Free games
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Free games are video games which are free software and contain exclusively free content. Because of this they are freely distributable and often cross-platform compatible. Many are included in Linux distributions as a result.[1] Some free games are open source software, but not all open source games are free software; some open source games contain proprietary non-free content.
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[edit] Background
In general free games are developed by small groups of people in their free time, without aiming for profit. Some free games are based on formerly proprietary projects, whose source code was released as free and open source software and game data as free and open content.[2] An example is Warzone 2100.[3]
Almost all free games are volunteer run projects, and as such free game developers are principally hobbyists and enthusiasts. The consequence of this is that most games take many years to mature and that means there are only a few complete high quality free games[4].
[edit] Examples
A popular example for free games is Freeciv, a clone of the proprietary Civilization. Nexuiz, Tremulous, and Assaultcube are a few examples of free 3D first person shooters based on id Software's engines.
Arguably the most successful free game project is Battle for Wesnoth which has a large community contributing to the game.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Libregamewiki, a wiki about free games and closely related topics
- FreeGameDev, a portal for free game development and information
- FreeGameDev forums, the FreeGameDev community
- Free Gamer, a popular blog which mostly covers Free Software games
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