type the cooldown and rest times would eat too much of your scroll time.
Aside from that the problem was things to do aside from grind or war at the time, they had come up with randomly modified or craptacular versions of every mob drop gear, but there was nothing to do with the various non equipment items you got from mobs.
Regnum feels like a hack n’ slash more than an RPG.
I play vendetta online. It’s neither open source nor free but it is a good MMO and it runs on GNU natively and very well. The management is open and it is pretty much ran by the community.
Edited 2011-11-14 22:02 UTC
I’ve been playing around with Wurm Online a bit. It’s a MMO with a Java client and it runs decently on Linux and looks pretty good. It’s no WoW or Everquest though.
You could try Sega’s Spiral Knights http://www.spiralknights.com/ runs pretty well on Linux.
Have you tried Ryzom ?
http://www.ryzom.com/
it got a native linux client, is fully open source and partially free to play.
Ryzom looks promising. Thanks for the suggestion. I prefer more role playing with my RPG’s
Thank you “JoshB”
This article is pretty, pretty good.
My pleasure, thanks for reading
Yes I liked it too, good article. I did found it odd that there was no mention of Minecraft which afaik is the biggest indie-game hit in existance and also is cross-platform due to it being done in Java.
As for pc gaming in general, indie games are obviously making good inroads while big AAA titles seem to be moving towards dedicated gaming consoles. Personally I find pc gaming more interesting than in a long while with the whole ‘2 guys in a garage making a game’ mentality coming back thus allowing much more experimentation with gameplay than the expensive Hollywood style productions were they generally bet on safe standard gameplay and focuses on improving the graphics.
Looking at the indie sector there seems to be alot of games being developed for pc first and if they do well they are ported to IPhone/Android/IPad which is an interesting strategy.
You forgot door nr 4: emulation (of other hardware platforms, usually consoles)
Good point. I thought about including it under the compatibility layer section, but wound up leaving it out because the article was already getting long. I’m glad you brought it up, though, so people know that’s an option too. Thanks!
My recent favs are:
World of Goo
>> Fun physics puzzle game involving gooey goo-balls
Machinarium
>> Point and click adventure with cute robots
Binding of Isaac (part of recent Humble Bundle)
>> amazing & freaky ZELDA-style top-down action rpg
All of these are available for Linux and are working flawlessly on my Ubuntu machine.
Edited 2011-11-14 13:30 UTC
My Favorites Native Linux Games are
Unreal Tournament 2004 (my favorite)
World of Goo (stuck on tower of goo)
duckhunt (from pygame)
Tetris (varient of Tetrix from KDE)
Supertuxkart
sauerbraten (very fast)
gish
serious sam
ChickenInvadors
cogs
openarena
Xonotic
Zaz
I have yet to try
steelstorm
Machinarium
Torcs
Minecraft
Braid
Revange of the Titans
Quake 3
Vertigo (from desura)
I don’t know if others have similar problem too, but trine, penumbra overtune don’t run (I don’t know what they lack, when all of my above games run quite well on open source intel hd 3000 sandy bridge).
Both Trine and Penumbra run great on my machine. But I’ve got nVidia’s blob drivers…
Meaning no offense…
But the “Humble Bundle” usually consists of one rather pretty physics based side scrolling platformer, two or three casual puzzle games like Cogs, and a mediocre tower shooter.
None of them new to the Windows gamer and frequently on sale for the Windows platform elsewhere.
The Linux share looks generous, but it is still only half retail list for a single game, and only one quarter of the return from Windows.
My own contributions have gone entirely to charities. Which is the best choice, I think, given what I am willing and able to pay.
I passed on the current HB and I can’t shake the feeling that they are growing progressively weaker and more obscure.
I am not interested in alpha builds or failed projects.
If you’re looking for a game on Linux that isn’t available anywhere else, you’re never going to find it.
Even if Linux sales are decent enough to make it a good target, the Windows and console markets are far larger.
It would never make sense to write a Linux exclusive game for money.
If there was an open source game that was only for Linux, people who like Windows would probably port it.
Really? How big was the Mac marketshare 10 years ago compared to Linux now? Because at the time there where quite a few Mac only indie games back then. There where no more ambitious then the 2d HIB games, but they where seemingly able to make a profit since they usually had a few different games and or sequels.
Those were the days when video drivers didn’t support OpenGL very well. Those were the days when people wrote software graphics render engines in machine code. It was difficult to make games cross-platform.
Today writing cross-platform code is much, much easier.
Interesting interview with the producers of the Amnesia game on how Linux and Mac ports save a game studio.
http://zcint.co.uk/article/jens-nilsson-frictional-games-interview
The Desura client for Linux might go open sources
http://www.desura.com/groups/desura/forum/thread/open-sourcing-desu…
Dont know if Android counts.The quality of games is improving fast (example http://www.madfingergames.com/)and some quad core mobile gpu’s is said to reach PS3 quality next year.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/11/arm-touts-playstation-3…
The hardware is also relatively cheap (Tegra’s 3 going for between $15-$25 apparantly and Omap 4 between $12-$14.)
Android’s 3D graphics library is OpenGL ES 2.0 based so this could only benefit Linux ports?
