bobeff/open-source-games

What this is

A large, categorized reading list of open-source video games and open-source remakes of commercial titles. Entries are grouped by genre — action, adventure, business/tycoon, city-building, first-person, platformers, puzzle, racing, RTS, roguelikes, RPGs, sandbox, shoot 'em ups, sports, third-person, tower defense, and turn-based strategy — and each item links to the project's site and source repository where available README introduction table of contents.

The list mixes three kinds of projects: original free/open-source games (for example Endless Sky (29), SuperTuxKart, Veloren), clean-room or reverse-engineered engine reimplementations of commercial games (OpenRCT2 (50), OpenMW, DevilutionX), and source ports (Chocolate Doom, ECWolf). Some genre sections also include sub-sections for specific engines or publishers, such as id Software titles, Build engine games, and Diablo reimplementations.

The audience is players looking for free games, people interested in game preservation and reverse engineering, and developers who want to see how open-source game projects are structured.

How to use it

There is nothing to install. Open the README table of contents and jump to the genre you care about. Each entry typically follows the pattern:

• Game name (linked to the project site) — short description — [[source]](link to code repository)

For example, the Adventure section lists Endless Sky with a link to its homepage and a separate link to its GitHub repository (30). The City-Building section documents Unknown Horizons twice: once for the original FIFE-engine version and once for the Godot port City-Building games.

Once you find a game that interests you, use its own homepage or repository for downloads and installation instructions; this repository is only the index. The "Other lists" section at the end points to more comprehensive directories such as Libre Game Wiki and Open Source Game Clones other lists.

Scope and limitations

The README describes itself as a list of "different open-source video games and commercial video games open-source remakes" (3). It is not an exhaustive catalog and does not claim to be: HN commenters noted missing favorites such as Open Hexagon, Minetest/Luanti, and SuperTuxKart lcouturi's comment, and others suggested additions like Xonotic and Luanti finalarbiter's comment.

Many entries are remakes or reimplementations that require the original game's data files to play — for example OpenRCT2, OpenMW, and DevilutionX. The list does not consistently state this requirement per project, so check each game's own documentation before assuming the download is self-contained. Some links point to SourceForge, GitLab, Codeberg, or Bitbucket rather than GitHub.

The repository is licensed CC0-1.0; that covers the list itself, not the individual games.

HotRepo's take

The list has a long track record on HN: four separate submissions since 2021, including a 2024 thread with 72 points and 24 comments 2024 thread and a 2025 thread with 34 points 2025 thread. Discussion is mostly readers adding missing entries rather than debating the list's quality — a sign the format is useful but incompleteness is its main recurring critique.

The most recent snapshot shows a Python-language daily rank of 15th on 2026-11-07, with 146 stars gained that day against 17,792 total stars and 1,635 forks. That is a single-day reading, not a trend. The value of this repository is breadth of coverage across genres and the consistent link-to-source pattern; the main risk for readers is assuming every entry is directly playable out of the box without the original assets.