I'm happy to say that a new open-source game automation utility that I've been working on for the past 2 years is now coming to Steam!

It has a website at https://automat.org/. That website might be a little hard to parse - so here are are some links:

• you can check it out on video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBT9XO61B5I (I usually do a short intro on every development livestream)
• GitHub is here: https://github.com/mafik/automat
• an article about Automat: https://automat.org/live2025 (if you have any questions - check this out first!)
• and the Steam page is here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4122050/Automat/

While Steam version is still in "coming soon" mode, you can grab a release from GitHub.

One word of warning - it doesn't play well with Wayland (it's fairly hard to interop with other apps on Wayland) - but I'm optimistic about this bit in the near future.

Developer @maf@szmer.info

Screenshots:

Screenshots:

COCOS is a cross-platform game development platform popular in Asian markets, known for lightweight mobile and in-app games. Earlier in November 2025, it was acquired by Chinese gamification giant SUD for $72 million.

Just two months after that, SUD has now announced that COCOS 4 is available under the MIT license, with all commercial restrictions removed.

Quick overview

Modding

• Added Custom vehicle HUDs.
• Added Gadget​: Standalone tools created using scripting.
• Added Addonpart and Tuning​, A complete game changer for vehicle customization.
• External resource bundles are now available for modders.

Interfaces and Gadgets

• A new menu that creates tuneups: customize vehicles through the tuning UI.
• New Vehicle info GUI​ that combines three previously separate panels.
• The repository manager has been further improved for usability.
• Improved LiveRepair mode UI​ to make it easier for new users to understand.
• Terrain Editor improvements (changes can now be saved directly)
• Changes made in the Node and Beam Utility​ can now be saved.
• A powerful engine testing tool that allows real-time editing of engine, engoption, and engturbo parameters.
• Road Editor Gadget​
• OGRE Inspector Gadget​: display the scene from the 3D renderer’s point of view.
• improved Script Editor Gadget

Else

• Added Realistic sound obstruction and Doppler effect.

New Year, New You, New OpenTTD!

OpenTTD 15 is now out and ready for you to play!

New features include:

Companies in multiplayer no longer have passwords, invite specific players using buttons in the Online Players list instead
Island maps can be surrounded by infinite water instead of void
Rivers can end in wetlands if unable to reach sea
Bridges can be placed over stations and road stops
Roads can now have waypoints
Houses can be placed manually
Industries and towns have graphs of their cargo history
Improvements to menus, including a new main menu and a combined game options and settings window
Many more features, changes, and fixes

While the Godot Engine receives a lot of attention as a prominent open-source game engine, it's far from the only one in this space. Another open-source game engine capping out 2025 with a new release is the Crown Engine.

Crown Engine continues moving ahead as a cross-platform solution focused on flexibility, performance, and a fast iterative approach for this MIT-licensed code paired with GPLv3+ game engine tooling.

Longtime Linux users likely have fond memories of SuperTux as the open-source jump-n-run game that used to be included on some early Linux live CD/DVDs for this Super Mario Bros inspired game. There hasn't been a new release of SuperTux in over four years but out today is the beta of SuperTux 0.7 as a major overhaul to the free software, family-friendly game title.

SuperTux 0.7 beta is described as "perhaps one of the largest facelifts to the base game since the introduction of milestone 2!" SuperTux 0.7 has been redoing various worlds and bringing new artwork and music and more. They warn that it may feel like a completely different game albeit still the same fundamentals.

Widelands continues to grow as a great free and open source Settlers-like strategy game, with a brand new holiday release out now. It's fun seeing projects like this continue on for so long, especially as I grew up playing the likes of The Settlers on the Amiga and later Settlers 2 on PC. Good times, absolute classics.

The game has singleplayer and multiplayer support, with the developers noting it was originally inspired by Settlers 2 but has "significantly more variety and depth to it".