Edited 2011-11-14 15:11 UTC
It would be nice if OpenGL on Android benefited Linux ports, but I doubt it will be the case.
Most of the AAA games and the game engines they use are already built to support different rendering libraries. The biggest hurdle I believe is the commercial factor, rewards vs costs and risks.
Having used a few different game engines that don’t have Linux support (which is almost all of them) I’ve always asked why not and the answer is always.. it doesn’t make good business sense, market is small and not much money in it.
It may seem like some extra income for free.. but another platform with a wide variety of hardware configurations to test on can end up costing a lot for a large developer.. and they are not going to cut into their profit margins. And the game engine companies mostly just follow the trends of the industry and their buyers wishes. For big corporations the simple fact is.. follow the money.
I’m hoping on a quad core ARM and tegra4 based laptop purely designed to run Linux. The seperate components are there, now a company who is willing to take the risk. That will be the day I ditch Lenovo.
Nvidia ever going to release a Tegra driver for Linux or just a custom driver for Android? While the prospect of those quad 64 bit 2.5Ghz ARM CPUs are great the GPU will by far be your biggest limitation in what can be done.
Any idea on what the next gen successor to the E-450 will be? http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bobcat/AMD-E%20Series%20E-450… Would make for a decent netbook at no more then 1280×768.
It looks like it’s the Krisna that will have 2-4 cores.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/11/amd-publishes-cpu-roadmaps-throu…
Or not
http://semiaccurate.com/2011/11/15/exclusive-amd-kills-wichita-and-…
I’m looking forward to reading the article
Guys, have a look at the whole python scene. Nice programming language but more importantly…
There’s some very cool renpy games.
I would love an ultrabook with amd graphics.
support the game devs on the ubuntu software center. Even if it’s not OSS
peace and happy gaming!
ps. apologies if the comment is waaaay of topic but I just got home
Wine has gotten so much better in the last few years. I played Rift from release day up to now on wine with no problems, except once. For about a week the game didn’t work on wine due to a windows error. But other than that it has been well supported. Rage also runs under Wine from what I understand.
Anyone looking for good cheaper/older games should check out Good Old Games, http://www.gog.com They have a pretty nice collection and most of them run in Wine or Dosbox.
Thanks for the gog.com tip
Seems like a lot of older games – do you know if some of them are emulated in any way? Wouldn’t think good old Master of Orion would run natively in Windows for example.
Guess I was on another planet when I replied. See now that you wrote “most of them run in Wine or Dosbox.”
Desura has been a breath of fresh air.
Support is great, the community is growing and many developers are talking straight on the game pages.
I will be buying way more games through desura for Linux than any humble bundle.
Apart from Wesnoth and a gaggle of shooters usually running on various obsolete engines donated to the community by iD, there are still a few other good FOSS games. FlightGear is a decent flight sim. OpenTTD and Simutrans are both good strategic simulations. Freeciv and Freecol are both great “traditional” turn-based strategy games. Oolite is about as close as it gets to a perfect modern “clone” of the classic 8/16-bit space trading classic. KMahjohng happens to be the best Mahjohngg Solitaire implementation I’ve played since I left OS/2 (which also had a nice built-in version) Finally, Nethack and (Z)Angband offer some great action-oriented dungeon crawling if you can get over the lack of graphics. I’ve never had any problems keeping my self entertained under Linux and I doubt that anybody with the skills to use Google has either.
Edited 2011-11-14 21:45 UTC
I still play NWN (9 years after the original release). It seems Bioware/Atari screwed up on this one and actually put the hooks in to allow players to add content / improve the game so the online world is still rather robust after all these years (lots of free online servers to play on most with custom content). I’d love to see another iteration of something like this now but all the companies want to milk the customers for everything and have draconian control over updates and content so I’m not holding my breath. For a closed source commercial product it does seem to have a very OSS feel to it. I think it’s the reason it seems to be outlasting NWN2. If you’ve never played it go here and give it a try:
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/neverwinter-nights-diamond/91697?a…
Newegg used to sell the DVD version for $10 with free shipping but seems they’re out of it now. Best game I ever bought ($10 for years and years of play).
NWN is available on gog.com. Cheap, full version with all the add on packs. Plus there is info in the forum for adding the community mods and getting it running on linux.
I actually started playing these the other day and some of these games are amazing!
http://springrts.com/wiki/Games
The only games I’ve regularly played on Linux have been WINE-run windows games.
-Armageddon Empires
-Frozen Synapse (There is a Linux build out now)
Dude. Great article.
John Knight – Linux Journal
Wooo I’m now OS News famous ^_^
http://www.youtube.com/user/Xpander666?feature=mhee
some gameplay videos.
used to have Ati card before. had lots or problems with getting games to work with wine and if i got then the performance hit was pretty big.
Lately got nvidia card again after allmost 2 years on ati
and im impressed how many games are working with little or no tweaking at all through a wine.
Linux won’t be taken as a serious gaming platform for plenty of reasons, even when you remove money from the equation. Linux users are destined to be at the mercy of how well (or poorly) Wine works, and whoever finds motivation to write a native game.