Free Games

Beyond The Thaw is a short demo of a first person winter survival. You wake up from a plane crash in a forest during a harsh winter. Packs of wolves are on the move and you need to stay warm.

https://dazvolt.itch.io/beyondthethaw

This game is beautiful! Amazing visuals and stunning snowy blizzard-like environment. You really feel like you are controller the character and stuck in this hopeless forest.

Beyond The Thaw is developed in Unreal Engine 4 and ran really well using ProtonGE and DXVK. I was able to extract the game and run it in PlayOnLinux without any issues. It is fairly short and you aren't given a lot of direction on what to do. So plan to retry several times.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForece GTX 160
Nvidia 440.59
ProtonGE-5.9 64-bit
DXVK 1.7

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Sons Of Tyr is a multi-player RPG in a Viking world. Create your character and follow the tutorial to equip you with necessary beginner weapons and armor. Then explore your Viking island hub where you can upgrade NCP areas to purchase new weapons, armor and gear.


Then head out on a boat, kill bandits and loot nearby islands. There are animals and even giants roaming around the islands.

https://synergy-studios.itch.io/sons-of-tyr

The current version is free on itch.io and ran well in Wine. I did experience a problem playing multi-player on a LAN. When I hosted the game and we traveled to an island my character would reset and loose all inventory items. Otherwise, playing single-player was a lot of fun.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Wine 5.0 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7

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Timeout is a brilliant point-n-click 2D 3D action adventure mystery. Everyone live by time. If your time runs out, you die. So of course the world has commercialized buying & selling time to stay alive. Investigate a case where fake time is killing people because they are deceived into purchasing a clever deal on time.


Timeout demo ran perfectly in Linux. I was able to play and control my character without any graphical issues or performance issues on my GeForce GTX 1060.

https://christopherlee.itch.io/timeout

A Forbidden Place demo is a creepy lowpoly pixel horror/puzzle mystery. Read the mysterious notes about the library and enter the surreal realms of the Librarian.

https://banzaibonsai.itch.io/a-place-forbidden

This demo is fairly long for an introduction to the game and setting. I never had any issues with ProtonGE in PlayOnLinux and was able to play through the entire demo.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
Geforce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
ProtonGE 5.9

Dungeon Nightmares is a simple dungeon maze terror game with a perfect balance of:

• Jump Scares
• Spooky Environment
• Exploration
• Roguelike
• Procedural Generation
• Small Download
• Replayability

https://kmonkey.itch.io/dungeon-nightmares

Explore the maze-like dungeon looking for gold, candles and notes about what to do. Your goal is to survive each night without dying.... find the artifact and escape your nightmare!

Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
Wine 5.0 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7

Lurk In The Dark: Prologue is a Japanese first person horror game playing as Marcus Brown, a detective investigating murder case in Babels Hill Top mining town. What he doesn't know is that he's entering a nightmare of his own.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1094030/Lurk_in_the_Dark__Prologue/

You can play the initial episode called "The Guilty" for free with Steam and Proton. It is an incomplete demo as you have to purchase the DLC, so the ending will feel very incomplete. Prepare yourself for dark scenery with evil lurking around the corner and difficult clues to the puzzle.

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Janga is a silly yet clever sandbox game. You begin on a white planet and begin to plow the surface with your blow pipe. Strange huh? Yeah well, turns out it is a lot of fun. These random heads (called Gluttons) that you can shoot and explode to help you change the surface. Then you can eventually get new pipes like a earth pipe, love pipe, grass pipe, vacuum pipe, tree pipe and plant pipe... maybe even more.

https://concretegames.itch.io/janga


One of the coolest features is gravity. You can eventually jump and as you bring life to your tiny planet you can run faster and jump higher. At some point you will be able to leap out of orbit and float to another planet.

Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Proton 5.0-9

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It Lies is a short free horror game where you play a little girl looking for her dog in a field of wheat. What could possibly go wrong, right?

https://toomanyteethgames.itch.io/it-lies

You can call out for your dog and search in the direction of its barking... but be careful, there is something else out there that mimics the bark.

Is it human?
Is it alien?

Search through the vast wheat field and find notes about the creature and what others have discovered about it. It Lies is a Unity 3D games which runs great using stable Wine and DXVK

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Wine 5.0 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7

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Ever Forward is a clever puzzle game where you play as a little girl in a fantasy world. Walk her around beautiful islands with waves crashing all around the beaches and cliffs shooting out of the ground... but beware of the corruption. In order to purge the land of corrupt darkness she will need to enter it and solve the puzzles with her companion cube.

https://patheagames.itch.io/ever-forward

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
Wine: 5.7-staging 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7 64-bit

Initially the game ran really slow with Stable Wine 5.0
So I cranked down the display settings and tried with Wine 5.7-staging and it ran perfectly.