Since the release of version 1.2, we implemented several hundreds of new features and bugfixes; for example, to name just a few of the highlights:

• Market trading
• Six new maps added and three old maps removed
• Economy districts
• Many improvements to the in-game Encyclopedia
• Download website maps as add-ons
• New visualisation modes in the editor
• Many new capabilities for add-on developers
• Complete translation Czech, Dutch, German, Hungarian ( ⅔ for 9 more languages)

[complete changelog](https://www.widelands.org/changelog/

This year, Flightgear had 3 releases, see the highlights below

FlightGear 2024.1.1 (27 February 2025)

• Real-time dynamic shadows and lights
• Preliminary support for VR headsets using OpenXR
• Preview of World Scenery 3.0 (a scenery system that uses LOD for improved fps, memory usage, and visible range)
• Added region-specific random building textures
• Improved performance and stability of randomly generated trees
• More realistic AI
• Added the Milky Way to the night sky
• Fixed bugs, memory leaks, and a high-severity security vulnerability.

FlightGear 2024.1.2 (18 September 2025)

• Added support for incremental updates
• 2024.1 is now available for MacOS as well.
• Added FFmpeg to allow exporting video on windows
• Fixes, updates and translations

FlightGear 2024.1.3 (2 November 2025)

• Added FFmpeg to allow exporting video on MacOS
• Added offline mode to the launcher
• Fixes and translation updates

Flight gear has also joined OpenCollective this year, which has allowed them to raise money for a more reliable download experience ad to cover server hosting.

New experimental game by Wize Wizard games.
The game is built with javascript, three.js and the help of AI.

wdyt?

A vanilla JavaScript, browser-based, "Punk Rock Coding" engine built on THREE.js (r147). RiftScape is a fast-paced, grid-based action RPG that also shares a blend of survival and survivor elements.

🎮 Play RiftScape | 📦 itch.io Page | 💻 Source Code

Cannon Fodder is a retro action-strategy gem from 1993 that was originally released on my old love the Amiga, and the modern open source port just got upgraded. Open Fodder works with Cannon Fodder 1 and Cannon Fodder 2 which you need need the original data files to play it which you can grab from GOG.

The open source game engine adds in a number of enhancements to run it on modern PC platforms, and includes a random map system to play through too.

Welcome all to this very special devblog celebrating the release of Thrive version 1.0! This release marks the completion of the Microbe Stage, the first stage of the 9 planned. The Microbe stage will continue to be supported with balancing and bug fix updates, and volunteers are welcome to continue to make contributions to it. But our main development efforts will now focus on our second stage, Multicellular. read more...

One of the lesser known Fedora spins under the "Fedora Labs" initiative is the Fedora Games Lab that showcases some open-source games and can serve as an easy demonstrator for Linux gaming. Looking forward to 2026 with Fedora 44, there is a proposal to revitalize Fedora Games Lab to become a better showcase for the modern potential of Linux gaming.

Fedora Games Lab as it is right now just is a showcase of Fedora with the Xfce desktop and installing a few open-source games by default. They include classic titles such as BZFlag and Freeciv to games popular among Linux die-hards like Extreme Tux Racer as well as some more well known open-source game efforts like Battle for Wesnoth and Warzone 2100.

Quake II RTX released back in 2019, with NVIDIA using it to show off more ray tracing effects for their RTX GPUs but now they're done with it. It's still free on Steam and the project behind it is open source, but NVIDIA aren't doing any more with it now.

Noted on the GitHub page is a message that it has been discontinued, and the GitHub repository has been archived. They did one small final release version 1.8.1 with a few fixes but that's it now.

Best puzzle game collection out there imo! Perfect time "waster".

Contains the following 40 games: Black Box, Bridges, Cube, Dominosa, Fifteen, Filling, Flip, Flood, Galaxies, Guess, Inertia, Keen, Light Up, Loopy, Magnets, Map, Mines (Minesweeper), Mosaic, Net, Netslide, Palisade, Pattern, Pearl, Pegs (Solitaire), Range, Rectangles, Same Game, Signpost, Singles, Sixteen, Slant, Solo (Sudoku), Tents, Towers, Tracks, Twiddle, Undead, Unequal, Unruly, Untangle

Open source rocks so it's pleasing to see it go well for Facepunch with s&box. They've now added native Linux binaries for the dedicated server and game client. If you missed the open source news be sure to check the previous GamingOnLinux article.

As a quick reminder on what s&box is — "s&box is a game creation platform built on the Source 2 engine and our spiritual successor to Garry's Mod. Play, create, and share games, explore community creations, and experience endless sandbox fun with powerful modern tools."