Stop Wine-ing: 15 Games for Linux

Upcoming and In-Development

Tiny & Big is another 3D alternative reality task completion adventure game.

The main character, Tiny, is a lovable being who is trying to retrieve his most valued possession from the antagonist, Big. His adventure takes him over perilous terrain where he must use his intellect, skills, and backpack of goodies to navigate towards the climatic showdown.

This game will be released for Windows, Mac, and Linux and there is currently a working demo available. The graphics might feel simplistic for some and the system recommendations include a Core2duo / Athlon X2 @ 2.4 GHz and a GeForce 8800 series / Radeon 2900 video card. There have been no hints to the final price or release date as of yet.

Frictional Games, makers of the Penumbra series, is working on their second major title due out in August 2010. The teaser video of Amnesia: The Dark Descent is even scarier than Penumbra. Like the Penumbra collection, Amnesia will be another interactive 3D puzzle-solving adventure, but developers said the puzzles will be more integrated into the story and game adding to the reality of the experience.

As excitement for this game builds, pre-orders are being accepted and if a certain goal is reached, additional content will be added. Preorders can be placed for $16. No demo is available as of yet, but developers state that the game is working on all platforms.

Speed Dreams is a new fork of the older well-known project TORCS. Developers forked Speed Dreams late 2008 in order to implement new features, cars, tracks, and AI elements and in order to allow for a more democratic commit process. Development continued throughout 2009 and the first version was released in February 2010. With Speed Dreams being a new fork and only a release candidate available, many distributions still provide TORCS instead. Although installing Speed Dreams can be a challenge since only the source tarball is available from developers, packages are available for Ubuntu 9.10 through PlayDeb.

Primal Carnage – Humans VS Dinosaurs is a first-person shooter that pits humans against dinosaurs. It’s primarily a team-oriented online multiplayer, but a single-player mode will also be available. It’s obvious that Primal Carnage is inspired by Jurassic Park as the environments and creatures look almost as though they were pulled straight from the movie.

The object is to complete task-oriented goals such as survival and capture-the-point. Primal Carnage is due to be released in Q4 of 2010. The estimated price for this game is around $2 and no demo is available yet. Screenshots and some early video are available at their Website.

Joe Danger is a an obstacle-laden motorbike driving game. You play a stuntman who must traverse tracks and perform tricks and jumps in competitions to earn points and win – or as one developer put it, “You laugh in the face of danger, and it laughs back, as you bounce from boulder to boulder, on fire, towards that pile of mousetraps.”

The graphics are a bit cutsy but it looks like great fun for all ages. Joe Danger is due to be released in the Spring of this year at a price rumored to be around $10.

Conclusion

What, you’re still reading this? Why? Go play!