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Remember those cheesey old zombie shooter games at the arcade? Bad voice acting, over-the-top scenarios where you follow the game on-rails shooting zombies? Yup, they have one for typing lessons.

Typing Of The Dead

Search online for a free download and install with PlayOnLinux or Steam (Proton)

It runs in super low resolution, but the game runs great and you can even play co-op over a local network. Of course the textures are super low quality and of course the animation is really bad... but its really fun to type the words in place of shooting guns.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59

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Ever wanted to play Minecraft?

Nope, because I've been playing Minetest. Its an open source free-to-play Minecraft clone. Of course its not quite as polished, but the vanilla game has a lot in it:

• Endless world (almost)
• Exploration
• Resource Gathering/Farming
• Crafting
• Building
• Day/Night Cycle
• Host/Client - LAN Connection

Host your own world, invite your friends and explore, build and craft cities together. Its educational and very fun to explore huge cave systems, massive mountains and vast oceans.

There is even a community developing mods to improve the base game with all kinds of new features.

Customize Minetest

In Mint you can use the software manager to install Minetest vanilla, but also a bunch of amazing mods to make it more functional and interesting.

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Encodya is an point-in-click adventure based in a futuristic Neo-Berlin Germany. Play as Tina and/or SAM-53 her robot protector. The visual style is reminiscent of Bladerunner-ish world with a colorful anime style.

I love the fact that you can play as two characters who are completely different and have their own inventories. The voice acting was great and worked well with the characters presented in the demo. I would love if more items were interactive, but these days gamers no longer have patience to click everything on the screen.

Since its a demo, there are limited areas you can visit. But the animations, graphics and effects are well done and quite beautiful. Encodya ran perfectly in Linux without any extra configurations.

https://chaosmonger.itch.io/encodya

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59




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Grand Theft Auto 2 is a classic 3rd person shooter from 1999 where you basically play sandbox style driving any vehicle and killing anyone you want. You can accept missions or go completely postal... just watch out for the police.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Grand Theft Auto 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: Make sure to search online for the free version (at your own risk) of Grand Theft Auto 2 ahead of time. Save it to your Desktop, extract if necessary.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 19.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.3.4
Wine: 5.0 32-bit

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"



Look for the Wine Version: 5.0
Select it
Click the arrow...

Contemp is a very short horror puzzle game where you explore a mysterious haunted house. It is almost like an experimental tech demo. The design of the house is amazingly detailed and realistic. If anything, enjoy the terrifying experience in this creepy house.

I was able to play in PlayOnLinux with Wine and DXVK. Never had any issues running the game or controlling it.

https://micaka.itch.io/contemp

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
DXVK: 6.1

ULTRAKILL is a tribute to 90's FPS lowpoly bloody action gaming. It succeeds very well!
Obliterate hordes of minions in this fast-pace shooter by trick jumping, strafing, granading, shooting and more! You'll never tire with the abundance of blood an slaughter through each level... and a the end... is... of course...
A BOSS!

https://hakita.itch.io/ultrakill-prelude

P.T. Remake is an Unreal 4 remake of a Playstation psychological horror game that was a playable-teaser for Silent Hill. This is a very repetitive game as you explore the same hallway over and over with new clues and puzzles each time.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing P.T. Remake in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 19.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.3.4
Wine: ProtonGE 5.6
DXVK: 6.1

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"



Look for the Wine Version: 5.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right



Click Next

Downloading Wine



Installed



Click...

This is a unique low-poly first person shooter where you finally get your chance to kill all of those mangy spiders in your house! Inspect every object, make a huge mess, burn, shoot and slaughter every last one of em!

Kill It With Fire: Ignition
Has a free demo in Steam and it runs great in Proton

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 430.50
Proton 5.0.6

Crumbling World is a lowpoly action RPG with a unique feature: The world is constantly crumbling around around you.
Use portals to move around the map before you fall off the crumbling landscape and end up in the Underworld. Yes, you don't immediately die... instead you fight your way through the Underworld and hop in a portal back to the upperworld. Crazy huh?

The current beta has a Linux version

https://dumearts.itch.io/crumbling-world

Lumote is a colorful platform puzzle game with some surreal visuals. The demo is free and runs great in Proton. I didn't even force a Proton version, just used the default and it ran fine.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 430.50

https://store.steampowered.com/app/791240/Lumote/

Fistful of Frags is a Free-To-Play Source Engine complete modification of an old Western shootout first person game. It consists of Old West themed levels & weapons with your typical deathmatch, capture the flag and team deathmatch styles of gameplay. There is even co-op levels with bots.

This game has been around for a while, but still has an active community. In fact they released a Linux version too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/265630/Fistful_of_Frags/